Hole in the Wall

Today's block is built around a basic pattern called Monkey Wrench. Monkey Wrench is one of the simplest blocks. If I were teaching beginning quilters I'd start with a foolproof Two-Patch or Rail Fence, then introduce diagonal lines with Monkey Wrench. The centerpiece and the inner border aren’t very challenging. But the outer sawtooth border was a bit harder. I'd never have tried it without the right templates. I was careful to cut the pieces so the grain would run the right way, but I'm sure this block will give me more grief when it's time to set it into a quilt top. Still, it was much easier than the block I meant to post today. I wanted to show you Fish on a Dish, which turned out to be more than I could manage in an hour or two. Maybe I'll try it another day. When I have LOTS of time.

Wisconsin Star

This year's super bowl is all over but the shouting. The event gets very little attention in the UK. It's hard to get excited about a game that takes place while you're fast asleep. Football here has a round ball and no helmets or shoulder pads. When we lived in the States there was usually a family super bowl party, but it was more about the commercials, half-time show and food than it was about the game. I did catch Christina Aguilera's Star-Spangled Banner rendition this morning as I constructed this Wisconsin Star block. I'm not a fan of the song. It's difficult to sing well and unrewarding to try. I'm even less a fan of her yodeling style of singing. But it's her own national anthem, and she knew she'd have an audience of as many as 100 million people. Wouldn’t you think it would be worth her time to learn the words?

Five Geese Flying

Have I told you there are Canada geese in England? It came as a surprise to us when we moved here. Someone imported them for target practice a few hundred years ago. They’re also in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and New Zealand. They failed as game birds; apparently their flight patterns and tame behaviour make them less fun to shoot. But they're successful immigrants. We see them whenever we visit York. They hang out by the castle walls or the canal. Picking our way through the goose-fertilized lawn near Clifford’s Tower makes us homesick for Victor’s Pond. This block is called Five Geese Flying, a variation on the traditional Flying Geese design. Does it look like five geese to you? I keep seeing twelve.

Chinese Lantern

I found a  tutorial for this Chinese Lantern block on YouTube. The video makes it seem really simple. Essentially you iron all the seams in the top half of the block in one direction and all the seams in the bottom half in the other. Then the two halves should lock together exactly as they are meant to do. But the tutorial doesn't address the nasty narrow points at the top and the bottom. Today's block is for Chinese New Year, which technically began yesterday. For the Chinese, the new year's celebration isn't just one day. It's fifteen! Good thing, too. We'd intended to observe the new year with flying lanterns and Kung Pao Chicken. But I forgot to thaw the chicken, and it's still too windy for lanterns. That's okay. There's always tomorrow. Or the next day.

Crazy Anna

Today's block is called Crazy Anne or Crazy Anna. It's an old traditional pattern. There must be an interesting story behind the name, but it's a mystery to me. Don't you just love a good mystery? The block itself isn't really hard to make. It's just five squares of fabric, twelve half-square triangles, and four rectangles with diagonal seams through their middles. It's these rectangular sections that make the block appear to "spin" like a pinwheel. If you cut the diagonal triangles wrong, the block will seem to turn in the opposite direction. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. I adore pinwheels, no matter which way they roll.

Ground Hog Day

Happy Groundhog Day! I don't know if Punxatawny Phil will see his shadow this morning or not. Maybe he's too smart to even try. If I had a warm burrow to winter in, I don't think I'd poke my head out until the daffodils do. I've been following weather news in the States and feeling very glad to be thousands of miles away. I don't miss the snow and I certainly don't miss the biting cold. Groundhog Day makes much more sense in New England than it does here. There aren't groundhogs in the UK, for one thing. If there were, they'd be unlikely to see their shadows any day of the year. Though technically we have six more weeks until spring is here, you wouldn't know it to look outside. Grass is green, snowdrops are blooming, and squirrels are frisking about like it was April. Are you jealous yet?

Bloom Where You Are Planted

This week I was surprised with a gift of roses and carnations. I don't often receive flowers, and I certainly don't make a habit of buying them for myself, but maybe I should. I love watching the buds slowly unfurl. I love the way they grace the whole room with a gentle, fresh perfume. Flowers are such small, trivial things, but they add so much. Today's block is called Bloom Where You Are Planted. The name comes from an old English proverb. I thought it was in the bible somewhere, but have been unable to find it. I do like the idea of blooming where you're planted. It goes beyond suggesting that we should make the most of our situation, whether good or bad. Like the pansies in the song:

In whatever corner we may chance to grow,
Whether cold or warm the wind may ever blow,
Dark the day or sunny, we must try, try, try
Just one spot to gladden, you and I.