February Block Lotto — Connemara Flower

two Connemara flower blocks

For our February block, we’re making Connemara flowers! Because these will be turned in at the March meeting, we’re going with an Irish theme for St. Patrick’s Day. Connemara is a beautiful area on the west coast of Ireland in County Galway.

This block uses standard piecing techniques (half square triangles, flying geese). It’s also well suited to the eight-at-a-time half square triangle technique and the four-at-a-time flying geese technique. As usual, please use modern fabric for this block. We’re looking for cheerful, bright spring colors!

Follow Quilting Daily’s tutorial to make your block using the following guidelines:
— The flower should be pink or yellow.  You can use different fabric for the petals and the center if you’d like but they should be the same color.  
— The leaves should be green. You can use two different green fabrics for the leaves if you’d like.
— Background should be white or a white-on-white print.

As a reminder, these blocks will be turned in at the March meeting and the lotto is open only to current, paid members.

many Connemara flower quilt blocks scattered on a table
blocks turned in at the March meeting

January Block Lotto — Leaf/Feather (or Feather/Leaf!)

four feather/leaf blocks

For our January block we’re making leaves! Or feathers! It’s open to interpretation but this is a pretty block that’s super easy to make.

Follow Intrepid Thread’s tutorial using the following guidelines:
— For the actual feather, use low-contrast, coordinating fabrics. We’re looking for a subtle effect here, not high contrast. Refer to the pattern picture and example blocks.
— For the stem, use a dark color.
— For the background, use a fabric that reads as white or white-on-white. These are the snowballed corners of the block.

As a reminder, these blocks will be turned in at the February meeting and the lotto is open only to current, paid members.

several leaf/feather blocks on a table
some block lotto entries turned in for the February meeting

Spring Retreat 2022

Our spring retreat will take place the weekend of March 3-6, 2022 at the FFA Leadership Center in Trafalgar, Indiana. We’ll have the full day Thursday starting at 9am until checkout at 2pm on Sunday. We’ll have the entire Fellowship Hall space to ourselves which sleeps 20. As the space is so large and the location is so close to Indianapolis, this year we are opening up spaces for 5 quilters to attend as single-day retreat-goers on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday in addition to the 20 full weekend slots.

Sign ups will be first come first served therefore we are asking that everyone use the PayPal form below to register. The form is set up to prevent overselling of the available slots for the weekend and each day. If the retreat is sold out when you try to sign up then you’ll be taken to a wait list sign-up form. Attendees for the full retreat can participate in the voluntary Snack Swap activity. After submitting your payment, you’ll be taken to a form to sign up for the Snack Swap—details about that swap are included in the form.


Spring Retreat



FFA Lodge that will be location of 2020 Spring Retreat
FFA Lodge that will be location of 2022 Spring Retreat