Good Fortune: Clue 4

This week Bonnie asked us to do string piecing. I love string piecing but I don’t have much in the way of orange strings. I need orange strings because I want to do Bonnie’s pumpkin quilt. I decided to go with the  strip piecing option for the mystery quilt. As I cut each fabric with my Stripology ruler I used the straightening cut as an opportunity to cut strings for the pumpkin quilt. I also cut 1.5″, 2″ and 2.5″ strips for my strip stash. I have a new addition to my fabric room for storing these. More about that in a future post.

In order to get a scrappier look I cut them into short strips to get 1-2 segments from each strip set.

The strips are laid out, ready to combine into strip sets. I think I should be able to get strip sets that are all different combinations, theoretically. However, I suck at being random. I got what I got so it will have to do.

All done. This was a very quick clue to make. I cut the strips Friday afternoon and finished sewing mid-afternoon on Saturday.

I wasn’t ready to stop sewing Saturday after I finished the clue so I put the borders on this string quilt. I told you I like doing string piecing. I’m calling this one String Weaver.

I also finished the last of the Sweet Poison blocks. They are the ones on the left. The ones on the right were done earlier but not shown yet. Now that project is ready for layout.

Along the way these leader/enders were sewn.

As well as these 16-patch blocks.

That’s the end of my machine sewing for the year. My two Janome machines are going in for maintenance and repair on Monday. That means the next time I can work on a mystery clue is January. I hope she doesn’t do a rapid finish this year. I’d like to catch up before I know what the final result looks like.

This week will be spent getting ready for the holidays. If I find time maybe I can make myself work on one of the Ladies of the Sea blocks.

Thanks for visiting. I’d love for you to leave a comment.

Visit Bonnie Hunter’s blog to see what other mystery quilt makers are sharing.

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Good Fortune: Clue 3

Yay! We’re working with green this week. I was hoping for that. Orange in the next clue, maybe? I cut my strips using the Stripology ruler. About a year ago I decided I wanted to use lime green (or whatever color this is) and started looking for fabrics at every shop I was in all year. Despite having an abundance of green fabric, I had practically none of this version. I found myself in three quilt shops this week for regularly scheduled events and acquired a few more pieces. I was good to go now.

This week we were making half-chevrons. Bonnie had us drawing two lines for the sew and flip triangle corners and bonus half-square triangle squares. I don’t like to draw lines and usually use one of the tools with lines to follow that fits on the sewing machine bed like the Sew Straight from Quilt in a Day. In the past, I’ve altered mine to do the bonus HST. But, I don’t know where mine are since the move last year and didn’t feel like doing a hunt. I was afraid pencil might show so I drew the lines with a Clover Chaco-liner. The one I used was an older style. I have most of the colors in the newer style but, again, don’t know where they are. Sigh.

Pile of chevron pieces waiting for the second sewing.

 

For the rectangle, I needed to sew pretty much on the line but a ways away from the line for the bonus HST. I don’t understand why I needed to sew so far away from the bonus line. This picture shows how far away from the line I had to sew.

I ended up running the inside edge of the presser foot against the line. They aren’t all perfect but they’re as good as they’re going to get.

I used this ruler to check the size and trim the dog ears before pressing.

The finished half-chevrons and bonus HSTs waiting to be measured, trimmed and pressed.

Hopefully, one pile has an extra triangle because I came out one short. Since there were two from each half-chevron, an odd number isn’t possible. Guess I’ll find out later.

See how others are doing at Bonnie’s link-up.

I’m Delusional!

Every year in Mimi Dietrich’s Grad School class, a project is chosen for the group to do. Most of the folks participate but not all. It’s fun to see 20-30 versions of the same project. Some years Mimi makes an executive decision and sometimes we get to vote. For 2019 Mimi wanted to do some design by Lori Holt but when she put it to a vote, she was soundly defeated. Only a few people wanted to do such a simple applique design. More on 2019 later.

One year we couldn’t agree on a single project and ended up with 4 or 5 different groups. No one liked that. Instead of having show and tell with the entire group, it was only within the project group. We agreed never to do that again. We ran into a similar situation when trying to choose a project for 2017. Everyone wanted to do something different so Mimi came up with the idea of a bucket list album quilt. Album quilt covers a lot of territory from a simple quilt with a bunch of different blocks to a Baltimore Album style quilt. Polly and I chose to do Sue Garman’s Ladies of the Sea.

Image borrowed from Sue Garman website

Yes, we’re insane. What made you ask? We started block one in January 2017. Polly has been waiting for me to finish my ship blocks and catch up with her. The last one should have been finished in April 2018. My excuse is that I moved last year and couldn’t work on it for a few months. How much longer can I milk that excuse? The shipyard had a lengthy work stoppage this year. I just finished a block on Friday at sweatshop day. That’s what Polly and I call it when we meet at Spring Water Designs open studio day. I have two more blocks to finish. One just needs the embroidery and one has half the wreath applique finished so needs the rest of the applique and the embroidery. It would be really nice if I could finish these by the January meeting. Of course, then we’d have to make final decisions about setting and borders. We’ve been dithering a lot about that.

2018 was Jo’s Floral Album, formerly Anna’s Blue Baskets. I didn’t intend to do this because I was still working on the ships but found myself buying a background fabric. I’ve managed almost 3 of the 9 blocks using the Anna’s Blue Baskets pattern.

So, on to 2019. It’s another bucket list year. I’ve got so many designs I want to make. I checked my pattern inventory and found 200 applique designs I want to make. Ai-yi-yi! That doesn’t even include the pieced quilts. How to decide?

One of the grad school gals assigns quilts to TV shows and works on them while that show is on. So, she has a Dr. Phil quilt, a Wheel of Fortune quilt, etc. I was thinking maybe having multiple projects would work if I assigned them to days of the week. Not sure I’m that disciplined, though.

A couple of months ago I bought background fabric for this project so, apparently, it’s going to be one of the projects. It’s a large wall hanging and I already know where to hang it in the house. Hopefully, it won’t take long to make.

Clown School by Carol Morrissey

Finding Nemo is one of my favorite movies so when I saw this pattern at a show I had to have it. My co-worker, Phil, and I watched the movie in spurts on the way to and from lunch when our co-worker Bill drove. One day Vadim joined us and sat in the front with Bill, while Phil and I, in the back, were mesmerized by the movie. Bill looked at Vadim and said, “The DVD player keeps the children very quiet.”

Another project I’ve wanted to do for years (The pattern came out circa 1997, I believe) is Snowmen Will Melt Your Heart by Curtis Boehringer. You can view an image of a quilt someone made. I will be doing each month’s block as a wall hanging rather than a quilt with all twelve blocks. For the wall hanging version, each block has a border design specific to the month. So, this will be new project #2.

Because two new applique projects in addition to the two already in progress aren’t enough, I’ll be taking a year long class for this quilt, assuming the class hasn’t filled up in the last few days.

I did say I’m insane. This is Baltimore Garden by Barbara Burnham. Barbara showed the original quilt and her blocks years ago at a Baltimore Applique Society meeting. I started urging her to publish a pattern for the quilt. Every month I would bug her about it until she finally showed up with a completed book. The book was published in 2012 so it’s about time I started working on it since I was one of the people begging her to publish it. When I talked to her at guild last week, she said this is the last time she will be teaching the class. Barbara’s version was made using only 3 fabrics and a background. I will NOT be doing that. My background will also not be a light neutral. I bought a darkish green fabric for an applique quilt background years ago. While trying to decide whether to buy it, the store employee, Robbyn suggested using fall colors with it. That sold me! It should be perfect for this quilt. I hope I have enough of that fabric. I need to find the book and see how much it calls for. Choosing the applique fabrics will be a challenge to get the values right so everything shows up.

We always say that the quilt will tell you what it wants. These tell me they want to be made now. Guess I have to listen to them.

Wanna know how many Grad School projects I’ve finished since I joined in 1999? Two. I didn’t participate in the project every year but still, a pitiful showing. We won’t talk about how many total UFOs I have. Let’s just say I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’d better live a very long life with all my faculties.

I’m delusional but it keeps me off the streets and out of the bars.

Good Fortune: Clue 2

I used the Stripology ruler for Clue 1. This time I used the Accuquilt die cutter to cut my triangles for Clue 2. Much more accurate than I can do with a rotary cutter, even using Bonnie’s ruler technique.

Each stack of triangles is a set of unique fabrics. In other words, each of the purple stacks is the same but the fabrics in the stack are not repeated in that stack. Same for the neutral triangle stacks. I hope that makes sense. There number of purple fabrics and neutral fabrics are not the same, so I should be able to stack up all the purples into a single stack and stack the neutral stacks into a single stack. This should result in no two half-square triangle squares being the same. Maximum scrappiness makes quilter happiness!

 

In the second clue of mystery, Bonnie Hunter gave to us a boatload of HSTs.

There were a couple of anomalies along the way:

Wong side to right side and a three triangle HST.

Mimi’s Grad School class met yesterday. One of our members is turning 90 in February so Mimi thought we should make her a quilt. This block, designed by Mimi, was the logo on the tote bags made for the bus trip to the Quilter’s Hall of Fame when Mimi was inducted. We were called “Mimi’s Flock” so she chose to use this block for the quilt. My bird ended up a little cockeyed. Speaking of eyes, the fabric I used for the bird is a cat eyes print from Tula Pink’s Tabby Road collection. I told Polly (who loves all things dark and/or creepy) that she had corrupted me to the dark side.

I forgot to take pictures of grad school show and tell except for Kim’s Village (Kim McLean design) blocks. There are too many of those to post. I cut background pieces for the Village quilt a couple of years ago.

Because it’s December, yesterday was our holiday potluck lunch at grad school. My guild usually meets every week except in December when we only meet the first week of the month. You guessed it. Last night was my guild’s night group holiday potluck. Every year two potlucks on the same day. One member said “at least you don’t have to cook”. I replied “What do you mean? I had to cook twice!”

Other mystery makers have shared their work on Bonnie’s site.

Good Fortune: Clue 1

I couldn’t start Clue 1 until Saturday because my brother was visiting for Thanksgiving until late Friday afternoon. On Friday we finished this:

This is the first time I’ve put up a tree in years. I bought a new one (7.5′ slim) from Hobby Lobby for 50% off. The treetop angel that I needlepointed many years ago has gone walkabout. She must have taken the tree skirt with her because there is none to be found at present. My brother suggested using some of my fabric. What an idea!

I wrote about the colors I chose for Good Fortune here.  This week’s clue was a boatload of 4-patches. I did all the cutting with my Stripology ruler. I love it and it is worth every penny in my opinion. I cut a strip from the 39 red fabrics I pulled for the mystery and cut them into 6″+ strips to get good variety. Normally I would have just cut squares and tried to mix them so that no two 4-patches were the same. Too much trouble this time. I decided to do it Bonnie’s way. I sewed the short red strips onto 46 longer neutral strips and just kept moving them through in a big loop until all red strips were sewn to a neutral strip.

Third time around.

Ready for pairing.

Attempting to track the number of red segments from my strips as I cut them into short strips.

Bowl of 4-patches ready to spin. Are there enough? Who knows? It’s a mystery!

The required number of 4-patches are in the container on the left so why is my bowl not empty? I only expected to have a couple of extra, not 8. It would have been 9 if I hadn’t messed up cutting on one. I was hoping not to have a bunch of extra bits for this mystery. You know what they say about the best laid plans.

In the first clue of mystery Bonnie Hunter gave to me: an overflowing bowl of 4-patches. You need to hear the tune to 12 Days of Christmas in your head. The words don’t quite scan right but it’s the best I can do.

Wednesday night we went to The Mall in Columbia to see the famous poinsettia tree.

Some years ago the mall did away with the poinsettia tree. What a hullabaloo that caused! After a tremendous fuss by county residents, the mall management caved and brought back the tree.

We meant to go through the Symphony of Lights that started Thursday but forgot. However, these deer were frolicking in the courtyard at the mall.

For months I’ve been looking for my pieces from Grandpa Bennett’s salt and pepper shaker collection. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find them after my move last year. A couple weeks ago I was at the sewing machine and noticed a small box in the gap between the bookcases and the side wall. There was stuff on top of it so it was hard to see. Yes! I found them. Finally!

The shelf is no longer empty! Some of the things are my additions. I found the barn shelf at a craft fair years ago. Perfect for Grandpa’s salt and peppers because he was a farmer.

Thanks for visiting. See what others are making at Bonnie’s mystery linkup.

Good Fortune’s Color

This morning I finished pulling the last of my fabrics for Bonnie Hunter’s 2018 mystery quilt, Good Fortune. I decided on a partial color palette for this mystery almost a year ago. As with Allietare, another one that I chose a color palette for long before Bonnie released her color palette, Bonnie’s palette includes some of the same color families as mine. Darn it! One of these years I want to make a mystery quilt that uses completely different colors so it doesn’t look like hundreds of others. This isn’t the year.

Here are the fabrics I chose for my color scheme:

Last December while shopping a going out of business sale, I decided to make lime and orchid (or whatever colors the green and purple above are) my colors to buy during the year when I found myself at a quilt shop. I thought orange looked pretty good with both of those so decided to use those three colors for my mystery this year. The purple is replacing the blue that Bonnie used. Bonnie threw me a curve with the red. I couldn’t think of a different color to add that works like red does. After pondering for a while I decided to go to the rusty side of red. It’s showing brighter in the picture than in real life. This red plays nicely with the other colors, to my eye at least.

This morning I pulled neutrals. Here is what I had to choose from:

Yes, that’s a lot of fabric. An embarrassment of riches. What’s your point? I’ve been wanting to make a neutral quilt for quite a while. Turns out I have three books on making neutral quilts. I’ll have to make several to whittle these piles down some.

Back to the Good Fortune pull. This was the second fabric in the first pile I took off the shelf:

The picture looks a little washed out on my monitor. It has a variety of hues of grayed beige. OK, we’re in business. This will do nicely as the basis for my neutrals this year.

As I went through the piles I was surprised by how many of the fabrics are on the yellow side. I was afraid I wasn’t going to have enough variety. Turns out that wasn’t a problem. Do you think I have enough choices?

I finished the back to On Ringo Lake (the 2017 mystery) last week. I want to add a three inch plain border to the top. I need to get that done this week so I can take it to the quilter before Good Fortune begins.

 

Help reforest Colorado

GoFundMe campaign to help provide trees to reforest an area of Colorado that was destroyed by the forest fires in July 2018.

 

Back to Ringo Lake

Some time ago I sat down and designed my back for On Ringo Lake. For Bonnie’s mystery quilts, my habit is to blow up a block from the front to make the back. I was so pleased that it went so smoothly. I cut the first pieces, then had to set it aside for other obligations. I was excited to get back to making the back today.

My draft of the block with measurements.

My cutting list:

I finished cutting the pieces and put them on the design wall.

It went together very smoothly. Everything fit perfectly and it was sewn in no time. I was puzzled that it was so much smaller than I expected. On Ringo Lake is a big quilt. This block was supposed to fill most of the back expect for slab borders around the four sides.

My sketch and numbers for the back:

The numbers are all accurate except for the ones in the sketch. The correct numbers are the size of the quilt top, rather than the back. Somehow the block that I expected to be 69″ was only 39″. How did that happen? It looks like I somehow expected  3 x 13 to result in a 69″ block. Needless to say, it doesn’t. The block turned out 39″ finished as one would expect for a 9 patch where each square is 13″. I have no idea what I was thinking.

Would you believe I have a math minor? That’s pretty much a joke because I wasn’t particularly interested in math. Somehow I got to my senior year in college without thinking about a minor and discovered that I needed as many hours for a minor as a major. Something I didn’t have and couldn’t get before graduation. The solution was to find two subjects where the hours added up and go for a split minor. That’s how I got a minor in math.

So, here I am with a block that’s 30″ smaller than expected. Sigh. But, no lasting harm done. I just have to make more borders to fill out the size needed for the back. It might be more interesting that way.

I also made a couple more Sweet Poison (modified Kwik Krazy) blocks.

And more leader/ender pieces.

State of the Stash 2017

I found this unpublished post from February 2017 in my drafts. I belong to a Yahoo! group called Stashbusters. Every year in our birthday month, we’re asked to report on the state of the stash.

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My stash hasn’t changed much this year. I don’t feel like I was very productive last year and this year isn’t going to be much better.

Last summer I went nuts during Row by Row and acquired an extremely large number of kits, none of which have been made up despite my fantasies about how that was going to work. How did I get so many? I joined a Facebook Row by Row swap group. Don’t do that if you can’t resist temptation. That said, I wouldn’t make any bets that I won’t do it again this year. I do try to discriminating but there are so many good designs. Four rows make a nice size wall-hanging. I plan to make double-sided ones by theme/season so one piece will serve two purposes.

I got magazines under control last year. I got a magazine rack at The Container Store. Each section comfortably holds 3 magazines. Each title has a slot. When a new magazine or catalog comes in, I go through the oldest one to see if there’s anything I want to save and then it leaves the house. Eventually, I’ll scan the articles to save into Evernote to eliminate that paper as I go. This system has been working wonderfully and it takes very little space.

Evernote is an electronic filing cabinet that is accessible everywhere on all my devices. I quickly found that the free account wasn’t sufficient for my needs so I now have a paid account. I use it on my phone all the time.

I’ve been cataloging my patterns in Evernote and storing them in alphabetical order by first letter in a file cabinet. This is an ongoing task. I take a picture of the front and back of the pattern. That way I can see how much fabric it calls for if I need to know that while shopping. I’ll actually be able to find a pattern when I want it. I haven’t decided how to handle templates and specialty rulers.

I’d been wanting a new machine for a long time but put it off until retirement when I’d be using it often enough to justify the purchase. The time came last year. I finally got fed up with my Bernina 1230. It broke and I got it fixed at one of the largest dealers in the region. It seemed to piece ok but made horrible loose stitches when I tried to quilt. I borrowed a friend’s walking foot in case that was the problem. It wasn’t. I don’t know if I messed something up with I sewed with invisible thread before doing the quilting. Changing the tension for quilting seems to make the stitches worse. Janome came out with the 9400 in May and that’s what I got. I’ll take the Bernina to another shop where I had it fixed once before to see if they can get it working right so I’ll have a backup or a machine for a friend to use when visiting.

Many of you are playing the what’s in the box (WITB) game. Well, my box is a 3 story townhouse that I’ve lived in for 30 years. I settle on a new house on 2/28. The new house is also a 3 story townhouse except they call it a villa which means it’s larger. Someone asked me what the difference is between a townhouse and a villa. My answer was, “about $200,000.” I’ll have to ask my realtor what her answer is. It’s newly constructed in a 55+ community so the master suite and laundry are on the first floor. And, for the first time in my adult life I will have a garage. Yeah! Fortunately, I don’t have to sell my current house first. Hopefully, that will make for a less hectic move. I do NOT want a mess at the new house.

Many people have asked me why I’m moving. The configuration of my current house just doesn’t work for me any longer. I’ve been increasing dissatisfied with it for years. While I’m not impaired, I’m not getting any younger so at 66 I wanted a garage, first floor master and no yard work or snow removal to worry about. One day I came home to find a bail bondsman banging on a neighboring door and yelling for them to open the door and show some id. It’s time to get out! More and more houses on the court have gone rental over the years – it’s just not the neighborhood it was 30 years ago when I moved in. How can I have been here 30 years when I can’t possible be that old?

As crowded as it is, my studio is larger than many peoples’ sewing rooms but the space in the new house is astounding. I’ll be able to move around without knocking something onto the floor. The entire finished lower level will serve as the studio. I will have an entire room to store my extensive fabric collection on shelves. The builder calls it an exercise room. I just hope it will all fit. I like to be able to see my fabric and pull a stack off the shelf to pull from as needed. It will be nice to have it all organized so I can find what I’m looking for. I’ll be measuring next week so I can figure out how many shelf units to buy. I would like to fit my existing shelf units (8 ft high, 9 ft wide) in with the new ones. A cutting table will sit in the middle of the room. I’ll probably have to change out the light bulbs to the proper light for true color.

Some of my fabric is currently stored in short Billy bookcases from Ikea. I think these will work on the TV wall to hold books. The TV will sit on top. I could fill a library with my quilting books. The books are all cataloged in Book Collector. It will be nice to have them all readily accessible. Currently some are in boxes, some in piles, some in bookcases in two different rooms.

There will also be a sitting area in the new room. What luxury! Some of the books will live there. My friend, Linda, has already staked out a spot to work when she visits. I found a cute pouf for a footstool at Tuesday morning that is knitted – perfect for a sewing room. My great-grandfather’s rocking chair will go here. I’ll need to buy a second chair. I will have to make a tuffet for that one day.

I will have room for a couple of large work tables. I can’t decide whether to get 6′ or 8′ tables. 8′ would be better but I wonder about the weight – would they be too heavy for me to move around as I get older?

I’ve tried to track my fabric in and out for the last few years but that didn’t last long. I once tried the one out for every one in. That didn’t last long, either. My plan is to weigh the fabric as it leaves the old house so I can get a handle on how much I actually have. The final number will be frightening. What I haven’t figured out is how to handle kits. Do I weigh them now or wait until I break into it and start working on it? I’m kind of leaning toward the second given the amount of time it would take to do that.

I also plan to inventory all the kits and projects in Evernote. Using the phone app makes that an easy task. Just start a note entry, snap the picture and make any notes I need to and tag it as needed. Every already started project will be stored in a see-through plastic bin with some sort of label – probably a sticky note stuck to the inside of the side that’s visible in the storage location. There is a large closet where these will be stored, although I’ll have to have more shelves installed first. The unstarted kits will be in decorative boxes in an attractive shelf unit that is currently holding stuff in my sewing room.

After I get settled I’ll get my quilt appraiser in to appraise the studio for insurance purposes. When I give a large quilt as a gift I include an insurance appraisal with it but I haven’t had my personal quilts appraised except for the one that was displayed at the Quilter’s Hall of Fame in 2015 as part of Mimi Dietrich’s induction. One of the quilts made by my great-grandmother was appraised many years ago. I think I’ll have her appraise all the antique quilts. The family quilts are probably all in the $200-$300 range because they’re utility quilts from the farm. I do have one antique applique quilt that I fell for and bought at a show. I don’t think I’ll have all my personal quilts appraised.

I dread the work ahead but look forward to the end result.

Bingo!

I found this unpublished post in my drafts. Apparently I stopped writing in the middle of a sentence. I don’t remember what else I intended to write so here’s what I did write.

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A popular fund raising activity for guilds here in central Maryland is Quilt Bingo. There are 6 or 7 different guilds that put these on. It’s bingo where the prizes are quilts. What quilter doesn’t need more quilts? They usually have raffle baskets and, some have door prizes. I have a reputation (not entirely undeserved) for being lucky at bingo. The first time I went to a quilt bingo, I won 3 times. Thought I was going to get mugged in the parking lot. I don’t even remember how many years ago that was but no one has ever let me forget it. I went to a basket bingo 6 or 7 years ago and bingoed 4 times but the last was a tie and I lost the call off. It was my birthday weekend so when I hit, I softly sang, “Happy Birthday to me”. I did have the decency to be embarrassed by the fourth time I yelled Bingo. Every time we talk about going to a bingo, people say “you always win”. They don’t remember all the times I haven’t won.

One bingo, either Four Corners or the Baltimore Modern Guild, ended with what they called the Biggest Loser game. Everyone who hadn’t won a bingo game, door prize, or raffle basket got to play. We were all given a special game card and started the game standing up. If your card didn’t have the called number you sat down or maybe you sat down if you did have the number. Can’t remember – makes more sense the second way. The last person standing was declared the biggest loser and won a quilt. Even though I didn’t win that game, I enjoyed playing it because it was so different.

This past week saw us at not one, but two, quilt bingo events. On Oct 21, 2017 Patty and I went to the Southern Comforters Quilt Guild of Bowie bingo. The first time we went to this one, (6, 8, 10 years ago?) I won a Yellow Brick Road quilt on the first game. Nothing since at this bingo until this time. I won the second game. Unfortunately, Patty didn’t win. I got close a couple of times and was going to let her claim the win but other people won those games. This event wasn’t as crowded as it has been in the past so there weren’t many tied games.

I won Grape Harvest, made by the members of TBDB, Bowie, MD

Friday, Oct 27, 2017 was the Village Quilters of Catonsville bingo. Patty and I sat with our friend Caren and her husband Paul. It drew a full house of 276 players which makes for a lot of tied games. One game had 7 or 8 winners and another had 6 – most I’ve ever seen. Usually there are only 2 or 3. Tied games are decided by calling additional numbers just for the winners. If you don’t have the number on the card with your bingo and another winner does, you lose. The last person with a number wins the game. The people who lose ties usually get a consolation prize. No one in our group won anything, darn it.

Patti, who ran the bingo, is also a member of my guild and was part of the group I went to lunch with Thursday. She said they ran out of consolation prizes for the tied games. She called her husband and told him to bring a pile of small quilts she’d left at home because she didn’t think they’d be needed. She used three of those plus some door prize bags to make up the difference for the consolation prizes. In past years, they’ve given out unneeded consolation prizes as door prizes at the end of the night.