Whoooosh! There went July, and here we are ready for the August Block Lotto. This month we are continuing with another little scrappy, improv block. I took inspiration for this month block lotto from the Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Guild who did a similar block lotto a little more than a year ago. I am tweaking their version (they used 4-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ squares and only pink scraps) for our guild in the hopes that these will be quick, easy blocks as we head into the busy end of summer. I also love this because it’s a fun way to use up some scraps, and again maybe try something you aren’t used to doing with fabric.
For this block you will to start with a 6-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ square of white fabric and both cool and warm value scraps big enough to cover a good part of the corners of each square. Cool values will include greens, blues and purples. Warm values will include reds, oranges and yellows. The colored fabrics can have prints, but the predominant color should be obvious. For the white (I learned my lesson last month) please use Kona Cotton – White.
Begin by positioning a cool scrap on one corner of the white square, and play around with the angle of its location. Throw down some improv! Once you decide where it’s going to go, flip the right side against the white square, and sew a diagonal seam from one side of the square to the other.
Trim the excess fabric from the wrong side of the seam and press to the dark side. Repeat this on the OPPOSITE corner using a warm value fabric scrap. The finished result will have a cool or warm value on opposing corners of each 6-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ block. Scrappy!
Your unfinished block should measure or be trimmed down to 6-1/2″ x 6-1/2″. When the blocks are combined, cool values to cool values the resulting corners will be warm values to warm values and so on. In the posted images, the Emerald Coast Quilt Guild used only white and shades of pink, but you can see the idea and the direction this is going. 
Have fun and use and we’ll see you in a few weeks!
*NOTE* The blocks in the images are not 6-1/2″ x 6-1/2″. if you are looking at the grids they are on, and wondering what’s up; the inspiration images used smaller white blocks to start.
