You volunteered to do WHAT?

Have you ever said that you’d do something, thinking that you had lots of time to get it done?  Then all of a sudden, you realize that the deadline is sooner than you thought it was, so you’d better get busy?  That’s where I am right now. 

A little bit of background – My husband is very involved with a men’s fraternal organization that holds an international convention every summer.  This year, it will be held here in Pennsylvania in August, so there is a lot of planning and organizing to be done.  Even though it is a men’s organization, there are programs and activities for the families at the convention.  For the last several conventions, the ladies committee has raffled off a quilt in order to help defray expenses.  Which brings me back to the title of the post.  Yes, I volunteered to make this year’s raffle quilt. 

I’m actually very excited about it; I just need to get into gear and get it done!  I started designing it last August, when the head of the committee asked if I would consider doing it, but I put it aside over the holidays.  (See the first sentence…).   I decided that I would make one block for each jurisdiction where the organization is active.  The convention is going to be held in Philadelphia, so I am using a scrappy red, white and blue color theme.  I wanted to convey the thought that each jurisdiction is equal in status to all the others, but that each has its own unique character.   

So here is what I came up with:

Each block will be the same basic star, but with a different center and different color placement.  Being the analytical person that I am, I made a spreadsheet to track the placement of the colors and centers ;-> so that I can make sure that each block is unique.  So far, I have 18 blocks done, and there are 72 jurisdictions, so I am 25% done with the blocks.  They are 8 inch blocks, and I’ll do a straight set, 8 x 9.    I still need to decide if the blocks will be sashed, and whether I’ll use a border.  I’m thinking probably yes on the sashing, because matching all those points could possibly just drive me right over the edge…

So even though the convention is 7 months away, I really need to get back to working on this project! I’m going to post my progress here, as a way to keep myself accountable.  Stay tuned, more to come on this project!