Quilter's Bingo

The guild that I belong to, Big Springs Quilt Guild, meets the first Saturday morning of each month. In August, we're going to play Quilter's Bingo. As I usually do, I went along with whatever was going on. I didn't even know what it meant to play Quilter's Bingo. And then my instructions arrived. I was going to have to make a game card if I intended to play.

Rather than the caller saying B-7 like traditional Bingo, she'll say something like Red-Holiday or Yellow-Floral. I needed five fabric types of five colors. The black and white center square is a free space. It was fun going through my stash to find all the different parts that I needed to play. Each square is cut 2 1/2". But if I was going to all this trouble, this project had to be more than just a Bingo card.

I decided to turn it into a hot pad. It was going to finish up at around ten inches square and that's just right for sitting under a large casserole dish. I cut two 10 1/2" squares of Therma-Flec for heat resistance, one 10 1/2" square of batting, and one 10 1/2" square of a green Kaffe Fassett print for the back.

Here's the back. I just love the black multi-colored polka dot binding. I went with a simple cross-hatch quilting pattern.

Here's the finished front. The instructions for making the game card emphasize that the more cards you make, the better your chances of winning. I think I'm gonna take my chances and stick with just one card.

Here's a simple tip for cross-hatching a small project. Before starting your quilting, draw a line a quarter inch inside the outer edge. I ALWAYS forget to do this so when my binding goes on, all those nice cross-hatch corners are hidden. Someday, I'll remember.

I'm taking red buttons to mark my place when we play. If I get really lucky, like this board is, I'll hear Red-Floral, Green-Metallic, Blue-Star, and Yellow-Paisley. BINGO!!

And after Bingo is over, my game card can have a long life serving up tasty casseroles.