Row Robin 2012/2013 GROUP #3
 

OK Group #3.....here is your own thread for you to post ideas, progress, rules you decide on and of course PICTURES for us all to look at. If ya'll have any problems, please let your Group Leader know and she will contact me or you can contact me directly.

HAVE A GREAT TIME!!!! :D :D :D :D

Group 3
Leader - charlottemarie
Tam…Moo
Buslady
MizMelly
RainydayQuilter

Hello ladies, Charlottemarie here! I'm so excited to have this swap and I want us to communicate as frequently as possible. I guess once we get everyone signed in we need to discuss our Themes we have decided on. Please let me know if you need any assistance getting started. I would like to have you bookmark this thread so that you won't have to hunt to find our place. I'm so excited!

Hello. I'm signing in. I know what theme I want to do. I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks. It all depends if I can find fabric that I like for my theme.

Okay, I think two weeks is enough time to decide. In the meantime, I need your info: Name, mailng address, telephone number, etc. I have my theme picked out and have for some time. I want to have snowmen or snowpeople as my theme. I like to make a quilt with that theme for winter. Please let me know as soon as you decide. I hope you will enjoy this group. I am glad to have you and if you have any questions or concerns I will do my best to help you. I am going to post the instructions for this swap from Patrice. I will be your group leader and if you need to contact me other than on here, my name is Charlotte and my email address is:
[email protected].
Charlottemarie

Charlottemarie, I sent you a pm with my info. I'm wanting to do a cherry theme, maybe retro? Using red, black, white, green and maybe pink or blue. With polka dots, checks/squares, etc. depends if I can find any fabric I like when I get to larger city.My local shopping options are limited. I was thinking this would be a fun theme that would be easy for the different quilters in our group to showcase their individual talents.

It sounds great, I have some cherry fabric on hand in two different fabrics if I remember right. Let me know when you decide. I like that theme.

Hello, MizMelly checking in!! My theme is "Kitties" any flavor, any style. I want it to be true scrappy!! And no sashing either.
I would have checked in sooner but I had a kitten emergency on Monday and spent life savings at the vet's getting him taken care of.
I'll send a PM to Charlotte now!

MizMelly, I hope your little guy is going to be ok. A cat theme will be fun to work on. I have a ragdoll who is an excellent quilt inspector.

Buslady checking in. Actuallly, I checked in yesterday from my smart phone. It's not as smart as it thinks it is, cause it lost my post. LOL Glad to be a part of this group, hope we all keep in touch as we go along. Cats, who doesn't like cats. I absolutely love cats and have dozens of cat fabrics in my stash, so let the fun begin. Cherry's. I had to think on that one a bit, but it did get the creative juices flowing. I know I have some scraps of blue checks with little cherries splattered through, I hope it is a big enough chunk to use, as it sounds like it will fit right in. I am doing a memory quilt of my mom. I will write up something and you can create anything the writing inspires you to! I cana't wait!! I have already sent my info to Charlotte. Can't wait to get started.

Hi Buslady, Welcome. I am so excited to have this group. I look forward to working on your memory quilt. I have a quilt that is a bookcase and then I have a few blocks that I started of my parents and myself as a baby. That may be of some help to you, sure hope so! When I spoke with you the other day, you said you had some wood fabric to use. Are you still thinking that? I have some I will look for if you need any help with that. I did get your information and have it safely tucked away. I am in and out of the site every couple of hours til bedtime checking for messages so let me know if you need anything. Which email is your personal, quiltbum or is there another? My personal is [email protected] and I can be reached thru both up to 9 or 10 at night.
Keep in touch!
Charlottemarie

MizMelly so sorry about your baby being sick. Mine has problems pretty often, about every six months or so. He gets sick and has to stay in the hospital for a couple of days with IV's. Then the vet is stuck on $350 every time. This has been going on for several years now. He is about 15 years old. All our other kitties have passed away and he seems to be more well. Suppose he wanted to be an only kitty? Don't know, now he's working on my DH. Do you suppose he wants to be the only male in the house? Just saying...

Well, I must say, I have this compassionate streak that is very BIG. See, I have 3 older kitties (Dusty is my Avatar pic), that are all 9 years old. Then I have a 1 year old "Jack" who I rescued last year - he had a serious eye infection and I had to have it removed, so then I went to 4 indoor kitties with the addition of "One-eyed Jack". I also have a colony of outdoor kitties that I take care of. And gee, wouldn't you know it, I had ANOTHER kitten get a serious eye infection and had to have surgery done on him. That was Monday of this week. Vet bills are absolutely outrageous! It's a very good thing I have a huge fabric stash, so I should be fine digging through my stash to meet everyone's quilt themes.
But anyway, my new kitten is named "Frank" (Frankenstein? Frankencense?). He's adorable and just a wild boy now that he's recovering from surgery. Even tho I'm going to be beyond broke, I can't see my animals suffer and the other option I do not find acceptable when an otherwise healthy kitten has a treatable problem. I wasn't planning on retiring anytime soon anyway....

So, back to the quilting theme. I know I have a few fabrics with cherries, I also have several fabrics that look like wood.
It will be a few weeks before I start on mine, I do quilt commissions on the side and right now I'm working on a memory quilt for a client (37 photos!!!). They have to be placed in chronological order in the layout that the client specified. Not so much fun since I can't be as creative with layout as I'd like!

Question.....it's a very long story but would any of you ladies be willing to switch groups with another lady?
I'd really appreciate it :D

We only have one person who hasn't checked in. Could you check with her?
Charlottemarie

Bus lady, I have to admit I love the idea of your theme. Creating a quilt about your mother and a mothers love, but I'm also a little nervous that I might get it wrong. With kitties and snowmen/snow people the hard part will be deciding which fabrics not to use. I actually have several of those fabrics in my stash. Yea!

Hello Group 3 swappers...I am excited to be part of this group. I am thinking about a wacky dog print quilt. my older son is nuts about his dogs...thought it might be a great quilt for a future christmas present. I will post a picture when I get it together and you can give me your honest opinions, Looking forward to getting to know you all throughout this journey.

RainydayQuilter, Don't worry we are all just a click away with the internet. If you have problems with anything or can't figure what to do, just let us know. We all can help with ideas and will be glad to help. I will help in any way I can. Just have faith and keep going, that is why we have 2 months to fix each row. Things will come to you.

Tam Moo we are very glad to have you with us. This is an awesome group. Buslady come on in and talk to us when you can. MizMelly glad to have you also! Girls I am so sleepy I have to go to bed now. I will read your emails if any show up in the morning. Have a good evening!

Here is the info I was going to post for you to read and make comments if you want to:

If at any time, for any reason, you believe you will no longer be able to particpate, please let me know. Life happens, for the good and not-so- good, and we understand that. If you think you might hold up the group for some unseen reason, let us know and we will work out how to keep the rows moving and get back to you when timing is better. We have two months to complete each round.


A few things to know:
always send the row your make/complete to the person listed after you.

Mailing dates are:
1st Row – mail by Dec. 1st
Row 2 – Feb. 1st
Row 3 – April 1st
Row 4 – June. 1st
Row 5 – Aug. 1st


A few things to think about:

Correspondence - include with your starter row. This could be a piece paper, note card or anything you choose. Consider this your opportunity to express your preferences, such as colors, techniqes, and what not to do/use. Perhaps you prefer to join your rows when they come home to you - you would state that in your correspondence.

Labels - Send along a label with your starter row for each person to sign. This can be as simple or fancy as you want.

Sashings - Does anyone in the group have objections if any of the swappers wants to send along sashing to be used to join the rows together? It may affect the cost of shipping.

Mailing the rows - What is the preference of the group - do we mail according to the dates, or do we want to mail the rows as soon as they are finished?

What are we forgetting to address?
Suggestions?
Comments?

Charlottemarie

I have no problem with rows being mailed as soon as they are finished, I won't be starting mine until mid-October since I'm finishing up a commission memory quilt for a client right now. I do plan to have it done and mailed long before the December deadline tho.

I also have no problem if people want sashing, it won't increase the cost that much for sending Priority mail, which is what I plan to do.

As far as correspondence and labels. I say "YES" and "YES". A card with preferences would be greatly appreciated! I know for mine, rows can be assembled, and I would request that each row not be all the same, since I want mine to be truely scrappy in nature.

Just my $.02 worth!

Hello fellow swappers! Please excuse me if i come up missing for a day or so, especially this first mont or two. This is busy time at work, as our fiscal year ends Sept 30. My sister is coming from Portland for 5 days the end of October. She lost her mom in May and wants to make 7 (yes, i said 7) lap quilts from her clothing for her family. I have a plan. LOL
Please do not fret, you cannot disappoint me, unless you just dont care or try. If you knew my mother, which you will have a pretty good picture when you get my pkg, you would know that this will not be difficult to "get" her. She and I were a lot alik, I sometimes hate to admit. Lol we are quite "regular"people. My daughter tells everyone, "we put the FUN in DISFUNCTIONAL".
I love cats, have a rescue cat that is, fortunately, very healthy. She is gaurding the house from the foot of my recliner as i type. She is not a snuggler. Whaaaaaaaa!
Scrappy is a favorite method, cant wait!
Well, a bit long winded, but thats me, sometimes. Cant wait to get to know you all. Onalee
Oh, [email protected] is my edress.

Forgot to mention, im ok with sashing included or not, actually, when it comes to individual pkgs, pretty much do whatever "floats your boat" im easy to get along with!

Thank you Onalee for your response. I think your quilt is going to be awesome to work on and I will be glad to have the opportunity to do so. We have a great group and I for one am glad to be working with all of you. I don't really care about the sashings one way or the other. I think if you do individual blocks they are kind of needed to separate the blocks. I'm going to have them in my quilt and it's just a good thing in my mind. I think if your quilt is like an album (Baltimore) then is the only instance I can think of that would not have borders. That's just me. My snowmen will have sashings, but I want to put them together at the end because I want to do quilt as you go on each block. What do you other girls think?

I love the idea of including information as to what you want and I believe that way everyone will be more happy with what we receive.

By the way, I think to do your quilt justice it may be good to stick to the schedule because you may want to make corrections and changes to the rows. I can see that time goes by too fast and I for one need that extra time. I have so many ideas I know it will take me til sometime in November to get it the way I want on my quilt row. I will need to unscatter my thoughts.

What do you all think?
Charlottemarie

I signed up for this project because I thought it would be a fun happy experience, and I still believe it will be. It seems like we have really good group of people who people who will be easy to get along with on this journey. That said here are my thoughts on Charlottemaries questions.

Correspondence - I think including a card informing the others of our wishes for our quilt top will be the easiest way for everyone to get the finished product we're wanting. It will be much easier for me than reading back through posts on here.

Sashings - I have no problem adding sashings for those that want them. I usually use sashings in my quilts. I'm thinking I will probably add sashings after I get my top back, maybe between the rows, maybe between the blocks. So I will probably ask that you just baste your row on, that way after all the blocks are finished I can choose sashing that best compliments the finished rows/blocks.

Mailing finished rows early - I have ideas swirling around in my head but it will probably be the middle of Oct before I can actually sit down and play/cut/sew on my row. I can see mailing maybe 1 to 2 weeks early, but I think if I received it earlier than that I would feel pressured/stressed to get my current row out. I really want to be able to feel proud of the work I do on your quilts.

Pictures of the progress - Once we start mailing are we going to post pics as the rows are completed, or is anyone wanting theirs kept a surprise? I have no problems seeing mine in progress. I never could wait for Christmas morning.

Rainyday

That's funny Rainyday. LOL I couldn't wait to get into those presents either!! That's a good idea about basting the blocks together and the sashings can go on when they get back home to us. What do you other ladies think?

I don't want any of us to feel stressed or rushed about this swap. We won't enjoy it if it becomes stressful, and I really don't need the stress myself. We will just have anticipation to deal with and that is a good thing.

I guess I would like to see my blocks, but then again, I want there to be no stress. I think we should be aware that we all have different styles and abilities and I think it could be detrimental to the group if we criticize each other's work. Most of us are going in unsure how this will turn out, but as a cohesive group I think we should only give each other positive reinforcement. We will all be growing and learning a new facet of quilting. I don't think any of us has ever done this before so that puts us all in the same boat. I don't expect perfection and I really hope all of us can just enjoy this. We will be learning how to be more creative. That doesn't come out of a book.

Boy, I'm longwinded too!

I better get this schedule in before I forget it. This is the mailing schedule for the rows.
We will always mail to the next person in the group.

You will always ship to the same person no matter whose row you finished.
Order of rows to ship:

1. Charlottemarie

2. Tam...Moo

3. Buslady

4. MisMelly

5. RaineydayQuilter

Example for first row shipment:

For December 1, 2012

Charlottemarie will mail her row to Tam...Moo
Tam...Moo will mail her row to Buslady
Buslady will mail her row to MizMelly
MizMelly will mail her row to RaineydayQuilter
Raineyday Quilter will mail her row to Charlottemarie

I will always ship to Tam Moo, she will always ship to Buslady, Buslady will always ship to MizMelly, MizMelly will always ship to RaineydayQuilter, and Raineyday Quilter will always ship to Charlottemarie.

Hope I didn't confuse you guys too much!

I am changing my mind now. I think I like the idea of just basting the rows together, now I would like to use a paw print fabric for sashing on mine!
ANd I don't mind seeing photos in progress either, it just whets the appetite for what will eventually come.

MizMelly,
For your scrappy kitties are you envisioning traditional quilt blocks using kitty fabrics, or more of a pieced block of sitting/laying cats? Or just a truly scrappy anything that works goes? Because I have a pattern around here somewhere that encorporates different cat shapes in the blocks. Hmmmmm.

I didn't want to limit the creativity of other quilters, so to be truely scrappy, I would say anything goes. I already have kitty blocks from a previous swap (many years ago on a different quilting website), and all the blocks were in kitty shapes. This time I am interested in seeing how different quilters interpret the theme of kitties - is it a traditional block with cat fabrics, or a block pieced into a cat shape? I'm easy! How I sash and border it will be the tie that pulls it all together in the end!
I haven't done much with my blocks yet, thinking of block designs and still working on that memory quilt (groan). It's turning out to be way more more than what I charged for it. Live and learn, I'll be revising my price list after this one is done!

This sounds like it is going to be a great group. I like the idea of posting pictures as we go, I for one cannot wait a year to see what is going on. LOL I would like to have a mailing "window" if it is up to me. Let me see if I can splain my self and make sense. We have 2 months for each row, TamMoo sends right out, but i am busy and cant get mine out til closer to deadline. The potential is that 2 projects sit at my house for 2cycles. I am perfectly within my mailing schedule, but the pressure is still there. Does that make sense? What i think i would like to see happen is that unless there werespecial circumstances, we not mail more than z2 or even 3 weeks before the deadline. Giving us a 2 or 3! Week window. Just my thoughts. Am sew very open to all opinions! All that really matters is that we all have fun.

Forgot to post the dates to mail:

Mailing dates are:
1st Row – mail by Dec. 1st
Row 2 – Feb. 1st
Row 3 – April 1st
Row 4 – June. 1st
Row 5 – Aug. 1st

I believe we need the opinion of Tam...Moo. She will be along shortly and then I will compile the opinions into an
email so we can go from there with everyones agreement.

Yippee skippy! This is gonna be fun.

Shore Nuff!

I will go with the flow...let the fun begin!

Hey! Where'd everyone go? Let's chat!!

Hi Buslady and others!
 

Sorry to be gone so long but I have had a little virus or something this week. All better now, I just didn't feel like talking. (Sometimes I chatter too much!) I am going to go with the compilation of what I think we want for our group.

1. Do not mail out a finished row until 1 to 2 weeks early. This creates pressure on the other members who may not be finished on the row they are working on.

2. Mail a letter with your row, the first one we work on and be detailed. Tell us what you want in your row and be specific as you can be because we can't read each other's minds.

3. You may show pictures of what you have completed and we must also be tactful if we don't like what we see. Your letter should prevent that from happening so I think this is a mute issue.

4. Ask lots of questions about the other person's row you are working on. You can't make a good block if you don't know what to make.

Please let me know if this meets your feelings. If not we can revise this. I don't write in stone, so chime in girls.

Round Robin Hugs,

Charlottemarie

Charlottemarie,
That sounds good to me. I think the key is if you're not sure about the row you're working on to ask the owner questions so you can get it right. So far it seems like we have a very good group.
Rainyday

Agreed with everything posted! Right now I'm looking at patterns for kitties. Think I have way more than 5 blocks worth of designs, so now I get to decide which ones I really want!!