Block for Givio
 

My final block for this swap! This is for Givio! I have enjoyed making all these blocks! The big benefit for me of being in this swap is how much I have broadened my knowledge for block construction and design by making blocks that someone else chose...blocks that pushed me into something different a little out of my comfort zone! I can say I have gained confidence in my ability to try something new! All together for the 2 swaps I have participated in (and side-swaps) I have made 34 blocks since the first of the year.Thanks to everyone for swapping with me. Count me in for future swaps! Mailing next week!

Bee Beatty, thanks so much! That's beeeuutiful! :-)

Ya everyone makes mistakes.Sorry it was on your block. Just wish the whole board didn't know about it. Doesn't feel good.

I am so sorry LJ. I didn't mean to hurt yur feelings. I fixed it and it looks so beautiful. No worries.

ljdugas31, I was going to cut a striped fabric on the diagonal today and I cut it with the grain, like usual. Cutting on the grain seems to be ingrained in my brain (pun and rhyme intended). :-) Cheer up! I thought your block was cute. :-)

Oh!! I just noticed! You have a [I]53[I] feedback score! 53!!

Whoops! Some sort of typo there! :-p

Thanks all. Not feeling great,having surgery on my hand next week.My mind is not with it.

Bea Beatty, I love the block you made for me! Sorry for all the work-I didn't think about the corner blocks when I chose that pattern! Live and learn!

Gaijin

LJ....don't feel bad for one second! If I had a dollar for every mistake.....I could buy the fabric store:). You are among friends here......no judging going on...!

No sorry.....I learned new technique making your block. I am actually going to use the corner block design to create a border in a tablemat! I am proud of this block!

Thanks bee

LJdugas....hope your surgery goes well and will you not be able to sew for any length of time. OUCH. I am now developing arthiritis in my hands and it is not comfortable.

I am so happy that when we send out packages out with tracking. You neveer know where the blocks are going to go.
For example: when I was visiting my friend in NH, just across the MA border, I sent a doll quilt to my partner who just happened to live 30 miles away. This doll quilt took over a week to get to her. It went to Springfield, MA for two days and then over to Boston for a few days before it went back up to where she lives. Sometimes I think that our blocks just want to see more of the world. That said, tracking helps us see where those little darlings are going.

Barb

Ok this is just a little nudge....we have about a month left until all blocks must be sent out by April 15. Gee I just realized isn't that the day that taxes have to be done too?? If they are mailed by April 15, I should get them two to three days later, unless your blocks want to take the scenic route. Then I will sort them and mail your blocks out and they should get to all of you by the end of April.

I am really loving the scrappy blocks that everyone is doing. I am also excited to see what all our quilts will look like when we get our blocks back. It's like looking at a puzzle and trying to imagine what your blocks will look like put together.

what is a feedback score????? I see it but don't know what it means.

urgodschild, you have 17, see? Under your avatar. You can click on the number and read the nice things that people said about you and your good sewing work. :-) ...ljdugas31 has 53, so she done lots of good stuff that people like. :-)

Mistakes? Who makes mistakes? ME!! That's who!! I made 2 star blocks with 2 1/2" squares the other day. As I did the final pressing I realized I had two square in a square blocks, instead!! Grrrrrrr!! I ripped out all the seams and re-did them! Sure, I could have just made different, but that is one of the things I have learned here. Follow through. I used to get discouraged and the project just went into a box never to be seen again. Now I fix it right away and move on. I just wish it didn't happen so often!! But then I am sure we all do!

6 blocks done: LJ Dugas31 - urgodschild2 - Happy Lab - paperpieceme - Bee Beatty - Gaijin

you can see the blocks in my album. this site will not let me down load pic but will in my profile - :(

http://www.quiltingboard.com/members...bums18998.html

Nelco, Your link says: invalid. I looked at your NNN Boom album, but there's only one picture there, not the pictures of the blocks you sewed for the this boom.... Where was it you posted the pictures? I had trouble posting too, until someone told me about using the 'Go Advanced' blue button (that works for me). After you click on it, you can use the 'Manage Attachments' blue button to add pictures to your post in the thread, or a post in an album. Did you try that way?

Sorry some how it was set at privet setting. http://www.quiltingboard.com/members...bums18998.html
try it now

Nelco, Yes, I can see them now. Good work!

Hello everyone. It is a beautiful day here in So. Calif. I am hoping that my family and friends in the east are finally thawing out and are starting to see some spring signs. Today I will be quilting all day. I was going to work in my garden......we have to clear out the entire garden area and then replant plants. But my son has taken up golf and has pulled some muscles in his rib cage and is in too much pain to help me, so I will wait. Just more time to sew.
Hope all of you are doing well. I have all 12 boxes up on the guest bed waiting for envelopes to come back. So far three have arrived.....well 4 counting me. I am getting excited.

Time to enjoy the sewing room is a good thing! Hope your son feels better soon. Golf can be hazardous to one's health :)

I am mailing my blocks to you on Monday. Will PM the tracking number...Bee

I have learned something about being a moderator for a group. I have learned how patient and flexible you have to be. I know that I posted the rules and I gave them to Patrice and she ok'd them. But that said, I have talked to Patrice about some issues that have come up and so the rules will be changing a little. She feels that the restriction of stating exactly what to add to a block may be too confining and make the boom not fun. In others words, say that you wanted only a specific shade of red......that may be difficult for the person making the block to match that exactly. Also sometimes you may get a completely different block all together. Well the pattern will be the same but everything else is altered. At first you may think, oh no, what am I going to do with this. But I am thinking that sometimes we may get something different but you know, I believe that there is a reason for things like that to happen. Who knows that block may jolly well play lovely with all the other blocks. So the rules that I am changing is taking out the word advise you to follow what the person wants. I just won't have it in there. I think that we can request but maybe that is not possible for the person to do. I want this to be fun and enjoyable by all. What do you all think????? Does any of this make sense or am I just being goofy?

Bee, I will look forward to your envelop. Poor PBadder, her envelop is taking the scenic route. This is why I am glad we have tracking. although it is funny how a package can go from CA and is suppose to stay in CA, takes off for Illinois. Too funny.

I checked the tracking today and guess what it is out for delivery today yeah. Guess it had enough travel and time to get home to it's destination. So funny. So funny I sent Nelda her package and she received it within 3 days and it wasn't priority lol Postal service is so funny sometimes.

Yes PBadder, it is here. All done traveling and safe where it belongs. LOL.

urgodschild2, I think everyone seems pretty flexible so far... For example, I asked Bee Beatty if I could use more than 2 colors on her block and she said to go for it. And Groovy Pieces seems very gracious with our efforts/difficulties on the pattern she picked. ...What I'm having second thoughts about is the postage. $23.60 for 12 blocks is the most I've ever paid. In the other online bee I participate in, I pay half that. But I like getting to know the board members here, so I can consider the extra cost part of my entertainment budget. :-)

givio......food for thought. I figured this out for the regular swaps where you have 16 blocks to swap. It cost about 80 cents to mail your fabric out to individuals. Then it cost about 1.10 to mail the finished block back to the inidividuals. So I did the math and come up with a total of $29.80. If it is a swap of 12 blocks sent out individually then that comes in as $22.80. Now some of the blocks are going internationally and so it would cost more. Doing it this new way which is how the Board wants it done you come out with it costing you $22.40. That is paying $5.60 for each posting.. So I am unclear about which other bees you have been in. If they can do it cheaper please tell us how they do it.

got 3 more done today and they are in my album in my profile. Guess it is my laptop that will not let me post here but they are on my profile

urgodschild2, USPS flat rate for the envelopes increased. It's not $5.60 anymore, it's $5.90.

It seems like the swaps here on QB have an element of incorporating your own fabric into each block. That's what most of the increase in cost is all about, compared to what I've done before. :-) So, it's simply a different type of bee. I like it. :-) There are so many choices of ways to make a quilt top, and it's fun exploring new ways that I haven't done before.

In my other swap, we all say what colors we want our quilt to be, then we all make a block for each other using fabric we have at home or what we buy especially for the other bee member. We all share our addresses with each other. So, the only postage we have is to mail our finished block to each member of the bee. If you fold a 12" block very flat, you can put it in a greeting card size envelope and mail it for first class postage, which is $0.46. If the block has lots of little pieces and lots of seams, it will increase the ounce weight, so you'd have to add $0.21 for additional ounces. Getting 12 blocks from the bee equals the cost for sending the blocks-- about $5.52 to $8.04. You can spend more if you use padded envelopes, or add personal notes or business cards, or use thick baggies that have heavy ziplocks, or add duct tape, etc. I usually use only a fold-over sandwich baggie to put the block in, and scotch tape it closed.

The biggest differences between that bee and this one is that you don't end up with blocks using your own fabric, and you don't have tracking. Only 1 of my blocks got lost (of about 35), and I needed to make another for that girl. It was really my fault, because I took it to the main post office instead of my local post office. I believe they are not so careful there... But mostly I had very fun experiences. One time, I found a Kaffe Fasset print that I knew one girl would like for her quilt top, but I found it after the bee was finished, and I'd already mailed my block to her. Because I had her address, I was able to send her another block that I liked better for her than the first one I made. Then we had a little on-the-side giving spree that was very nice! :-)

Giving,

Thank you for sharing your experience with the swaps you have participated in. This weekend I had planned to prepare all my blocks for sending to the coordinator for two swaps I just completed - this New Repeat Boom (12 Blocks) and Boom 11, S&E Group (16 Blocks). These two swaps were the first I have ever done.

Yesterday, I packaged each of the 16 blocks for the Boom 11 in a small zip loc Baggie each with a printed personal note. Some with leftover fabric. Some with an extra block. As I was about halfway through, I realized there was no way 16 baggies were going to fit in the flat rate envelope. Oh..no I thought ..now what? I wasn't ready to re-do all the packages...so I set the project aside for Monday!

In thinking about this, I have decided to divide the 16 baggies into 2 flat rate envelopes of 8 each @$5.90 each for a total of $11.80. However, I still have to be sure this doesn't impact the coordinator when she includes my Baggie in each participants forwarded blocks.

Thank goodness I didn't package up the 12 blocks for this group yet! I am not sure how I will return unused fabric to those wo have indicated they will need it.

For me, the issue with the cost of postage is that if I mail each block to its recipient as I complete them, it does not "pinch"me as severely as mailing all at one time and including the return postage.

All blocks completed. Still not sure about how much to include for return postage.
Love the swaps! Bee

Givio

Sorry misspelled your name on previous message,
Bee

Bee Beatty, I like the misspelling! lol

Well, I got 4 blocks done today... went to take a picture and I put one together completely wrong (Jacob's Ladder became Jacob's Walk on the sidewalk). So, I will pick that apart tomorrow. Hopefully I can have everything put together & ready to mail on Friday. My longarm (The Six) decided she wanted emergency maintenance yesterday so until she's back, it's all piecing for me.

Bee Beatty. Put several in one baggie with the names of who they belong to and I will separate them. That is what I had to do on the Slow and Easy boom as with the plastic bag there was no way they would fit. So I put several blocks in one bag with the owners name tagged to it. Then they all fit nicely in the one envelop. I don't know how we can get around this mailing it all to one person as that is what the person who started this site wants us to do. So if we want to continue on this board we have to abide by those rules. I do understand how it is cost effective but also inconvenient at times to come up with the whole amt to mail. I am on a fixed budget and sometimes I have to wait untill the new month to mail mine out.....so I can relate to Bee Beatty. When you have one or two to mail to an individual, it is easier on the budget to mail it out sooner. I don't know the solution to this. Some people have left the board and have started their own groups but the problem I see with that is that you are locked in to only exchanging with those individuals. I like meeting new people and this board allows a wider audience to pull from. I don't no the solution. Sorry. Any ideas???

MamaHauser......LOL you have a new name for a block. I love it.

Bee Beatty......It cost $5.80 at least from my PO so if you put $6.00 in an envelop it will cover it. Or you can have the PO put the stamps on the envelop before you include it in the package.