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!