1CharmShort

Hi Ibex
I saw you on zoom...I was waving at you
I'm not sure why Mr Tims has assumed that all the flimsies need to be "unified" or "balanced" or any of the other terms he used.
I agree... everything that came to me was beautiful and not in need of this challenge.
It would have been nice if he had given a second challenge for those that already meet this one.
I don't want to just add borders.
The flimsies are pretty large now... i think that maybe whatever we do, we probably should not add a great deal to the size at this point.
Have you (or any of you) got any suggestions?

without giving any of the mystery away, do any of you have specific preferences as to how you want to finish your own flimsies that can inform us or help us with this last challenge?

Is everyone going to quilt theirs? Or face them? Hang them up or use them in some other way?
Do you actually prefer borders of some sort as a last challenge?
Ideas would be really appreciated here.

I have to go back and learn what the last steps are with this project. I don't remember how/when we reveal, etc.
I mean...do we just send this last flimsy to it's original owner...or wait for the reveal?
gotta go find out what to expect next.

1CharmShort

Instructions are conflicted.
It looks like we don't pass, we have a reveal party
Of course those that live to far apart will have to reveal some other way.
Then we finish our piece as desired and submit pics ...
but the schedule just says pass to original owner to be received by April 3.

What do you have in mind, Ibex?
Anyone?

1CharmShort

I'm curious...
and I'm wondering
how has your experience been with this Mad Adders project so far?
did you have some fun?
are you glad you participated?
would you do it again?
what would you change?
did you learn anything new?

the timing on this seemed to me to be less than well thought out. starting it at the beginning of the holidays and trying to get things mailed when the weather is (at least in the US) at it's worst
and
Ricky Tims had so many things on his plate all at once and so many projects going at once through out this -including selling his home, buying new property & moving, trips abroad (Portugal), etc. - that it seemed to me that he didn't have much time for this right now. Maybe not a problem? I don't know.
Thoughts?

ibex94

Great questions and observations, 1CharmShort. So in theory, we get our original flimsy by Apr 3. In our case, we should not open our package until we meet for a grand reveal with one another in Zoom. Since Peckish is up to her ears in tax stuff as a CPA we cannot do the reveal until Apr 16 at the soonest. I am waiting to hear from her before the date for our grand reveal is finalized.

I am going to be in .... wait for it..... Hawaii .... !!!!! (my first time there) the week of April 15 for my professional meetings. I may have to get Peckish to hold onto my Flimsy to share at the reveal because I don't particularly want to take it to Hawaii with me but I guess I can always record my reveal before I leave and then show you my tape of my reveal while in Hawaii.

Here's a second question you asked.... I have no specific requests for a final product. I wanted it small because I want a wall hanging. If it needs borders and it doesn't come with borders, I will add them. We all get to play around with whatever we get. The only playing that I anticipate is that I will be adding all sorts of charm touches to the flimsy before I quilt it.

I believe we have to quilt it up and show a finished product to earn that "pin" that he is giving to the challenge folks who finish their projects. I also think that we get to slice and dice the final product as well. Perhaps that is our April challenge?

It is a bit to early for me to give feedback on this particular challenge. I am frustrated with not being able to talk about things along the way and the distance between us is really bad for staying in touch effectively. As a coordinator not being able to contact participants quickly really is awful. I didn't find the challenges particularly unwieldy until the tidbits. I probably made it harder than it needed to be. We were all Tims' guinea pigs on this project so I'm sure he is working out what he needs to do the next time around. He provided us with wonderful examples of what he expected for each round and gave his reasoning which allowed all of us to take what we needed from the lectures. His "lessons" were nice but the real gem of this challenge is our amazing team. Even if we (QB Flinging Flimsies) didn't meet every month in Zoom. It would have been fun to meet with some of the people in the other groups along the way.

Anyone thinking about going to England to meet the UK groups? Wouldn't that be great? It is certainly a good excuse for us to meet in person, lol.

The quilting process itself has been wonderful. I love trying to figure out how to add the challenge onto the flimsy and I love how they are looking and I love the skills I have learned. The hardest part for me has been deciding how to augment each flimsy but once I decide, it comes along swimingly. Tims said he was willing to look at things and give us suggestions but he didn't push that at the beginning and so that is a resource of which I never took advantage. He will end up as a resource into the future if we want to use him, I'm sure. He's just like that.

c joyce

I think it turned out to be very much like a traditional round robin except that you didn't have to go all the way around the piece - any number of sides you wanted to do. I did a lot or rearranging to some of the pieces and actually did cut into someone else's work (at the seams). There was not as much artistic freedom as I was led to believe in the pre-class material and the first lesson.
I agree, that the final challenge of unifying the piece belongs to the owner of the piece. I am assuming that at the end and before the completed quilted piece is posted, the owner of the piece may do whatever they want to. The final picture posted by the last person does not dictate the final quilted piece for the May show and tell.
Did I learn anything new? I learned how to hide elements into a quilt that on a normal day would not have been considered. But I did "meet" some terrific talented quilters and that's always worth the price of admission.
Would I do it again? Not being in the same local area, made it expensive - cost of class + postage probably made it close to $200 (I haven't actually totaled it). Doing it again, I'll have to think about, especially if all of you were not coming along for the ride too. Juana has been such a good leader and we have Janet keeping the pictures - what a great team those two are.
Has Ricky given as much time to Mad Adders that it needs for a first go-around? I don't think so. At some point he should have reviewed a few of the starting pieces (from a couple of groups) after a couple of passes to at least give a critique that we are headed in the right direction or missing the mark. Collectively, it is not a small sum that he has been paid for this class.
In the end, we will all have a completed quilt. It will not end up in the UFO pile and like I said before, it will be on display somewhere in my home and be a happy reminder of the ladies of the QB Flinging Flimsies!

ibex94

I just thought about something else that the presentation of Ricky Tims' "harmony and unity" lecture is likely going to influence in my life.... ways to pull together those leftover blocks or stand alone tries along the way. I have a ton of them! Changing scale on patterns to help unify the misc hodge podge, repeating themes, overlapping items, etc. will make some of my UFOs into something really fun despite the crazy range of fabrics.

I am working on my paper pieced turtle today. I'll post a picture in here when done. :-) This is the free pdf turtle pattern I sent everyone via personal email from Paper Panache (https://www.paperpanache.com/free-patterns). Print out two copies of the one page pattern because A, B, and C need to be produced independently before being merged and you need to cut the pattern into an A, B and C section with seam allowance added in. The first page can be cut into A and C using the middle B for the seam allowance. The second page is where you cut the B section with its seam allowance. If you can do the fabric without needing the seam allowance along the edge, that will be one less piece of paper to deal with on the backs of the project.

1CharmShort

cute turtle
you could make it even more fun by turning the shell into a log cabin, or put a triangle into it, or maybe a tidbit shell?

ibex94

I like the way you think!! Hmmmm.....

ibex94

I went to Walmart to look for hats and came up with this selfie.... wish I had editing software that would allow me to add lipstick.

So send me your selfie mad adder pics via email, please. Be sure to be hiding beneath the brim!

ibex94

Janet -- I tried to send you an email but it is not getting through to you. Everything ok up there in Canada?

added:
Apparently your email is over quota. I hope that means you're up there having fun and traveling!!