Another finish!

Colene has decided to make her partner this lovely little wholecloth quilt - wholecloth quilting is not my forte, so I can only sit back and admire it... And post it here so you all can do the same! Lucky [partner's name]!

First quilt finished (yes, already!)

"Spring at Last ", 12x19.5", Wil Opio Oguta, 2008


Well, ladies and gent, we have our first finished quilt. It's not simply that Wil is an overachiever, although it's a term which has been lofted in her direction once or twice in the past, but that she is going to be away in the US doing fun things for about a month of this swap, so she needed to finish quickly. I think we can forgive her, don't you? What a lovely little quilt - someone (I know who, but the rest of you will have to wait to find out) is going to be very lucky to get this in the post!

Small/doll quilt vs "miniature" quilt

Because several people have mentioned this issue, either in emails to me or on their blogs, I thought I'd clarify what is meant (at least in the context of this swap) by a doll quilt.

All we are looking for in this swap is a small quilt - 12" square minimum, 20" square maximum. You can make the blocks any size you like - you can work with normal block sizes, such as 6", 8", 10" or 12" blocks - for instance, the little quilt I made for the Spring Four Seasons Quilt Swap (pictured above - total size 22" square - and I seemed to have failed to take a photo after the binding was sewn down - drat) used 6" blocks to start. These are blocks that are often made in a 6" size anyway. If you want to, you can scale down larger blocks to a smaller version, for instance, make a 6" version of a traditionally 12" block. You can do something abstract and/or arty. You can make a mini-wholecloth quilt. Stylistically, it's up to you.



What you do NOT have to do is make what's usually referred to as a miniature quilt - such as the excellent examples above in this photo from the Cincinnati Enquirer - as you can see, the blocks in these quilts are teeny-tiny. If you would like to make a miniature quilt in this sense, I won't stop you, but that's not the aim of the swap, so you shouldn't expect to receive one in return.

Partners received?

To the best of my knowledge, you have all now received your partner info -yippee! Anyone who is still waiting to receive details, please let me know as soon as possible.

Likewise, any general questions about the swap, please do ask - I've tried to cover most things, but I'm sure I've probably forgotten something or other. I will post, a little closer to the mailing date, some tips about mailing things internationally, but I'm sure there are other things I haven't thought of!

Emailing again - Ann A & Annette

Sorry to bore all of you who have safely had your partner info, but it's terrible that I can't manage to get these ladies their info - no idea why it keeps happening. Anyway, Ann A and Annette, I have tried emailing you from my gmail address (which i don't normally use) to see if that works - if not, Annette, I can leave your partner info as a comment on your blog, which I can then delete after you get it; Ann, you mentioned you had a second email address, perhaps I can try that one (but I don't have it - only the enter net one). Ann, I also tried sending you an email through the about.com forum to see if that would work...

Away for a short time

Just to say to you all, I will be away at my MIL's house with no internet access for a long weekend - I will probably check email before we leave tomorrow, but then won't be back until Sunday afternoon or so, so if you email me and don't hear back, don't panic. Hopefully those of you who hadn't had your partner info yet, now have had it, but if not, we will work something out as soon as I return. Somehow!

Partner update - again

Hi everyone - I hope by now everyone has their partner info. I have had real trouble getting this info to several of you- not sure quite why, but if you haven't had the info from me, can you check first of all that the message didn't go into your spam folder and secondly that my email address is in your address book and also not in your list of banned email addresses. I have recently had messages from Annette and Ann A saying they haven't had their partner info - this has been re-emailed (to Ann for the 3rd time), so hopefully you will have it now. If not, leave a comment here and we will try to resolve it. Anyone else who is still missing theirs, please let me know ASAP.

Logo for your blog

If you would like to put a logo for this swap in the sidebar of your blog, or post about it, please do (but it's not required) - for those of you who are less confident with bloggy things, I have put the code below, which you can use - but you will have to change the brackets from parenthesis to pointy brackets in order to make it work. If you are still not sure, email me and I'll email the code to you exactly as it should appear.

(a href="http://anotherlittlequiltswap.blogspot.com/") (img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186612941139622386" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfpERQKetxP1ODbVAfdHfFL6kgQswjycLldb_XH6qowPUIlf6za1XKM_yP2f0VC_J8dhngLn3lwYOrp7SQdUqysaH_8AjnOr2Gvq4E8zEXPLETvAhOjmz1zZZA1zROSSU4b3NI7zIXFM/s200/alqslogo.JPG" border="0" /) (/a)

If your blog is on wordpress or something other than blogger, this might not work as is, but feel free to copy the logo from the sidebar here and use it.

Partner info e-mailed

OK, everyone - you should all have email. I have now sent everyone the details of their partner - that is, who they will be making a quilt for. Several of you had asked for a particular partner to make for - wherever possible, I have given you this partner. I think I was able to do it in all cases, but if I didn't manage to, my apologies - the logistics of this sort of swap are a little complicated. Please remember, although you are welcome to discuss the progress of this project on your blogs (those of you who have them) and to show pictures, please don't mention who you are making your quilt for. And don't ask me to tell you who is making a quilt for you, because it's a secret, and you'll just have to wait and see...

SIGNUPS NOW CLOSED!

Well, we now have 41 players signed up, so I am closing the swap. I know I said 40, but I just took all the signups that were in my email box when I got home today (took the kids out and about, ending up at the seaside - a little chilly, but lovely sunny day all day!) - it seemed a little unfair to say no to the last person, who had only emailed an hour later than the previous one... And anyway, 40 was an arbitrary number I chose myself for no real reason, so 41 is no problem - since we aren't doing a direct swap (i.e. A sends to B and B sends to A) it doesn't matter that it's an odd number.

There is every likelihood I will run another round of this swap with an autumn mailing deadline, so if you didn't get signed up in time this time around, feel free to send me an email expressing interest in future swaps (no committments, of course) and I'll be happy to email you when the next round is launched - unless things go pear-shaped and I decide not to do it.

I need one or two more sets of preferences and details; once those are in, I will start matching up partners - I expect to email you all by Monday at the absolute latest, probably it will be sooner. I will post a message here when I have emailed the partner info out so you can check on progress.

Just in case you are interested, here's how international this swap is - I think we did very well!

Australia (3)
Finland (1)
France (1)
Ireland (2)
Lithuania (1)
Luxembourg (1)
the Netherlands (1)
Turkey (1)
United Kingdom (5 England, 2 Wales and 1 from the Isle of Man)
United States (22 - states represented are AR, CO, CT, IA, ID, IL, IN. MD, ME, MI, NC, NE, NJ, PA, VT & WA)


Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against Americans (as many of you know, I actually am one, though I've lived here 15+ years now), but I do really like to see the fact that in this swap, nearly half of our swappers are NOT from the US. Just goes to show how much quilting is spreading around the globe, which can only be a good thing, right? Right!

A word or two on what you are sending

Hi ladies (and gent) - we are nearly full now at 37 players as of this morning, just a few more spaces to go, so I thought I'd pop a note on here about what you will be sending to your partner. Obviously, I have already specified the details of the quilt you will be making - size, shape, label - but I know in these swaps people sometimes like to put a little extra gift in with the quilt, such as tea, chocolate, maybe something local from their country or region. If you would like to do that - and it is totally NOT required, so please don't think you have to - please try to keep what you send to a small token, with a relatively low value - say under $10US or AUS/£5/7euros - that kind of region.

Also, please bear in mind if you are sending internationally, which many of you will be, that some countries are quite strict about what they allow in and out and about the value of what people are allowed to receive before paying a customs charge - I will write more about that later, when we are closer to the sending deadline.

As for quality, I know that I don't have to say to you (but I'm going to anyway!) that the quilt you send to your partner should be good work, which you have taken your time with, and is of a quality that you would be happy to receive. We have a variety of players here, with different skill levels, areas of expertise and experience and styles, and that's fine - that's part of the fun. I'm sure that some people will produce quilts that are more technically difficult than other people and that's perfectly ok.

But I hope that everyone will do their best work, be careful, be thoughtful about their partner's preferences (I have seen all the preferences and no one has asked for anything unreasonable or even difficult, so it shouldn't be a problem to bear in mind what they like or dislike), and produce a piece of work that the recipient will be happy to own. I can't tell you how long you should spend working on your piece, as that's up to how you work and what you will be making, but please bear in mind that no one likes to get a piece of work which looks like the maker threw it together any-old-how in an hour.

I hope that you will all produce a lovely piece of work just because you know it's the right thing to do, but you should also bear in mind that the world of blog swaps is not a huge one and word does get around about people who don't fulfill their responsibilities. Sorry to be negative, but it's better to say all that out in front, I think.

If you haven't swapped before or are a relative newcomer to quilting, please don't panic - no one minds receiving a simple quilt which has been lovingly made and into which much thought has gone - what people mind is when it's clear from what they get that the maker really didn't care about what they were making and just threw something together to meet the deadline. I'm sure no one here will do that.

Signups - update

Hello all - I now have 37 people signed up for this swap, and have received details from nearly all of you - if your name is on the sidebar on the right hand side, I have received your email about signing up - if you have sent me an email asking to sign up and your name is NOT in that sidebar, I probably didn't get it and you should please try again. [This includes emails received up to about 7.30am London time on Thursday]

I have decided I will keep the swap open until we reach 40 signups - I don't want my first one of these swaps to be too big and unmanageable. At the current rate, I'd guess that means no longer than the end of this week, so if you are still considering, don't leave it too late to make your mind up. Assuming things carry on at the current rate, I'd guess I can get partner info out by early next week, rather than the 1st of May, which means, you'll have 2 more weeks than originally thought to plan and work on your little quiltie.

Thanks for all the interest, and any questions, just ask!

Announcing...another little quilt swap

Yes, it's another little quilt swap. I know there are a bunch of them around, but I love making and swapping these little quilts, and I know that many of you do, too - at least if the speed they fill up at is anything to go by!

This little swap will be similar to some of the ones I have participated in before - for instance, the Four Seasons Quilt Swap or Toni's Miniature Booty Swap. There will be no theme for this swap, though I do ask you try to bear in mind the preferences of the partner you are assigned. Also, please try to keep away from themes that may not be appropriate to other swappers - for instance, religious, holiday or patriotic themes (unless specified under likes, of course).

Quilts should be 12" square minimum and 20" square maximum. They do not have to be square, of course. All quilts should be finished (that is, quilted and bound) and should include a label on the reverse with your name, location, date and your partner's name, as well as the name of this swap. You may include other information if you like, such as a message or a quote. Because these are small quilts intended for display rather than use, you may include surface embellishment techniques such as beading, embroidery, fabric painting and so on, but please ensure any technique you use is durable (though washability is not required).

Any technique or style is allowed, including wholecloth quilts or art quilts - and traditional quilts are welcome as well - so if you have a dislike of a particular style, be sure to note it when signing up.

This will not be a straight swap - that is, it's possible that the person you send to will also send to you, but then again, they might not (it will all depend on no's 6&7 below, and on who signs up).

At the moment I am planning to take 25-30 signups for this swap; it's possible that will change if I get a huge response (edited to say: I got 15 people in the first 24 hours - if that's a trend, I think I will certainly let it go up to at least 40 people - I hate to disappoint - but assuming all goes well, I will run another one later in the year). I am hoping to get partners assigned and sent out by the 1st of May; you must post your quilt to the recipient by the 1st of July. I may be able to get partners assigned sooner if signups go quickly - which they are, at the moment - who knows, if things continue at this rate, I'll be able to get partners out next week!

If you are interested in playing, you should send me an email (to katelnorth@yahoo.com, with ALQS or Another Little Quilt Swap in the subject line) with the information below included. I will respond to all emails to acknowledge them, so if you do not hear from me within 48 hours, you should either try again or leave a message here (though obviously not with your details in it)...

1. Full Name
2. postal address
3. email address
4. blog/flickr address, etc (this is not required to play, though I do prefer it; if you don't have a blog (etc)and I don't know you from other swapping forums, I may ask for a reference from someone who has swapped with you before)
5. any dislikes in terms of colour, fabric style or theme?
6. any particular favourite colours or styles?
7. international posting - unless you have strong objections, I will assume everyone is willing to post internationally. If this is a serious issue for you, please let me know and I will do my best to assign you a partner within your own country - obviously this depends on who signs up, so I can't guarantee it.
8. partner preferences - again, I can't guarantee specific partners as I don't know who will sign up, but if there is someone you would particularly like to make a quilt for or someone you have just made a quilt for in another swap and would therefore rather not make another quilt for right away, please let me know and I'll do the best I can to juggle the partners to fit.