It's that time again...

Announcing... Another Little Quilt Swap, Round 9 (yes, 9. I can't believe it, either)

Quick details:

Deadline for Photos: Tuesday, 7th April 2015

In a nutshell (i.e. the quick description): a no-signup/no preassigned partners swap. Once your quilt is completed you will be enterred into the swap; you may then nominate a list of quilts you'd like to receive from the finished pool after the deadline has passed.

Size Requirements: total PERIMETER (distance around the outside of the quilt) between 48" and 80" (approx 120cm and 200cm). Any shape ok. Single quilt, pair or triptych ok as long as total perimeter falls in range.

Style: Open

Theme: Open

Materials: Any, but must include at least some fabric. 

Techniques: Any, but must involve three layers, as in the traditional definition of "quilt" (see full rules for more details if necessary)

How to play: send an expression of interest to me by email with ALQS9 in the subject line. This is not a committment; you will not be official enrolled in the swap until you send photos of your finished quilt

Other: must be willing to mail internationally (though you will not necessarily be required to do so)

Check out the ALQS9 Rules page in the sidebar for more details

Grand Reveal

Now that all the quilts are safely home, I can show who made what and where the quilts all went to live (I like this part, especially when all the quilts have arrived at their new destinations safely).

So.  Here we go:

Quilt no 1, "Love"

was made by Tena, and was claimed by Debra, who made Quilt no 16, "Summer Plates".

Summer Plates flew off to live with Mary Jane, while Mary Jane's quilt, no 11

went to Beth. Beth's quilt, no 26,

went to Barbara C in Northern Ireland. Barbara is a regular player in the swap - she's been in since Round 4... In this round, her quilt (no 28)  went to Marei.

The quilt that Marei made, Early Spring (no 17) went to live with Jenny,

while Jenny's lovely piece (no 35) flew off to hang out with Di. I'd love to see this one in person (well, I'd like to see all of them in person, but I reckon this is the type of quilt which would show so much better in the flesh. So to speak.)

The piece that Di made (no 6)  for this swap went to Lynda in the UK

And Lynda's "Life's too Short to Dance with Ugly Men" (no 15) went to Wil in the Netherlands. Lynda holds a joint position of honour - she's one of two people to have played in every single round of my ALQS (well, if I count myself, one of three people). Here's the piece she made:

Wil has also played in a lot of swaps - all but one round - though she's submitted two quilts to several rounds, so she might hold the record for most quilts submitted in my swaps. (Or again, that might be me, though that doesn't really count...)  Her Windmills (no 2) went to California to live with Julie.

Julie's quilt, no 14, went to Cathy in Texas, who actually made (and therefore received) two quilts for the swap.

No 29, Kindness Multiplies, ended up with Margaret in the UK. Here it is:

Margaret's quilt, no 9, went to Scarlett in Chile.

Scarlett's quilt was the last one home, which I was waiting to hear about - partly because she was on holiday when the quilts needed mailing, so it went out late, and partly because it was going to its destination from South America, and in this round, it's the only quilt coming from South America (one other player lives there, at least part time, but was able to mail to and from the UK) - in the last round there were 3 or 4 South American players.  Anyway, here's the quilt Scarlett made - no 33.

This quilt went to Marie, who made Mason's Wheel, quilt no 31, a quilt claimed by Mary S. This quilt was one of the most popular ones - it appeared on many lists.

Mary S is another player who has been in the past 5 rounds or so - one of my "regulars" - between us regulars, we have an amazing collection of little quilts! In this round, Mary made two quilts. This one, no 7 (Citrus Peel), went to Pam in the UK.

Pam's quilt "On a Summer's Day" was no 12 and went to Joan.

Joan's contribution to this round was no 10, Tree Bones, which went to Hilde in the Netherlands.

And Hilde's own quilt, Cherry Chirps (no 21), which was the most popular of all, went to Sarah.

Sarah's quilt, also a very requested piece, flew off to Andrea in Australia. It's no 4:

Andrea's quilt "In the Yard" was no 25, and went to Norway to be with Kjersti O (yes, I have two Kjerstis in this swap!). This Kjersti is another of my regular players, and has also been with me for 5 rounds now. The other Kjersti is new (but hopefully will play again).

The quilt which Kjersti O made was called Angel (no 27) and went to live with Mary J.

Mary J's quilt "Thank you Katharine G" (no 23) in turn went to Mary S

and Mary S's second quilt "She Rules the Barnyard" (no 8) went to Penny in Australia. 

Penny has also been with the swap for about 5 rounds, and this time, she made this quilt, no 22, "Where is my Space" which went off to Misha. 

Misha's quilt was no 30, "The Batik-A Triangle" and went to Rosie, 

whose quilt The Buzzing of the Bees (no 20) came to live with me. 

My own quilt, no 32, went to live with Sophie (I have a quilt from Sophie from a previous round, so it was fun to send one to her).

Sophie's quilt (no 5) went to Barbara F.

and the quilt that Barbara made (no 18) went to Margaret in Australia.

Margaret's Stained Glass quilt (no 13 - Desert Rose) went to Kjersti B. 

Kjersti made quilt no 19, which went to Ramona, my other player who has been in every round. 

Ramona's piece for this swap, Up and Down the Stairs (no 3) went to Tena, which brings us back to the end of that loop. Whew.

Amazingly, almost all of the quilts fit into that big loop, with the except of two, which were a direct swap.  Cathy's second quilt, no 34"Aloha Friend" went to Lisa in Australia

while Lisa's quilt (no 34) went to Cathy in Texas.

And that, as they say, is that. Thanks once again to everyone who played and I'll hope to see you (eventually) for round 9...

Safely home...

All little quilts now safely home with their new owners (yippee!) - soon, I will post a "Grand Reveal" - i.e. who made what and sent it to whom. Which is always fun.  Thanks again to everyone for playing in this round - hope you are all happy with your little pieces.

34 down... 1 to go!

According to my spreadsheet, which I hope is accurate, everyone has now received a quilt except one person, whose quilt was mailed quite late due to the maker being on holiday. The quilt is also being mailed from somewhere quite distant to where the recipient lives, so the journey may be a little protracted. I've been in touch with this person, so she knows not to worry. If anyone else is still waiting on a quilt, please let me know, as that means I've made a mistake somewhere.

Anyone who has not heard from the person they sent to (except the above circumstance), rest easy, your quilt has made it safely there, even if the recipient hasn't acknowledged you personally.

Will catch up soon

Apologies to all who have emailed me lately with info about mailing or questions about receiving or sending quilts - I'll try to answer everyone in the next few days.  I pulled a muscle in my back on the weekend, and although it's much better, I've been spending much less time sitting in front of the computer this week to try to help keep it from hurting as much...

Mailing reminder!

I've heard from quite a few people that quilts have been mailed; if you haven't had a chance to mail yours off yet, please can you try to do so by Saturday, which is the end of February. Thanks to those of you who have let me know quilts have been mailed/received. I really appreciate this as it saves me having to chase people up later.  Also, I can keep track of mailing dates, so I know whether someone should start worrying if their quilt hasn't arrived...

I have both mailed my own quilt off (though it was going outside the UK, so hasn't been received yet that I know of) and received my new little one - it's all so exciting!

Good to go!

OK, I have now emailed everyone (well, except myself) to say where you should send your quilts - please try to get them in the mail by the end of February if possible. I know at least one person is away, but that's ok, she let me know (and anyway, it happens to be my quilt, so I can wait a while if need be).  If you are going to be away and can't get your quilt in the mail before you go, please let me know.

If you didn't get an email (or two separate ones, for those who made two pieces) please contact me right away and I'll try again.

A couple of fun things you might like to note - when I was pairing up quilts to owners, I do it totally without names attached, just numbers, so I don't always see patterns until later, so I didn't notice until sending out emails that there's one instance where someone is sending her quilt to the same person she's receiving one from (technically, two people in that situation!). And, although in this instance, she didn't actually get the quilt in question, I did find it funny that Julie put her sister's quilt (sight unseen) at the top of her prefence list [don't worry, I'm not ruining it - she didn't realise at the time, but she has since learned it and knows that her sister is sending to someone else - I can't say what quilt she's getting for fear of ruining her surprise, but it's still very high on her list, so I'm sure she'll be fine with it!].  Her sister (Andrea) also had Julie's quilt high on her list, even without seeing it first.  Guess they have more in common that just genes!

Can I please remind everyone to let me know either by email or by posting here when you mail your quilt off and when you receive one. And please do contact the maker of your quilt to let her know it arrived and to say thank you!

Getting there!

I have now received all the preferences lists from the swappers, and have spent a not-too-taxing couple of hours sorting out the swap this evening (probably). Some of the issues have been checked  - not assigning the same quilt to two people, not assigning two quilts to one person, not giving anyone their own quilt (unless they specifically asked for it - in this swap, a handful of people said they'd be happy to have their own piece back, but no one listed it absolutely first, so it's most likely that no one will get their own back - but I'm not saying for sure, as that would spoil the surprise!).  It's looking good, but there is still one check to make, and it's one I won't do until tomorrow, when I'm sure I'm a little less tired:  double checking quilt numbers against people's original emails (just in case I enterred their preferences wrong in my master spread sheet). And then I'll start sending out mailing info, assuming everything is ok.

Several people have expressed interest in how I swap out - I won't go into huge detail, but here's the essence of it...

I start with a spreadsheet of quilt numbers. When A Quilter sends me her preference list, I enter the data in my spreadsheet, using the extremely sophisticated method of  putting a "1" in her first choice column, "2" in the second choice column, and so on. For those who send me tiered lists, all 1st tier choices get a 1, second tiers get a 2 and so on.  For those who say "quilt no 50 is my favourite but I'm happy with any of them", column 50 gets a "1" and the rest get asterisks.  For those who just say "I like these 10 in no specific order" their choices all get asterisks (or sometimes, all "1's" - it depends).

Once I have all the data, I look at it totally as data - I don't even leave the names on when I'm working on it (and I usually do it on paper as it's easier to see all of it at once that way). I start with those quilts which were on the fewest lists (I use a tally at the bottom so I know how many lists each quilt is on); they get assigned first. As I assign a quilt to a new owner, I shade the other choices of that owner, and periodically re-total, either visually or actually by adding up to keep an eye on which quilts need to be assigned next.

At some point, I also start looking at which quilts were the most popular - the makers of these quilts usually get a quilt fairly high up on their preference list if at all possible - but I try to be very flexible and make it so that the greatest number of players get a quilt which is near the top of their list.  So for instance, if I have a situation where player 1 would get her 2nd choice quilt and player 2 her 10th choice quilt, but by swapping those two around, both players 1 and 2 would get their 3rd choice quilts, I'd take the latter situation.

Amazingly, because we are all individuals and all have different taste in quilts, this is usually not that hard to do (last round was pretty tricky, I think because it was too big - with 50 quilts in the swap, I really needed to have preference lists of 15 to 20 from most players, but only got 10-12).  In this swap, I actually barely ever hit a stumbling block and had to regroup, even with the few players who sent me very short preference lists.  Which is nice for me.

Assuming that I haven't made any fundamental errors in inputting the preferences originally, I think everyone should be pretty happy with this swap - everyone should get a quilt on their list and I don't think anyone will receive one below about 7th or 8th choice (and in many cases, you sent 12 or 15 choices!).

I don't think it's particularly useful (or kind) to provide a public ranking of the quilts in order of popularity, so I'm not going to do it (and I'm not just saying that because my own pieces never make it to the top!), but I will say that there were 5 quilts which appeared on at least 20 lists (out of 35). These were no 4 (untitled, bright and modern),  no 9 (untitled, long piece with flowers), no 10 (Tree Bones), no 21 (Cherry Chirps - the most popular, on 30 lists!) and no 31 (Mason's Whirl).

I'll post again when I've sent mailing info out - I should have it done by the end of the weekend.

...and that's all, folks!

That's all the quilts for this round of the swap.  Here's what you do next:

Have a look at the quilts.  Decide which ones you like best. Send me a list of at least 10, please - more is ok. You can either order the list in strict order 1 to 10 (or whatever) or just say "these are all the ones I like" or say "I like these best and this group second best". Whatever works for you. I hope that everyone finds a number of things that they like.  And if you really like your own quilt more than most of the others, that's ok,too - just put your own number at the top of the list, or whatever.

Please try to get me your list in the next week or so; after that, I'll begin the task of allocating the quilts to their new owners.  When you send me your preferences, please also make sure that you send your postal address. If you have played in a recent round of the swap and haven't moved, I probably have your address.

Any questions, just ask.

And thanks to everyone for playing!

Quilt no 35

untitled

approx 15x15.5"

It is whole cloth linen, free motion machine quilted with assorted colors of Aurifil thread.

Quilt no 34

Aloha Friend

approx 19x19.5"

This is an original design by the maker (woo-hoo!), machine appliqued and quilted.  

Quilt no 33

untitled

approx 41x43cm

This work in free format is done with cotton fabrics and is machine quilting and hand embroidery, plus uses small ornaments and fabric applications.

Quilt no 32

untitled

approx 11.5x30" machine pieced and quilted

Still a few more to come

Not many, but it's late and I should go to bed (I'm a real night owl, but unfortunately, I also have to work in the morning - bummer).  The rest (3, I think, but I will double check to be certain I'm not missing any out) will be uploaded tomorrow, barring disasters!

Quilt no 31

Mason's Whirl

20x20"

An original design. Machine pieced. machine quilted.