Ubercrafty

Now What?

So I have a back.

Which I sort of like even more then the front. Which totally doesn't matter, because there doesn't have to be a front and back, just 2 sides. Some days will be little confettis of fabric days, and some days will be pigs/vertical stripes days for the little friend who ends up with this.

It's all pinned and ready to be quilted....

Except, I don't know what to do!!!! Vertical quilting lines? In the ditch around the little squares? I'm even thinking of doing concetric squares, starting in the middle working my way out.... I don't know!

I'm probably going to bring it with me to Florida and do hand quilting, though it will probably end up untouched during the trip and I'll have to quilt when I get back....

finally, i'm working on it!

After the two prototypes, I decided to keep playing with stripes.... on the back of my quilt!

I became obsessed with this piece of vintage fabric from my stash:

My plan of using only used/reclaimed fabric was a bit out the window, as I didn't have enough that complemented this piece. But I dug around and found enough scraps in the stash to make a nice assortment:

I decided to use the technique I found on this blog and went at it!

First there were little flags:

  And the litle flags got bigger:

Finally, I played around, like a puzzle, to make it work. Trust me when I tell you, this took a LONG time. And every time I thought I was done, I'd tweek one and all the others would follow. But I'm done now.... Well, until I try to sew them and decide to re-arrange everything again!!!!

Final list of participants

I got an email this morning from someone who thought they had been missed in the partner assignment but in fact are on the list. Please check the list below and if you didn't receive your partner assignment, email me.

melissa mdg
mary w.
sara w.
lisa m.
lynn w.
katherine m.
Melissa p.
amanda m.
Martha M.
nova s.
Lara f.
amanda r.
wendy n.
Rebecca C.
sally e.
melissa w.
louise p.
bridget k.
tara b.
perrin s.
Donna D.
fanny f.
heather S.
susan a.
michele a.
susan s.
Sheridan P.
virginia c.
amy d.
abbie s.
bobbi jo r.
elise g.
suzanne K.
kristina n.
meg r.
crystal p.
marieke l.
robyn f.
tracy c.
Vanni B.
stacey t.
jessica m.

the people who's name is in bold are CONFIRMED: they have emailed me. If your name is not in bold, can you just shoot me an email or leave a comment. I'm sure this is getting redundant, but with at least one person who didn't receive the email that was sent, I just want to  make 100% certain that everyone got their assignments and are buzy sewing.

Prototypes

I asked everyone who joined the swap to try something new. And then I realised that meant me too....

My first challenge to myself was to rething what quilt fabric is. It doesn't have to be a shiny fat-quarter from the hopelessly traditional quilt store in town or, more likely in my case, several yards of funky Japanese fabrics from Superbuzzy. I resolved to use only materials that I had already, and not necessarily from the fabric stash.  Behold my inspiration:

Those, are in fact, assorted diaper covers that matched Dumpling's pretty dresses. BB has worn some of the dresses as well (though not many fit!), but the diaper covers have never been worn. So I ripped them up, saved all the elastics and cut the fabric into strips and squares.

My first stab at it involved a lot of white space (which is a vintage pillow case from Ebay)

I like it. Especially if I add some embellishments to it in some way. I have a few ideas.... but it still wasn't exactely what I wanted, so I tried again.

I like it a lot more. Less white space, pattern mixing and touching. It inspired me to grab the scraps and squares and make some free-flowing backs.  Which brings me to the second NEW thing I tried..... going hog-wild, with no patterns, no measurements, just grabbing scraps and fashioning them into rectangles until I had a full back. I even played with chunks of the pillow case embroidery.

Here's the thing... Now I have two little quilts (unassembled) made from my girls' clothes (sort of)..... I can't give those away! Those have to be for their own dollies. But I like the general idea of a striped top and a cobbled-together back. I just have to find another source of inspiration as far as materials go. Because soon, these little quilts are going to be in the girls rooms....

Can we get one more?

Can we get one more swapper? The internet ate an email yesterday and I have one person who would love to join, but I have no one left to swap with.....

Come on, if you missed the deadline and are kicking yourself, this is your chance. For speed's sake, email me at mortimersmom @ gmail dot com

PLEASE READ: AT THIS POINT, THE ASSIGNMENTS HAVE BE MADE. I REALISED TODAY THAT ABOUT 6 PEOPLE WERE CAUGHT IN THE SPAM FILTER AND I EMAILED THEM. If you haven't received either a swap assignment OR an email from me today about being caught in the spam filter, then I DIDN'T GET YOUR EMAIL and you aren't on the list..... please contact me ASAP if you feel you emailed me and I didn't get it. I will close this swap tonight at 9 pm Eastern, for good. I am really trying to make sure I didn't miss anyone and went through all the spam folders to make 100% sure.... but at some point, I have to close it and just hope I dind't miss anyone.

The Swap is ON!

The swap is ON, swappers! We are 32 in total. So I split it down the middle, 16 each and gave Bobbi Jo, my Texas roomy and new BFF half the names. We called them group A and B (I'm SUPER creative, can't you tell) and this is what we did.

I assigned each person in group A a recipient from Group B and Bobbi Jo assigned each person from Group B a recipient in Group A. This way, even I don't know who is making me a quilt!

Let's keep it secret for now. We can start revealing ourselves half-way through, or when you are done your quilt if you get it done early. Or keep it a secret til the end, I don't care!

I will post reminders right here on Ubercrafty, and I will email everyone half-way through and a week before the May 31 deadline.

If you need to send a secret email to your recipient, you can go through me or Bobbi Jo, whoever sent you your partner assignment.

Have fun! and remember: Try something new and be nice!

There is still time!

I am giving you guys one last day to sign up! Not that we don't have enough people, we have passed the 25 mark, but I just want to make sure everyone who wants to got a chance to sign up. So I will extend sign up til tomorrow, Tuesday April 8th, at 5 pm my time. Then tomorrow night, I will send the swaps out.

DO IT!!!!!! SIGN UP! email me at mmsquiltswap@gmail.com. Include your name, email, home/mailing address, blog or flickr page and a name if you don't want to use your real name online.

a button and a flickr page

so, the name is a bit long, don't  you think? Since I liked my idea of turning lemons into lemonade, I think we should call the swap with the longest name in the world the Lemonade Stand Doll Quilt Swap.

I created a little image to use as a button, but I don't know how to create the code for it. So feel free to steal the graphic from here and if someone knows how to do a code, email me or put it in the comments.

  If it's too big to be a button, you can to either resize it or somehow display it smaller.

also, i created a flickr group for us: Lemonade Stand Doll Quilt Swap. Feel free to join and start talking to each other, I'll be away til Sunday night. I'm going to send out the swap assignments on Tuesday.

Swap is still open. There is still time to join!!!!!!

Announcing the Quilt Swap with the longest title in the world

I was going to wait til next week to do this, but strike when the iron is hot as they say.....

Announcing the:

Anyone Can Join, All Skills-Level Welcomed, Might Be Used By An Actual Child, Doll Quilt Swap.

The rules are very simple:

• Be nice!
• Anyone can join (yes, even you-know-who!)
• Quilts can be any size
• You should really try something new (a new technique, a new color palette, a new type of fabric, actually finishing a quilt, whatever!)
• Be nice!
• Promise to receive the quilt in the spirit with which it is intended and to be thankful for the finished product, whatever it may be
• Be prepared to watch your quilt be used by an actualy child/doll. Or not. Because if you don't have a child or doll, you CAN STILL PARTICIPATE!
• Try your best and DO NOT STRESS OUT if it's not perfect.
• Be nice!

to join, email me at mmsquiltswap@gmail.com. Send me your name, address and the name you want to use during the swap (only your swapee needs your personal details) along with a blog or flickr pool. (or not! even if you don't have one, YOU CAN STILL PARTICIPATE!)

I will leave sign-ups open for a full week, until end of day next Monday, April 7th. I will take everyone. If we get 5 people, great! If we get 50, I'll draft some of my unwilling buds and split it into smaller, more manageable groups. You will receive your swapee assignment no later than Tuesday night. And because I hope to get a bunch of beginners and procrastinators, I will give you until May 31st to finish your quilt.

So you have no excuse! Join!

EDITED TO ADD: As of the first night, we are already 9! Yeah! It's the little swap that could!

Sticking to what I know: pretty dresses

I need to deal with the recent stress by making something. That's what I do. I'm a MAKER, a DOER.

for days now, I have this dress in my bloglines. I am in love with this dress rom Pink Chicken.

So today, I grabbed a vintage Vera pillowcase that I have been holding onto for years and attempted to replicate the pattern. It's still not completely there. It needs to be shorter, and somehow, more rushed in the neckline. But I have the perfect fabric for the girls and I'm going to give it another try this morning. In the meantime, BB is just too happy to wear her pillowcase-come-pattern dress. It just happens to have yellow, which she LOVES and she was already dressed like a duckling this morning, sporting yellow from head to toes!