Happy New Year everyone! It's already Jan 2nd here in Australia and I've been working on the blocks I've already received. Today I'm posting photos of Tara's block (tdsully) from "Make a Wish"

This was how Tara's block began. Then I cut it into four 7" squares and matched each square with my own material, sewed either side of the diagonal and cut apart on the diagonal to form 8 new blocks: 4xA blocks and 4xB blocks

I just wanted to post a reminder about a few of the new rules for this year. I understand that at least one person received a block or blocks that were not within 1/4" of the size the block should be. This is the first year we have had this rule, but keep in mind that later in the year the quilter will be trying to sew these blocks together and it is hard to make the seams match up properly if you have a size discrepancy. I have had this problem when I was on the receiving end in the past. I also know it is hard to complain when someone lovingly made a block for you, but please remember when you make these blocks that you should send the very best block that you can so it can easily be sewn into the quilt that the recipient wants to make later this year.
Also, please allow for an adequate seam allowance. The standarad seam allowance is 1/4" inch so cut the pieces accordingly. Try to make sure that the edges of your block match where the seam joins the pieces together. Although we had not mentioned this, when you cut out the pieces for the blocks, trim away any edges that were marred in production -- the salvage and those little places where the fabric is either woven very tightly or the edges that have tiny holes in them. (I guess that's to keep the bolt of fabric moving as it is printed or dyed.)
I don't want to make this sound like we are complainers and off to a bad start. Just remember that we are all trying to do our best.
I think we mentioned before that Kristene and I are taking turns being responsible for the months so I am overseeing January, although you can certainly contact her this month as well.
I will be traveling at the end of January so there will be a few days when you can't reach me. My older daughter is having triplets in the Spring so my younger daughter and I are traveling to be hostesses for a baby shower. Their three little boys will arrive in 2011! (You can bet you will hear it from me when they are here. It's very exciting.)
Keep me posted on how the "sending and receiving" is going. We would like you to report the status for what you have received a few weeks after your birthday. You can, of course, post that on your thread if you like - we are a curious group - or for the month of January, send e-mail to me so with all this "busy-ness" I keep up with it like I should.
Okay - lots to do so I will end this for now. I didn't mean to go on and on. LOL I am thinking of each one of you and hope the New Year is treating you well.
Jeanne

Jeanne, thanks for posting this. I'm going to assume that if a block is 'off' in size you'll let the sender know (discreetly, of course) so they can work on correcting the problem and replacing the block. I would hate to think I sent something, believing it was OK, only to have it be unusable by the quilter.

Kate

From the feedback I have gotten all the blocks received except for one were the right size so I am going assume it was mistakenly sent that way and the quilter forgot to measure at the end of the process. The recipient just wants to deal with it and not upset anyone since this happened one time. I will contact that quilter by e-mail if I hear another person has received a block that was not within the size limitations because our rules are to remake the block if it is not right.

Thanks for what you said though, Kate. Your reaction is the reason I hate to post something like that as a general message, but let's just call this a reminder to the group. I'll bet yours was carefully measured and just the right size.

As for general information, a little bit off (1/4") is okay, but if anyone sewing a block is truly off on the size, take a deep breath and maybe rip out and resew some seams - or if necessary, just start over. Our biggest concern for now will be if anyone has not sent. If it is a few weeks after the birthday and the birthday quilter has not received from someone, that person will hear from me or Kristene and we will want to know what happened. Was the block sent, lost in the mail, or whatever.

It's hard to believe that the block I sent to Kristene took 21 days to reach her! Wow, talk about the "slow boat"...

Jeanne

Kristene, your block is winging it's way to you even as we speak. This will be an interesting quilt, I'm looking forward to seeing it finished.

beverly

Just thought I'd write some information about the floods and bushfires in Australia!
This country is almost as wide as the US so while Western Australia presently has bushfires, the Easten States have the worst floods for at least 40 years, if ever. At first the flooding in Queensland (North Eastern State) was as large as Germany & France combined, but now it's even larger. Every day more and more towns are involved. Toowoomba had a flash flood, like an inland tsunami, with an 8 foot wall of water coming along and taking everyone by surprise - right down the main street. It washed cars away and houses off their foundations with people inside! And it hasn't stopped raining all this time so the rivers continue to rise and the water continues to flow downstream to flood the next town. Yesterday the capital city of Queensland, Brisbane, was flooded - even in the Central Business district. Power was turned off and people told to evacuate from the high rise buildings cause the lifts & lights were out, water and sewerage were affected also. Now all this water is coming down stream into New South Wales (the state where I live), South Australia and Victoria. I live in a city called Orange and we don't have a river go through our city, so we are quite safe, but an hour East and West of us there are rivers and they will flood. Our house is built on a hill, so we are safe, but the ones who are in a bad way are the Primary Producers - whether that be farmers who grow crops, farmers with sheep, cattle, pigs etc, orchards, vineyards, sugar cane, tropical fruit plantations. We've just come through 9 years of drought, with no decent crops, we got some rain around Christmas and crops came on, then locusts, now floods have wiped everything else out.
Now there are 2 cyclones forming - one off the West Australian Coastline and one off the Queensland Coastline. If they cross the coast and join together as a rain depression, then we'll get even more solid rain come on down into NSW.

I am safe and well and should remain so
Kristene (tinyteena)

Kristene~Thank you for explaining the floods occurring in Australia. I have been following the devastation in your country. Everyday that you post, I assumed you were safe :)
My heart goes out to those who are in danger!
Please keep us informed.....and Thanks again (also Jeanne) for your HUGE contribution to the BD block organization.
Stay safe and dry.

Kristene, I hope the flooding stops really soon. More and more is being shown about it on TV here and it is horrible. So many parts of the world are having dangerous weather incidents. Here we sit in snow and ice in South Carolina. That is very unusual. I believe I got my numbers right and we have had snow 4 times in the past 12 months. Schools have been closed all week so far. I'm sure they are worried about ice on rural roads and that's where we are. LOL

Also, if I can shift gears a bit here, Kate has shown how she would like the white fabrics to be placed for her Birthday Block. It is under the heading with her name and birthday here on the forum so if you are in her group, take a look.

Jeanne

I was going to do the following just on my own and decided to open it up to other quilters who might want to join in. I'm calling it my Over 50 Challenge. There is nothing special for you to do other than at the end of each month you can e-mail me with your first name and the number of unfinshed quilts you completed that month.

I will be happy to have you join in and keep a list on my blog. I thought this might give us incentive to finish things this year! (The list will not be for only the Birthday Block Exchange members, but I thought this might be fun for us to be included. I can add a BBE after your name if you will remind me you are part of the Birthday Block Exchange when you send in your total.)

If you want to view this from time to time, my blog is at: http://arkangels.info/blog.

I also post pictures there of the Birthday Blocks that I make (after they have been received and opened by the birthday person, of course. I don't want to ruin any surprises.) Some people have no way to add photos of what they receive --- although please try, we love to see pictures!

So here is what is posted on my blog:
UFO's of the Year
January 11, 2011

The quilt guild I belong to is having a UFO Challenge. We submit a list of our unfinished projects and we get a chance at a door prize at the monthly meetings in 2011 as long as we have completed one on the list each month. I was not going to tell you how many are on my list, but I decided to say that it is over 50 so I am going to give myself an Over 50 Challenge for this year! Does anyone want to join in? The goal is to complete over 50 unfinished quilts during 2011. I will post each one as it is completed.

How did this happen? It seems I get interested in every technique and class that there is and then come home with my half finished project and get started on something new. Those projects have really piled up and it has been over about a 10 year period so it is not like I started 50 new quilts in one year and did not finish them. (There, I said that to make myself feel better!)

Anyway, I will keep you posted on how many I complete and will post some pictures here as they get completed. If any quilters anywhere want to e-mail me at the end of each month and say they completed a quilt or quilts and the number they completed, I will be happy to keep a tally (by first name and state or country) here so we can see how much gets accomplished!

Jeanne

In case you are wondering how to count if something is an "unfinished quilt" for the Over 50 Challenge, it goes somewhat like this. Obviously, no one is going to go to your house and check on the status.

If you have the pattern picked out and bought fabric in order to make a quilt (or something like a quilted purse or tote bag or jacket) or began to make any of those or took several steps in planning it like a completed sketch and fabric to use for it - it can count as "unfinished" as far as I am concerned. It also counts if it is almost finished (like all you need to do is add a label or a sleeve) and then you finish it, so maybe that explains a bit why my number is so high. You are welcome to count yours the same way.

I hope some will join in --- although maybe you should hope you don't have that many. I really admire people who start and complete one thing before they go on to the next - so "not me" though! LOL

Jeanne

I received the new keepsake quilting catalog in the mail today! It's got a lot of ideas and great kits in it, I just wish I had the time! Lol, oh well, maybe just two or three would be okay?

I'm sure to join in the UFO Challenge with you Jeanne. I haven't counted how many I have to finish because there's too much mess with our moving to work out just yet, but I will do it soon. I know I have 3 quilts waiting for the labels to go on, 2 to be quilted, at least one to be bound and a wall hanging to be finished. Then my birthday quilt for this year which I would like finished definitely before the end of the year! Only 3 more blocks to arrive and I will have all 24.

Here is Faye's block (faytay) from Ribbons & Bows). This is how it started.

I tried smaller size photos this time, but couldn't get the next to ech other. Any suggestions Kate?

Kristene (tinyteena)

If you don't hit 'enter' between each image posting it should run together in one long line. I think you can do a 'space' but an 'enter' will move it down. Does that make sense?

Kate

Great thanks Kate, will just use the space bar between the photos next time. Is the smaller size photos a better size to use or should I use one size larger? I know the first ones I used are far too large, it just took me a while to work out how to resize them.
Kristene

Kristene,
In the past GW asked for photos to be no larger than 850 pixels and that will get you a good inbetween size. Hope that helps.

Teresa

Another photo tip: you don't have to repost if you want to make your photos smaller! Just go back to Photobucket (or where ever you posted them from) and change the size there. Your pictures aren't really on this forum, they remain on your photo hosting site with just a link here to the photos there. So anything you do to them there, shows up here. If you delete them or move them on Photobucket, then the link is severed and your photos won't show up here anymore.

Remember though that you can't ever make them bigger again. Once reduced in size they can't get larger.

Kate

Thanks Teresa and Kate for all this great advice on photos. You're right, Kate - it is addictive!

Kristene

I like the pics a little bigger - maybe it is my eyes :)
I like being able to see the details of the sewing and the fabric.

Today is the last of the January birthdays for the Birthday Block Exchange group. (Happy Birthday, Andrea!!!)
As you may remember, Kristene and I are alternating months for being the hostess for that month so I am the hostess for January. If all the January birthday quilters will e-mail me a few weeks after your birthday to let me know the status of which blocks have been received, that will be a big help so I can check on any that may not have been received. We really want to stay on top of things. Hopefully your report will be that all of your blocks were received.
I hope everyone has managed to fit in a little sewing this month. My older daughter is expecting triplets this Spring so I have been busy making two baby quilts and Andrea (dragonflyUSC) - who is my younger daughter - made the third one. We are headed to CA soon for the baby shower and I will post pictures of the quilts after I come back. I don't want to spoil the surprise.
It has been cold here and we have gotten snow twice since Christmas so that has been an adventure. Of course, when there was ice on the roads was when my sewing maching started to misbehave. Isn't that how it always goes? I struggled along with it and managed to get it through the two baby quilts so hooray for that!
I'll be back to "visit" with you soon.
Jeanne