February block

Having finally got my daughter home from a 2.5 week stay in hospital I was delighted to find this beautiful block in my letterbox.Made my day even better.Thank you Terry for the block, the extra fabric and the button on the tag. Love the fabrics.

Terry is also in another swap with me so here is the block I sent her along with a hexie flower in her choice of colours.

Spool Block from Sue of Scotland

I have just realised that I have not shown everyone the beautiful Spool Block that Sue has done for me. Love the choice of fabrics and colours that she has chosen for this Block. Thank you very much Sue and it has been a pleasure having you as my partner for the month.

A sad farewell and a warm welcome

Some of the members of QBSA are also members of Christmas QBSA that has been run so beautifully for more than 12 months by the lovely Crafty Pugs. 

Sadly however, we farewell Crafty Pugs as the swap mummy of this group, with a return to work one day a week and two little ones to care for she has her hands full and has found she has little time for her own crafting.

I am sure Crafty Pugs will still be a firm follower of our group and the blogs that members have, as we will be with hers.

With this, I welcome Cathy Cates as the new swap mummy for the Christmas group.  Cathy was the second member to ever join QBSA and has been with me since the first swap so its only natural that she takes over the reins.  Cathy and crafty Pugs will do their handover of the data base over the next month, and no doubt Cathy will make some changes to the group to personalise it to her style as she works through.

Please be patient with receiving your replies to any of the emails, you will be advised very soon of the new contact email for Cathy, and in the meantime you can still email me or Crafty Pugs.

A hear felt thank you and big quilted hugs to both of you, I couldn't do it without you.

Sue xx

For a lovely lady

Dear Ank in the Netherlands has had a rough trot with her block swaps due to no fault of her own.
Firstly when I was updating the data base and cleaning it all up at the beginning of this year I accidently deleted her details, which meant she missed out on a swap and had to email me everything again. (Silly me), and then this month I partnered her with someone that she was paired with late last year and tells me that this person never honoured her swap.  Now this member has let a few people down and consequently she is what caused my firm email this month, and I have since suspended that persons membership.

Short end of that long story is that I have made Ank a block as an apology of losing her details, and to make up for the missing block that she never received in August.

As it turns out Ank's son lives one street away from me in Adelaide, and Ank has been over to holiday here - so we have virtually been neighbours.

Ank loves aboriginal prints, so I made her an Amish star as I could fussy cut all of the Aussie creatures in this print that I chose for her.  Its off on its journey to The Netherlands as I write this.

My blocks for Sue

My black & white Blazing Arrows blocks  for Sue.

The technique I use for QST and FG make me units for two blocks, so I completed and send both, with a lovely pattern for the kitchen.

Hope you like it Sue !

XXX

Two blocks

I have had a productive day in the sewing room today and have made my two partners a block each

Partner #1 is Beatrice from France who requested either Army star in country colours or Strings in neutral colours. I have noticed that most people have made Bea the strings so I thought I would do the army star for her.  We are also exchanging patterns, so I hope Bea likes what I send her.

My second partner is Brenda in Ohio who has had a run of bad luck with swap partners so I wanted to make sure she got her swap ok this month.  Brenda request was a paper pieced block Storm and sea in browns, blues and green.  I am still learning paper piecing and this came out 1/2 inch undersized so I will have another try in a day or so, but still proud of my effort all the same.

Heather's block

has finally arrived in Canada. Three and a half weeks is a long time to be patient and hope it is not lost in the mail. I am so pleased my red and white block will be part of a cosy quilt on the other side of the world.

Heather asked for any block in red and white. This one includes 4 shades of red. Heather's block to me will be a little delayed - a small lesson in patience - but the wait will be worth it as I love receiving parcels from patchworkers.

They are such special gifts.

Jan



Feb Block for Cate

Sent away Cate's Block last week so hopefully it has arrived.  One of her choices was a square in square and colours were green, orange, turquoise. So I made one in green and orange. I hope you like it

Erin's block - version 4

Lovely Erin was my January Swap partner   She's the very talented person who sent me the amazing embroidered owl block in Jan.
Erin requested either an Abstraction block or a Birds in the Air block.  First I made a Birds in the Air block but somehow I ended up with an eleven and a half inch square- don't know how I managed this - so into the scrap bag it went.
So I made Abstraction but just before I popped it in the envelope I thought I'd give it one more quick press and my iron decided to leave dirty marks on it - so into the bin it went.

Next I made Abstraction again, all went well and I popped it in the post about  6 weeks ago- but it did not arrive, so it's lost in the postal system somewhere.

So today I made Birds in the Air again, this time carefully following the instructions.  Fingers crossed this one will actually make it to Erin's house.

MARCH PARTNERS

Hi lovely members,

I have just finished sending out March Partnerships, we now have a whopping 66 members with 4 newbies doing there first swap with us this month.

Join me in welcoming:

Dawnelle from Tuscan Arizona USA

Vicky from Albury New South Wales

Lisa from Decatur Texas USA and

Anna from Melbourne Victoria

As always we have a few sitting out the month and thanks to Jan in Moto NSW for being my double swap queen.  Also a big thanks to Tarnyia and Jen for doing a double swap mid month (Feb) with other newbies joining.

This was also our first Pattern swap month with 10 members taking part in this exchange
The next one will be in June so email me or post a comment if you want to take part..

April marks our second year at QBSA so stay tuned for a celebrationary birthday give away.

As always - please keep the communication open, and even if you don't post a pic of the blocks sent and received on the blog, do send an email to your partner to let them know that their block has arrived.

That's all for now

Quilted hugs, Sue xx

February Blocks

I received this gorgeous 'shabby' star from Elaine ... with a lovely card enclosed and with a little 'extra' fabric which I shall use it when I construct my quilt ... thank you so much Elaine .. I do love it ... 

and here is a sneak peek of the shoofly block I have made for you ... hope you like the bright colours ... 

what ??? sorry .. you can't see it ??? ... oh dear ... I do need to get another camera .. this one is terrible .. sometimes the pics just come out all blurry like this ... oh dear ... you will have to wait until it arrives .... I will mail it out on Monday ... 

so hopefully you should have it by Thursday ... 

My wonderful owl...

...arrived from Fiona at Bubz Rugz and I adore him.  Thank you so much Fiona.

February Blocks

I received my first Churn Dash block this month for my new collection of dashes in Civil War colours

Thanks so much Melody - I love it lots - a great start to my lovely churn dash quilt

I was delighted to make a block for Melody this month.... she asked for an owl.. or a block made from owl fabric.... this was such fun to make

Fiona 

Block From Portugal

This block came all the way from Portugal..... 

Teresa made this wonderful star block for me .  The block includes so many darling children's prints.  And she also included a wonderful little hexie flower.  Thank you so very much, Teresa!!

Hugs,

Linda G

http://straystitches1.blogpsot.com

February Blocks sent and received ;-)

Morning everyone

My block for February has arrived at Maria's place in Canada.

Here is the Star Flower block I made ;-)

Here is the block I received from Maria 

Maria requested I post a photo for her.  Thanks Maria, your block is just beautiful - black & white with a splash of red - love it ;-)

Blocks For Tarnyia...

This is the gorgeous block that I received from Michele-Marie in Queensland

Michele-Marie is a new member to QBSA and I was lucky enough to be her partner for this month...

Thank you for being my partner and thank you for my wonderful block...

Luv Tarnyia xxx

February Blocks

Last week I was pleased to recieve my February Swap Block from Isabelle in France.

I really love the Mickeys in the middle...

Thank you Isabelle.

and this is the block I made for Isabelle. She asked for a Log Cabin in Reds and Creams/Biege.

Final call for Pattern swap - and recap on posting do's and donts.

Hi everyone,

I am finalising swap partnerships for March and will be sending them out at the end of this week.

Just a reminder that March is our first pattern swap, so for those of you that are interested you will swap a pre-loved pattern with your swap partner this month as well as a quilt block.  Email me if you are interested no later than this Thursday so that I can pair off the pattern swappers and finalise swap partners.

And just a gentle reminder to keep posts and comments only on the swaps, please do not use this blog to promote your own blog or other blogs, or giveaways etc.  If you have found an exciting blog to share with us, check with me first to OK this and I will promote this for you.

Members that have blogs will be followed on the groups side bar.  Let me know if yours is not showing up (I may have missed it) and I can add it to the list.

My wish is to keep this blog purely for swap blocks and quilts made and sent for members not a big advertising circus. I trust you will honour and respect this.  Comments or posts to the contrary will be deleted.

February Block Received

I received this lovely block from my swap partner Beth in Queensland. Its "A Dandy" block! I asked for any block in red, white and black so this certainly fits the bill. Beth kindly included the pattern for the block in with it as well which is lovely as its not one I've seen before. Thanks Beth!

Beth asked for a Friendship Star in any colour on white. This is the one I sent her:

Beth has let me know that she liked the block and has already cut out some co-ordinating fabrics to add to it!

February Block from Tarnyia

Tarnyia has spoilt me this month,

Thank you so much Tarnyia, I LOVE my blocks. My favourite block as I have a Jacob.
Looking forward to March for another swap!
Hugs to all,

Richard's First Swap

Hello my name is Richard from http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/ I am brand new to quilting and brand new to block swaps and yes the is my first swap I am so excited my first ever block showed up in the mail today it is from Ank in The Netherlands my little girl squealed when she saw it and says she wants me to make her a Quilt with it.

Below is the block I sent her.  This is my first block swap and she made it easy on me and told me to pick a block I like and make any thing I hope that she loves it.  I have seen the Magic Trick block and wanted to give it a try.  I cut out 2 sets of every thing in case I totally messed up but it worked out great.

I can not wait tell next month and the next swap this was so much fun.

Thanks Richard Healey

Isabelle's block for Terri

The Lovely Isabelle from France  has asked me to share a pic of the block she has sent to Terri,  Sorry the image is quite distorted it came through quite small on the email and went blury when I enlarged it.

My First Swap

Hi everybody.  This month is my first as part of this great Aussie Block Swap group.  It has been really fun to participate and to feel apart of something in the big quilting world outside my front door.  My first partner was Tanya who made me this wonderful Nelson's Victory block in black and white.

I love the way the reverse colourway of the spots seems to start moving as you continue to stare at it. Thank you Tanya for making my first swap a pleasure.

Tanya requested either a log cabin or a star block in pastel shades of pink, green or blue.  I decided to make one of my favourite star blocks - the Memory Star.

I actually found making this quite challenging - not in the sewing of the block but in the colours I was working with.  Usually I am a brights person so it was quite a change for me to work with pastels.  However, this is all part of the fun of a swap and moving out of my comfort zone was actually quite liberating!!  I am looking forward to the March swap with eager anticipation.

Cheers,
Karen.

WE HAVE A FLICKR GROUP

Hi there,
a few members have asked about a flickr group so I have just created one.  So if you save your photos on your Flickr site you can now add them to the group pool and share them publically.

The flickr group is called Quilting block swaps Australia (no surprises there).  I have popped photos of quilts made by group members and when I get a chance I will upload the photos of blocks I have made and sent to members over the past 2 years

HERE IS THE LINK.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1920347@N21/

I will get a button on the side bar as soon as I can

Beautiful and Blue

A lovely surprise was waiting for me when I arrived home last night. This pretty blue and white star from Val.  I had completely forgotton that I was expecting this.  Val included a gorgeous lavener scented sachet stitched with music paper - just divine. And a big fun red star button I am sure I will find a use for that on one of my planned softies.

I think I have enough blue and white blocks now to play around with and create something lovely so stay tuned.

Block For Michele-Marie

Firstly a big welcome to Michele-Marie who is new to Aussie block swap...

I was lucky to be Michele-Marie first partner...

her wish was for a basket in bright colours...

Michele-Marie your block will be in the mail today...

Thank you for being one of my partners for February...

Now to make Raelene's block...

Luv T xxx

February Block from Linda in the USA

The mail man delivered my February block from QBSA. It came from Linda in the USA. This year I decided to make a friendship quilt, so I've asked for an autograph star that should be signed by it's maker. I think it will be a great quilt. This is the lovely block Linda made me

Blocks For Tarnyia...

WOW...

How lucky am I... 2 blocks from Raelene...

 I wished for either a log cabin in blue and yellow

or

a scrappy spiderweb with a grey centre...

so how happy am I to have 2...

Thank you Raelene and I love the grey fabric very cool...

Luv Tarnyia xxx

POSTING PICS ON THE BLOG

Hi Ladies, please don't be offended by this comment, but the purpose of the blog is to show case the wonderful blocks sent and received so can we ONLY show pictures of full quilt blocks made.

If you have received a number of blocks happy for you to show a grouping pic, and of course the master of all is sharing with us a quilt made from blocks received.

If you don't want to ruin the surprise of a block sent once you know it has reached its destination you can pop the pics on.

Thanks for your understanding, Sue

February block in the mail

Hi everyone

My block for February is on its way to Marie in Canada

A RUSH OF NEW MEMBERS

What a busy week for newbies - and its only Tuesday.

Since the weekend we welcome three new members:

Michell-Marie from Qld.  Michelle joined our 6 inch group last month and had so much fun she decided to join the 12 inch as well.

Kate from NSW Kate is new to blogging and I am her first follower.  Why dont you pop on over to say hi at
http://sewingscrapper.blogspot.com.au/

And a warm welcome to our first male member Richard from Salt Lake City in Utah USA.  Richard is a new quilter and keen to hone his skills. 
http://richardquilts.blogspot.com.au/

Thanks to the lovely ladies that are doing double swaps this month so the newbies can get started straight away.  If you want to be on call for double swaps let me know, I currently have 15 members on standby for when needed but I do like to share it around so I am not always calling on the same people.  With us being published  in Quilters Companion in April I may be hoping for a lot of sets of hands to help out.

Blazing arrows from Erin

My stunning blazing arrows block arrived today from my Feb partner Erin.

Erin wrote that she was quite daunted by this block when she first saw the pattern but realised that it came together quite well.  Erin you did an awesome job.

I am saving these for a sofa quilt for my girlfriend Deb, she has a stunning red sofa with black and white accessories in her family room.  I plan to use red sashings with a solid or tone on tone black border with red binding. Here are the first 6 blocks, isnt it going to look fabulous!

SWAPPERS REMINDER

Hi ladies,

just a gentle reminder to please please please measure your blocks before you send them to your partner to ensure that they are 12.5inches raw edge to raw edge.  A few members have received undersized blocks which they cannot use in their planned quilt, which as you can imagine is disappointing.

I find my 12.5inch ruler an investment that I cannot do without for squaring up blocks before I send them.
You can purchase this ruler online from here http://www.overstock.com/Crafts-Sewing/Get-Squared-12.5-inch-Outer-6.5-inch-Inner-Ruler/3128040/product.html

Also,
please let your partner know when their block has arrived, almost half of the emails I get every week are from partners not having heard that the block they have sent has arrived.  Its common courtesy to send a quick email or pop a pic on the blog.

If I have not emailed you a link to pop on the blog please email me and I am happy to do this.

Thanks, Sue

From New Zealand

Sue I received this great block from Lorraine in New Zealand. Forgot to take photo of mine but hopefully she will do it. I asked her for a block with green,white and blue To start my a quilt for my grandson. This is just perfect.

Larain

I am so in love...

...with my amazing, fabulous, wonderful owl block from Erin my other January swap partner.

Many thanks