City Girl Quilt: Partially Done!

I worked on my City Girl quilt top yesterday.  I just have to add my borders, but I was too excited about what it looks like to wait on posting it!  It’s definitely BUSY, but I think it looks awesome! 

The 12 blocks in the center are the blocks made by the group members.  I made the blocks around the perimeter as test blocks out of my fabric before I made blocks for others.  I wanted to make sure I could sew the blocks and also that they turned out to be 12.5″

I doubt I’ll do another Craftster block swap.  I’m too picky about my blocks.  I like the backs to look as good as the fronts; all the seams to align; and the size to be right!  Some people’s workmanship was just crappy.  Most of the problems I had, though, were with the block sizes.  One was 13″ big, and in trimming it down, I lost all of its points; 3 were almost too small at 12-1/8″ (or less)–they were usable but with very, very shallow seams that I’m going to try reinforcing with Steam-A-Seam; and I had one block that was 12-1/2″ one way and only 12″ the other–completely unusable (I’m going to have to put it on the back).

Next, I have to add the borders, and I’m going to use my left-over scraps of fabric to add to the back.  I think that will look really cool.

Craftster Block Swap

Above are all of the blocks that I made for other people in the Craftster.org block swap.  I think I did a good job!

Craftster Block Swap

The Craftster Block Swap has come to a close.  One girl was VERY late sending, but yesterday I got the block she sent me.  One other girl is a complete no show from the beginning.  She was in all three groups and kept everyone’s fabric.  I called her a flaker and a loser on the board, and made some people mad.  Oh well…  I call it like I see it.  I’ve pm’d her (and so have several other people).  I googled her Craftster username and found out her e-mail address so I also e-mailed her.  Someone found out her home phone number and one of the swappers got up enough nerve to call her (but had to leave a message).  One of the organizers even sent her a letter.  All of which she has ignored.  People are actually posting that they want to give her the benefit of the doubt.  She hasn’t communicated with the board since July 23 and the deadline to send was October 1!  Wake up, folks!  This girl totally STOLE our fabric.  I hope she’s not dead.  I’d rather her be alive and okay and ignoring us then dead or hurt and unable to communicate.

Anyway, above are the blocks that I made myself and that people made for me.  Of the ones that people sent me, I don’t have photos for two of them.  This is going to be a very pretty quilt when I get it all sewn together.

Card Party Cards

The gang is getting together in November for another card party!  This time I let everybody choose the cards they wanted to make.  I’m glad I did because I would have chosen a mix of cards that makes sense (2 baby, 2 birthday, 2 thank you, 2 wedding, 1 blank and 1 get well), but that didn’t suit their needs.  They decided the fairest way was for each person to choose 2 cards to make.  They chose mostly birthday, thank you and blank cards. 

I orginally intended to have Christmas cards put together to show them.  However, in hindsight, I’m SOOOOO glad I didn’t have the Christmas ones ready yet because this way I “booked” this card party, PLUS I get to sell them some Christmas cards, too!  They probably would have skipped these cards altogether if I’d had Christmas cards ready.

Christmas Cards

Laura asked me to design some simple Christmas cards that she can make and send this year so I did!  And they’re cute!  And, best of all, she LOVES them!  I was worried that they were too simple, but decided they needed to be that simple because if she’s going to be making 50, they can’t be too complicated or she’ll get frustrated and give up.

Anyway, I made a “card menu” with the price per card, a description plus any notes about each one.  Most of the cards are $2/card; a couple are $2.25 each; a couple more are $2.50 each; and the acrylic snowflake is $3/card. 

The notes inlcuded the type of glue (besides glue stick) that’s required to finish the card and a couple said that I could include a printed greeting on the outside at no additional charge.  All cards are blank inside, but I can print a greeting inside the card for an additional $0.10 extra per card.

Other additional charges:  5×7 envelopes (so they can send a 4×6 photo with their card) is an additional $0.10 per card and 5×7 sized cards can be made for $1 more per card.  I also let them know I can buy tape squares dispensers, scrapbook adhesive and white glue for them if they want me to.  I won’t make any money off of that, but that way they know they’ll be getting exactly what they need to make the cards.

Now I’m just waiting to find out which cards Laura wants to buy.  She’s passed the samples off to Amy and next Cynthia will get to see them.  We’re going to all get together sometime in November to listen to Christmas music, drink hot chocolate and make our cards.  How fun is that?