polaroid block swap – OccasionalPiece

While the rest of us have been having a summer, my son and his wife have been having a baby: they flew to Iowa (sweet corn country) to pick up their newest son, making four in that family, and number eleven grandchild for me.

We had the older boys stay at our house, and here they are doing a little corn shucking of their own with grandpa.

Somewhere in here, I finished the quilt for Charlie, this newest grandson.

I love love the back of this fabric: Backyard Baby, and so instead of a formal label, I scattered the information within the breezy trees. (That little white dog, with its ears blowing backwards, cracks me up every time I look at it.) While I finished it up a couple of days ago, I’ve learned to write the birth month on the quilt.

This is quilt #120 on my 200 Quilts list.

But summer is always slightly ADHD with going here, going there and not staying home to clean out the garage, don’t you think? So here’s a bit more this and that:

Kris, of Duke Says Sew What, is doing another Polaroid Swap, if you want to join in. I’m slow to post this, so hurry over to her blog and leave a comment to let her know you are participating; you have until August 26th to mail in your blocks (domestic — the international mail-in deadline is a bit earlier).

Several nights this summer, my husband and I have streamed down Endeavour, the newest detective series on our iPads (we have an Apple TV), a prequel to Inspector Morse and which I like better. The star, Shaun Evans, is an interesting mix of loose ends and brilliant thinking. It also helps to have one of these to get into the mystery:

And finally, finishing up this peripatetic post, is notice of a

I attended the Long Beach Quilt Show last weekend and picked up a couple of fun things to giveaway to my readers and followers, knowing that the end of summer is coming and we can’t say good-bye to its crazy days without a little fun. Giveaways (I have more than one!) will be posted at the end of this week, and I’ll pick my winners next Monday, the 12th.

Have a nice end to your summer!

My little quilt group, The Good Heart Quilters, is having our annual retreat, and has decided to do Debbie’s Polaroid Block Swap. But we wouldn’t mind if a few of you wanted to play. I think we can handle about ten more swappers–but you have to move fast! Our retreat is the third week of July, so you’ll need to mail your intended swap blocks off by the 13th of July in order for them to arrive. Because it’s such a tight turnaround, I’m going to have to limit this to domestic quilters only–no international swapping. Leave a comment if you are interested. I’ll draw from commenters to fill out our swap.

I’m not going to reinvent the wheel, so I’ve included a lot of Debbie’s modified guidelines; above is a drawing about how to construct them, or if you like tutorials, follow the instructions set out by Capitola Quilter HERE. We’ll be making JUST the basic polaroid block – 2 1/2″ square feature print with white borders.

Important: DO NOT trim the white borders before mailing as it will help the small blocks weather the mailing to wherever they need to go. When you receive your bunch back, you can trim your swap blocks then set them any way you want to. (See some examples throughout this post.) When you see the words on Capitola Quilter’s tutorial that say: “EDIT: If you are reading this post as part of the Perfect Picture Polaroid Swap or Say Cheese Swap- please STOP HERE as they are mailed with the white UNTRIMMED,” you can stop there.

Notice in the photo at the top, the top and bottom edges extend over the sides–this is how they are supposed to look. So, in the instructions (image with the summer surfer above), don’t do Step Five.

Blocks do not all have to be the same. In fact, depending on how many swappers we have, we’d hope everyone would get a set back with no duplicates. So a variety is good! Sometimes some interesting artsy fabric will work for a swap, rather than just relying on all novelties. Please use a white-white for your block borders, such as KONA White (available at JoAnn’s).

Blocks all trimmed up (I did the trimming)

Let’s swap blocks in groups of 5 – 5, 10, 15 with a limit of 40. Do NOT send me 40 of the same block. Please send no more than two of the same design–we need a variety of blocks for a successful swap. You will receive back a random assortment of blocks – the same number as you send in. I will email you once you sign up, and then when you are ready to mail, email me and I’ll send you my address. When you send them in, put them in a plastic baggie with your name, email address and blog address, so I can keep track of who you are. Include a SASE envelope with your blocks for return mailing. No SASE? I will think you are donating them to my little quilt group, so please be mindful of everyone’s time and send it with your blocks.

The swap begins NOW, with all blocks postmarked and mailed to me by July 13, 2013, or July 15th if you are on the West Coast. (No later!)

Snapshot Quilt And here is my quilt, Snapshot!

Snapshot Closeup 2 I’ve also pulled some photos from Debbie’s Flickr site with ideas for using your Polaroid Blocks. Enjoy them here, or head over to her Flickr site to see some more.