Somehow I managed to screw up my own email. argh! Please send your sign up email to

elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com

I’m sorry. I read it over and over again (because I did the same thing last year, if you can believe it), so if you’ve sent the email, please please send it again to the correct address!

When I said I’d post the sign up on Monday morning, I of course meant Tuesday evening. Sorry. But it’s here! the 2oo9 Mobile Swap! I started this last year after putting away all my holiday decorations and feeling that my house looked so sad and empty. Well, it’s taken a little longer to get the decorations down to the basement this year, but the house is looking bare now and a pretty mobile would be just the thing to bring it back to life.  If you’d like a mobile of your very own (and try your hand at making one too) please email the following information to  elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com (edited to correct address)

Please write “mobile swap 2009” in the subject line, if you don’t I could lose your email in spamland.

1. name

2. email address

3. website (if you have one)

4. mailing address

5. favorite colors

6. whether the mobile you’d like to receive is for a baby’s room (and his or her age probably would help). If you would particularly like to make a mobile for a baby’s room, say that here.

That’s it! The mobile can be out of any kind of material using any design you can think up. Sign up by Friday January 30th and I’ll send you your partner’s information the following Monday. I’ll try to arrange it so you send to one person, but receive a package from another–just to mix it up. Packages should be sent out by Saturday February 28th. There is a new flickr group for this year,  but be sure to visit last year’s group to see all the awesome mobiles! I made two different mobile swap buttons so you get to choose between a classy lady and a dapper dude. Please copy and paste them onto your blog (or click on the pictures and it will take you to the link to use) and spread the word! Now I really need to pack up the rest of those christmas decorations.

This was my month for the one quilt project. I was pretty picky with the instructions (well I’m picky, I can’t help it) and the fabric choices were not super thrilling (unless you like gray as much as I do).  But I did ask everyone to incorporate a 3D or textural element into their block, which I was pretty excited about. Granted, I have no idea if this will even work in a quilt, but whatever. I used pleats for my block and thought it turned out well until I read my directions and had to add another strip of fabric to make it the right size. I’m going to put all the blocks in a line down the middle of the quilt. And once (if) it gets done it will go in our bedroom, because I spilled bleach all over our quilt. real swift, meg.

Dorie from tumbling blocks asked me if I’d like to help her start a quilt block swap much like the virtual quilting bee and common thread, where 11 people make a quilt block for one person each month.  Of course I said yes and many months later we actually got the thing up and running. Dorie had the first month and picked some pretty fantastic fabrics. I had the idea to do some sort of fussy cut looking at the tree print and came up with what I thought was a pretty simple design. It took much longer than it should have. Nothing big went wrong, but every single little thing did (bobbin threaded wrong, a batch of strips cut too short, out of white thread mid block, and on and on).  So finally it’s done and in the mail a day late, oh well. I don’t really have much quilting experience (here is my one and only quilt) and piecing is harder than it looks–at least for me.  This swap should get my piecing skills up to snuff. It’s my turn next (well this) month to pick the colors and eveeeeeentually make the quilt.  It’s for our bedroom because I spilled bleach all over the quilt we normally use in the summertime (it was just a store bought one, but still. damn). I only have one color in mind so far: gray. I need to get crackin.  You can check out everyone’s block at our flickr page if you like and see all the lovely ladies who are involved.

I just realized I never posted a picture of my finished mobile I made for the swap.  My partner was very patient while I got it done. From top to bottom it goes: big house, cabin, barn, ice house. I explained how I made it here and there are more pictures here and here. I’ve received some lovely comments about it on flickr and a couple requests to sell them, but I’m not sure about that. I couldn’t find my X-acto knife when I was making these, so I used a box cutter–a sharp one, but a box cutter nonetheless–so it took longer than it should have. If I get an itch to make something with paper again, maybe I’ll put one or two up for sale.

A couple of you are concerned because you never received a mobile from the swap and I’m sorry for that. It could have gotten lost in the mail like mine, or maybe your partner’s life just got in the way. I try to think of these swaps as an impetus to make something different and try not to focus too much on what you might get. I’m going to host another mobile swap next year, so hopefully it will go better (I was a little lax when it came to managing it this year–I didn’t think it would be so much work!).