A long long time ago I signed up for a swap where each person makes a row for everybody else's quilt. We started by making the first row of our own quilts and then posted this to the next person who would add a row and so on. At the end we should all get a quilt back with 6 rows made by 6 different people.

So the theory goes anyway. So far this has been a swap of mixed feelings for me. At the very beginning I just could not decide what I wanted for my row. Did I want a theme? Would that end up too twee? Did I want houses? But then what would I do with it when finished? Finally I decided to use my feathered friends fabric and make "Spring Twirls". I slaved over the blocks to get all my points lined up and everything perfect. Then I sent it off bang on the deadline to the next on the list.

And I heard nothing. Not a peep. After a few emails and a few weeks, I finally heard from that she had received my blocks and had been out of town but had been working on the row. She would post them to the next person on next Wednesday. Great I thought. Phew I am glad my work was not lost.

Then I heard nothing. No photos in flickr, no email. The next on the list had not received my row. This is over a month ago. So I sent another email asking that she just post my original work either back to me or to the next on the list. Again nothing.

Now I am resigned to the fact that my work is lost. But I have to say it makes me sooooo mad. It is one thing to not follow through with a swap you have signed up for but quite another not to return somebody's work to them. I really am extremely annoyed.

Anyway, I had agreed with Carrie (the person sending to me) that she should wait until she had a few rows together before posting to me. I was going to be on holiday and it made more sense for her to mail everything together when I got back. And true to word when I got back from the UK in May a package was waiting for me with 3 rows!

Carrie is using this quilt as inspiration. She wanted a row with a single flower. Sorry for the appalling photo but I was in such a rush to get this finished and into the post.



I found it quite a challenge to make this row. Working on such a scale was hard to get the overall picture of how the block would turn out and also to make sure everything was lined up etc. I have no long rulers which made it particularly hard!

Bobbi wanted a row using kelly green and mid blue. Angela had already made wonky log cabins and Carrie had made a row with squares and rectangles so I added some zig zags.



Angela wanted something circular if possible. She had already started her quilt with a fantastic double wedding ring and Carrie had made some great wheels for the second row. I decided to do some drunkard path circles. This time my calculations were way off and I have ended up with about a trillion spare circles! I think I will make a mini quilt out of those!



Finally as I know I will never see my twirls again, I decided to redo my row. This time I just chose the colours red, white and aqua and the theme anything goes.




Since the next on the list had flaked I felt some pressure to whip out these rows as quick as I could so that Melissa (the last on the list) could finally have something to work on. She was yet to receive a single row.

Unfortunately, after 10 days of solidly sewing, my machine and I were not on speaking terms and my row is not as well made as I would have liked (which is why I only have photos of a couple of the blocks). Not a lot of the points ended up lined up. But you know at this point I just thought bugger it. Sorry but that's how I felt. Now the whole lot is posted off I feel a bit better and once the dust settles might have another bash at both Carrie's flower and my row. But I repeat "might".

Now I am enjoying a break as I only have one row left to do!