Yesterday two more squares found their way to me, buried under a pile of last-minute gift packages from Amazon.com. It seems like this was the week of quilts involving photo transfers, so I'm pretty psyched. I'm a bit of a nut for taking digital images and printing them on fabric, so these squares are especially close to my heart. Check 'em out:


This first square is from Enya Grave of the Ft Wayne Derby Girls. This is the first group photo that's made it onto the quilt - excellent idea! I love the embroidery too.

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This letter came from a derby mom, who created a block for her daughter, Dead Lee Crush. She's a new skater for the Denver Roller Dolls, and apparently she has a very supportive mom. Hooray for awesome derby parents!



That's all for today, but I've been told that more are on the way. I also have a whole CD of photos of the quilting bee taken by the one and only Xena ParadoX, my teammate, longtime friend, and also a very patient and accommodating photographer. Expect to see those once my final paper for grad school is finished and my vacation officially starts. :D

-- Post From My iPhone

Gifts from the Snow Day Fairy

Although I've been holed up in my apartment this weekend (damned grad school finals!) I did enjoy a few surprises. The first was a snow day on Friday (more time to work on my paper... huzzah) and the second was a very full mailbox. The following three quilt squares arrived yesterday morning:



Covalent Bondage from Central Arkansas Roller Derby sent in a square for her league. At first she was worried about it being too large, but 8" x 8" is really only a suggestion, so it's all good. Nothing about derby is cookie-cutter, and it wouldn't be right if every square were exactly the same size! This big and beautiful square will fit right in with GTA's league square, Dee Claw's personal square, and the oversized square I'm working on for Sarah Doom.



This one comes from Frag Doll of the Green Mountain Derby Dames. Rock on with your awesome embroidery! I dig the use of the Sublime Stitching roller derby embriodery pattern, and being a Nutcracker, I'm a huge sucker for pink tulle. :D



Last, but far from least, is this square from Cherry Madness of the Sacred City Derby Girls. This is dedicated to her crazy ankle injury back in September. Here are the details in her own words:

I broke my leg at practice 3 weeks ago yesterday. I have enclosed the x-ray for you to view. It rocks. 1 plate, mutilpe screws and pins. I had a 17mm dislocation of my ankle and 2 separate fractures in my fibula. Per one of my ortho surgeons, I pushed myself so hard that my ankle just exploded. Nice to know my body established a boundary. :] "

As sorry as I am to know her ankle exploded, I'm thrilled to have an x-ray make it into the quilt. This square is so marvelously bad-ass. Thanks Cherry!

Two more squares from this past week

It's been a very busy week, quilt-wise. I got a few in the mail, was given some in person, made some myself, and hosted a quilting bee to get a few more squares from my league-mates. Many are still in the works, and I'm awaiting a CD of images from the bee. For now, you'll have to be happy with the following two lovely squares.

First, from the Dockyard Derby Dames of Tacoma, Washington:

Each of their home teams is represented: the Marauding Mollys, the Femme Fianna, the Trampires, the Hellbound Homewreckers, and their travel teams too. I love the different team logos!

... and this square from Killary Clinton, a freshmeat skater who joined BDD after reffing for another league.

She gave this to me as a birthday present at my surprise party. I can't get over the precise lettering, or the clean lines on the derby girl figure. Check out those button-wheels! Holy crafty, Batman.

More pics will come when I get more. I also hear I have a few packages in the mail too. Until then, check out this image of the quilt so far:


-- Post From My iPhone

London Rockin' Rollers!

Purple Veexen kindly sent two squares from across the pond! Anytime I see the words "air mail" I get stupid excited. I'm always psyched to get stickers and fliers, so these will definitely have to find their way onto some of my derby things. I'm running out of room on my water bottle, so maybe I should get some kind of hard-sided skate case?




This square represents the league itself: London Rockin' Rollers. I dig the leopard print!




Naturally, her personal square had to be about as purple a square as is physically possible. Nice work, lady! It looks like the same purple as your hair in your ref bio photo!




-- Post From My iPhone

New location!

I switched blogs to make the quilt project easier to find. I transferred all of the old posts, but the comments up to this date are still at the old blog. If you're actually that curious about the comments, go here:

angryrobotrollerderby.blogspot.com


Otherwise, take a moment to write some new comments to make this blog even more interesting!

I got a wonderful package in the mail yesterday from Dagney Taghurt of the Burning River Rollergirls. First of all, it said "Hell Yea" on the back, so that made me smile:




Second, it was filled to maximum capacity with tons of awesome little freebies:




Third, the letter she included was incredibly informative and heartfelt, explaining the symbolism behind every stitch and piece of fabric.



And last but not least, it contained three gorgeous quilt squares! The first represents their Black and Blue annual fundraiser.




The teams play a bout made up of a Black team and a Blue team (mixed players from all the teams) and the freshies play full-contact musical chairs. The graphic is from the shirt design that was heavily featured for the event. This was Taghurt's first event as Director or Bout Production, so I can understand why she'd make such a killer square to represent it.





This one is her personal square. She's on the Rolling Pin-Ups and the All-Star travel team. The "Big Wild Girl" is a good fit for her because she's just that, and the "wow" is because she's known as the "Wall of Woman." The two stars are for the two years she's been with the league.



This last square represents the whole league. It features the league Hazard logo and celebrates the 4 teams: the Hard Knockers (pink/black), Rolling Pin-Ups (polka dots/green), Hellbombers (black/red),and Cleveland Steamers (red/blue). The BRRG travel team is represented by the blue/orange.




I want to end this entry with a direct quote from Taghurt's awesome letter. It explains the tremendous amount of thought and significance that went into each element:

About the elements: The polka dot fabric is from my first year uniform. You can see pictures of that super cute but difficult to skate dress on BRRG's flicker site. I've included some extra for borders. I tried to make sure that 3D elements were placed toward the center so that you didn't have much trouble putting the patches together. All shoelaces I've worn through the past two years. When I started Derby I weighed 257lbs. The denim is from an old pair of jeans that I can no longer wear. I used to wear a size 22, I'm now comfortable in a 14. YEA DERBY!"

- Post From My iPhone

Yay East Coast!

This square just arrived from Maine Roller Derby. Thanks, Graceless Kelly. This skater-turned Ref made this lovely square:



-- Post From My iPhone

Three more squares

Hooray for more mail! This week I received a donation from my own league and two from abroad. Check 'em out:


This square came from Bloodbath Bettie, one of my teammates on the Nutcrackers. Also, her little sister is the team's mascot, and she's represented on here too. Did you ladies use puff paint???




The next two came all the way from Toronto. The Gta rollergirls sent a square to represent one of their teams as well as a larger panel representing their league as a whole.



-- Post From My iPhone

I lied. One more.

This one comes from Tink Again, formerly of Mississippi Rollergirls, and presently of the Dixie Derby Girls in Huntsville, AL.

I'm BDD's featured rollergirl!

I'm the featured rollergirl on the Boston Derby Dames site! Great writeup of the quilt, too...

The quilt so far

-- Post From My iPhone

So much mail

Seriously, people... I need to get a bgger mailbox for my poor parents. They're getting bombarded with packages! I'm so grateful that they've been kind enough to accept my mail. I figured things were less likely to get lost/stolen from their mail slot that my open front porch...


Anyway, on to the squares themselves. This week I got squares from home and from afar, hand-delivered and through air mail, small packages and large... You get the picture. Let's start with the local fare:





Jodie Faster gave this to me at tryouts this weekend. It's a piece of her Wicked Pissah sweatshirt from her days as a kick-ass jammer. This year she retired from skating and joined our Ref team instead, and she felt that this piece of her BDD experience would be a good fit for the quilt.





Etta Maims also gave this to me at tryouts, so I guess it was a Pissah-studded evening. Hers is a piece of a Pissah shirt with some fabulous bedazzled details. So sparkly, so very Maims.




Bazooka Joe sent this lovely collection of patches from Pioneer Valley Roller Derby. This mixed women's and men's league rocks the army green like nobody's business. I had uniform envy when I saw them bout this summer. I love the look of this square, and I loved the stickers and pins included in the package too. :D




Anne Persand sent me this lovely square from PVRD as well. Now their ref team is represented too! I love the color scheme and lettering. Those Pioneer Vally peeps have style.... I'm dying to go visit them to get to know more of these local people who have been so kind as to indulge my quilting obsession.





This square made it's way up from Syracuse, NY thanks to the lovely Princess Impaler. I'm in love with the red fishnets on denim. New York is really stepping up - first Queen City, now Assault City. Maybe Gotham will be next? :D

Last, but by no means least, is the"holy crap!" moment of the week. Jodie Faster came up to me at Ruby Khan's Halloween party and handed me an envelope. "You got an interesting package from England. This came to the league's P.O. Box this week." Confused, I took a small, soft package from her and opened it up to reveal a surprise quilt square from abroad.



All the way from England, it's the quilt's first square from outside of the US. They found me without even knowing my mailing address. How's that for dedication? Thanks Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames! I was over the moon when I got this square. I'm thrilled to receive derby love from so far away.

That's it for this weekend. I've been told I have more packages on the way from other far away places, so more on that when the mail-dude arrives. Phew. My thumbs need a break from all this iPhone blogging. I'll try to post a shot of the whole quilt when I get home. It can finally cover my bed now...

-- Post From My iPhone

Four more squares!

Hooray! This weekend I got married (well... In a public ceremony as opposed to the private one this summer) and I got four surprise wedding gifts:



This square was given to me in person by a member of my wedding party. Xena ParadoX (you know, like Zeno's Paradox) made this to represent the infinite number of half-distances a jammer has to cross before passing her.





She also gave me this, passed on through her from the fabulous Dee Claw.

When I got back from the reception (which was a Halloween-themed costume party at a roller rink) my mom gave me a package from the Queen City Roller Girls of Buffalo, NY. How amazing is this embroidery?






What a bad-ass weekend. Marriage, love, costumes, skating, fun, friendship, and quilt squares. Oh, and cake. Lots of cake.

-- Post From My iPhone

New contributions!

Thank you Wender Bender! These fabulous squares represent her league, her team, herself, and Roller Durance. Way to generate quilt squares, lady!

I have mail!

Apparently a package addressed to "Dreadnought" is sitting on the kitchen table. This will be the longest parent teacher night ever...


-- Post From My iPhone

New Squares!

I got some new squares over the past few months. Here is a belated update:

Maude Forbid screen printed a Boston B Party shirt to represent our B Team:

EZ Bake Shovin' retired this year, but she donated a square because she's just that fabulous:

This is a square-in-progress made up entirely of used track tape from one of our summer bouts:

Death by Roxy sent this from Vermont. It's made up entirely of used skate laces. Brilliant idea:

This is a uniform piece by the lovely ladies of NHRD:

And finally, a shot of the quilt as it is right now in its safety-pinned-together state:

I may have created a monster.

How have things been going in quilt-land, you ask? Since my decision to base my MSAE thesis project on roller derby has been approved, it's been going almost freakishly well. The panel that reviewed my benchmark presentation was pretty gung-ho about the quilt, and I've been given the go-ahead to go bat-shit crazy with this until my thesis show next year. Ever since last week it's been a quilt-o-rama at the Dread household, and then I got the crazy idea to email everyone I could possibly think of who's life has been touched by roller derby.

I spent the better part of three hours on Monday emailing every single league on the western half of the US in the hopes of getting a few more squares for the quilt. Over the past three days I have received over a hundred responses. Many are "I'll post this to my league and hopefully someone will contact you", which is simply fabulous. However, quite a few have been significantly more awesome. Thanks to everyone who has responded, but special thanks go to these three anonymous leagues:

"... can I have your mailing address and I'll send it out this week!!!"

"Oh, you're so lucky the crafter on our league also maintains the MySpace!"

"I can easilly put together a few squares to send off for you to add, but what I would really like to do is contribute a whole panel..."

I've simply taken to squealing every time I hear the little "ping" of my inbox getting another email. Tonight I'll hit the eastern half of the country, and I'll use this weekend to work on contacting international leagues. In my fantasy world, every state and every country will be represented on the quilt. That might be too much to ask, but a girl can dream...

Good news on the quilting front

Miss Print of the Cincinnati Rollergirls was kind enough to blog about the quilt project. Thanks Roller Derby Diva!

I just got my first square in the mail today. Zsa Zsa GaBoom was kind enough to create the following square:



Yay quilt! I hope that this is the first of many such packages.

My voice may be gone, but the quilting goes on!

I have laryngitis. Boo! This makes it very hard to teach, especially when my final projects happen to be fairly complicated and require a lot of explaining... this makes me sad. It's too bad that my "cries of anguish" are limited to making little fart noises with my mouth. Pthbbbbt on my lack of a voice. PTHBBBBT.

One thing is cheering me up like crazy, though. I've just started getting emails from some Kansas City Roller Warriors who are donating to the quilt. Yay for contributions from afar! I'm beyond excited to get quilty-goodness from skaters I've never met. My fantasy is to have this quilt be filled with squares from skaters and refs from across the country. Hopefully this will become a reality soon.

The emails keep coming

My inbox has gotten insane over the past few days because of this whole quilt situation. Waking up to 65-plus emails makes me feel so special. :D It looks like I'll be quilting my giant buns off for the rest of the summer. I suppose I'll be needing that thimble after all.

Want to see the quilt so far?