Swap Mail and Celebrate do. Good Stitches!

Attention swappers! Packages are in the mail as of yesterday! You should be receiving your fabric in the near future. Hopefully everyone will enjoy what they got! Thank you to everyone who sent in fabric for the swap. I enjoyed hosting and will definitely be doing another one!!

Because my work schedule is so intense, my mom had the immense pleasure of taking these to the post office. She said that she received many mean glares walking in with the two laundry baskets full. Haha.  Fortunately for everyone, they were already addressed and had postage!

In other news, do. Good Stitches is having a year end bash. If you don't already know, do. Good Stitches is a charity bee comprised of 21 circles of women sewing for a cause. Rachel from Stitched in Color is the founder and Queen Bee. 

On her blog, voting has begun for the 'Best of 2012' quilt. Hop over and vote! The quilt chosen to represent the Believe circle (our circle) is super gorgeous and definitely worth seeing! And, if you completed a quilt for do. Good Stitches this year, you can enter to win a roll of batting!

I was surprised today to find out that I had been chosen randomly from our Believe circle as the winner of a gift certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics! I was so excited! I have never won anything before! Again, hop on over to Rachel's blog or do. Good Stitches and see what it is all about!

so Much mail!

When I arrived at my parent's house this past weekend, there were 27 packages piled in my room from those participating in the ColorWheel Swap. Thaaaaats a lot of mail. It was SO FUN opening them all. It was like a beautiful christmas rainbow of fabric. And amazingly, that is only half of them! For all those participating, make sure you get them in the mail by Friday. After that, I will call on my alternates to fill in what I am missing. And after that!, I will be sending all of you packages of gorgeous fabric. I promise, the submissions are so good. I am JEALOUS!

The green and gray piles are on the other side of the room. I got distracted before I could take a picture of them. That happens to me a lot. 

Thank you so much to everyone for being a part of the swap! I have loved reading your awesome notes and finding treats among those submissions. This will definitely not be my last swap!

Also, my instagram is up and running! Find it under my connect toolbar at the top right. Now, if I am not blogging, you can just check there and see what I am doing or where I am. Also, I will post pictures of projects that I am working on as well as awesome things that inspire me. I can't wait!

ColorWheel Swap

Ok everyone, after some amazing feedback, I have settled on some swap details! Lets get swapping!

This swap will be a rainbow swap using fat quarters. If you have never participated in a swap, don't worry. I will do my best to explain everything, and feel free to ask any questions that come to mind! I will probably be capping the swap at 56 people, but will take a few extras as alternates in case some people drop out (which is not uncommon). Should we not reach 56, I will have to bring the cap number down in multiples of 8. Tell all your friends so we can get full and swap tons of fabric! Also, since this is the first swap I am hosting, I am going to limit it to the US. I'm so sorry to anyone international!

To participate, you just fill out the form at the bottom of this page. I will leave sign ups open until October 10th, or until we reach our limit. On Friday, October 12th, I will send out color assignments to everyone who signed up. Once you receive your color, you are responsible for sending 8 fat quarters that are predominantly that color. For instance, if you are assigned red, you don't want to send a multi colored floral, you want to pick fabric that 'reads' as a red. You are welcome to send 8 fat quarters of the same fabric or 8 different. As long as you send in 2 yards of that color, you are qualified to swap.

Participants will have 6 weeks to send in their fabric. Once I recieve them all, I will create a package to send back to you that has one fat quarter of each of the 8 colors we are using (your own rainbow!).

Feel free to grab the button on my sidebar and post it on your blog! The more the merrier!

COLORS:

The 8 colors for this swap will be:

-red
-orange
-yellow
-green
-blue
-pink
-purple
-grey

You will get your assignments once the sign ups close so please wait until then to buy fabric!

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS:

-You must submit 2 yards (8 fat quarters) of the color assigned to you. *please cut them! I'm not sure if I can cut nearly 500 fat quarters*
-This fabric must be quilt shop fabric. Please no Hancocks, Michael's, Joann, Walmart, ect
-The fabric must be modern. If you do not know what constitutes 'modern fabric' please feel free to message me or start a thread in the flickr group. Everyone will be willing to help.
-No solids, please send print fabric only.
-Please put your fabric in a ziplock bag inside your envelope with an index card that has your name and address. Should something happen to the package, that is the easiest way to ensure the post office will get it back to you.

POSTAGE:

To participate, you will also need to include in your package, a prepaid, stamped, self addressed envelope. Padded envelopes or priority mail envelopes work best for shipping fabric. If you are not sure how much postage you will need for the return trip, have your post office weigh the return envelope with the fabric you are sending. What you receive back should be the same weight. If you use the priority mail envelopes, "if it fits, it ships!" Please make sure to send an envelope that will fit 2 yards of fabric.

THE HARD STUFF:

In order for everyone to get the most out of this swap, I will have to be a little strict about the rules. So, if your fabric does not meet the quality (100% cotton quilt shop) or type (modern print) of fabric, it will come back to you. That may sound harsh, but it is the only way to make it fair to the other 95% of people who send in the appropriate requirements. There is nothing more disheartening than receiving bad fabric in a swap, I know. Lets all send in fabulous fabric so we can all get fabulous fabric back!

CONTACT:

Please please please use a working email that you check often when you fill out the sign up sheet. This is also how you will receive your color assignment and the address to send your fabric to. Should something change where I need to contact everyone, I will need to be able to get in touch with you via your email.

FLICKR:

Here is the link to the Flickr Group for the swap. Feel free to post pictures of the fabric you are sending as well as pictures of anything you make with the fabric you receive. You are also welcome to open threads on any topic or ask any questions you need answers to!

I am very excited about this swap and can't wait to get started! If you have ANY questions, do not hesitate to ask! I will gladly answer them. Thank you for participating. I hope you enjoy!

Shall we Swap?

While the organization and planning wheels keep turning on the quilt along that will hopefully launch in a couple months, I thought it would be fun to host a swap! However, I would first like to get some opinions. I know there are a million ways to run a swap, so I figured reader input would be a great way to gauge interest on this one!

The main thing I need help deciding on is the amount of fabric to swap. I know most often people host charm swaps, but it is not always my favorite kind. Feel free to take the poll below as well as comment on the kind of swap that would most interest you! I love to hear ideas!

So lets talk options.

Option 1: Basic Charm Swap - participants would be responsible for buying a yard of fabric, cutting it into 5 inch squares (I think there are 56 in a yard) and in return they would get back 56 five inch squares

Option 2: Layer Cake Swap - similar to the charm swap, only with 10 inch squares. You would send 12 if it is a 1 yard requirement and get 12 in return.

Option 3: Fat Quarter Swap - participants would be responsible for sending 2 yards, cut into 8 fat quarters, and would get 8 fat quarters in return

I personally am drawn towards option 3 because I use a ton of fat quarters in my stash. However, I am just hosting, so let me know what YOU would like to participate in!


Once I get all your feedback, the full details of the swap and sign up form will be available. Stay tuned!