In 2015, Jess Made This will be running multiple 1.5″ and 2″ quilt square swaps, depending on interest. The first one will be held at the end of February with all squares to be posted out to swap partners by the 10th of March.
Many of you will have participated in a swap such as this before and this swap is very much the same. The idea is that we all prepare at least one batch of 100 unique squares in sizes of either 1.5 inch or 2 inch, we receive our swap partners and we post our squares off while waiting for a batch to arrive for us. Patience is definitely required in a swap like this – sometimes people go AWOL, get sick or have a crisis and the swap is the last thing on their mind. If that happens to one of your swap partners, I will endeavour to sort it out as quickly as possible for you. Please don’t send angry emails to your missing swap partner – just contact me and I will sort it out. My email is: barlow-jess@hotmail.com
Sign ups are now open for this swap. Please comment below with your name, email address, country, preference for types of squares, and how many lots of 100 squares in either 1.5″ or 2″ you are willing to swap. (Please do not comment with your mailing address for security reasons.) I will match you up with other swappers and send you a list of your swap partners & their email addresses by the end of February. At this point it is your responsibility to contact your swap partners and exchange mailing addresses. It goes without saying that you should keep their contact information private – do not share it with others. Sign ups will close on February 25 to allow me time to do this.
Here is a sample of what I would write if I wanted to sign up to this swap:
- Name: Jessica Barlow
- Country: Australia
- Email: barlow-jess@hotmail.com
- Squares: I love quilting with novelty, bright (always on the lookout for purple and orange) and animal squares if possible. I also love surprises though so send me what you’ve got!
- Swap: I have 4 matching sets of 2 inch squares to swap.
Before signing up, please make sure you have cut and prepared all squares you want to swap. This is as a courtesy to other swappers so they don’t have to wait for you to cut out squares at the last minute.
A few other basic guidelines to observe are:
– All fabrics must be quality quilting cotton fabric. If you wouldn’t sew with it, don’t send it to someone else.
– All squares must have been cut, either with scissors, rotary blades or cutters like the GoPro. Do not rip squares as that will cause fraying and compromise the quality of the fabric.
– All squares in each batch of 100 must be unique (ie. no duplicates). It can come from the same piece of fabric, but try to make sure it is obviously different. Include a mixture of colours, solids, patterns, batiks, metallics, fussy-cut and novelty squares as well. (No one wants a batch of 100 solid colour squares!)
– Specify whether you have matching or unique sets of fabric. If you have cut out 3 multiple squares from 100 different fabrics, then you would have 3 matching sets of 100 squares. But if you cut out 400 squares from 400 different fabrics then you would have 4 unique sets of 100 squares.
– You can swap up to five sets of 100 squares in each size. So, 5 sets of 2″ squares and 5 sets of 1.5″ squares. But you can also swap just one set of 100 in one of the sizes too – whatever suits!
– This is an international swap which means you must be prepared to pay for postage to other countries. But remember, that overseas person will be sending you something back in return so it balances out.
– Try to include a nice note or link to your blog etc in your package of squares that you send and be sure to follow up with your swap partners to ensure that they received your squares.
– 1.5″ and 2″ squares will fit into standard envelopes for posting. If posting internationally you will need to fill out a customs form which for most of you will require going into the post office in person. Put a simple description down such as ‘fabric squares’, categorise the envelope’s contents as a gift valued between $3 and $5.
– All squares must be posted out to your swap partners by the 10th of March. Ie. all squares should have been dropped off at the post office by this date. International and domestic shipping times vary so be aware that some packages might take longer to arrive than others. Keep your swap partners informed about when you’ve dropped their squares at the post office.
Finally, if you’re participating in this swap, be sure to pop the below badge onto the sidebar of your website or blog with a link back to this page. It will help attract more people to the swap and more people means more diversity in squares (always a good thing!) If you’re not sure how to add the badge to your blog, put ‘adding badge to blog’ in a google search and multiple tutorials will appear to help you out.
So what are you waiting for? Go and count how many squares you have ready to swap, cut out some more and then sign up below for some Postage Stamp Quilt Swapping Goodness in 2015!
Important dates to remember:
Sign ups are open now and close on February 25.
Swap matches will be emailed out by March 1.
All squares to be put in the mail for swap partners by March 10.
Jess Made This 