Janice McC

Got it! Thanks.

Bee Beatty

Ok......don't let this cause you to wonder if I am confused ,not.......just a little buzzy maybe I will say however, that working in all this Christmas stash has me thinking of hot chocolate.

Janice, will this idea work within the rules of the Swap? If not, no problem. I will back-up and take another run at this.

So this is my idea:

Each participant in the group or groups I am in would receive one of these Fat 8ths and a Fat 8th of the back ground fabric....off white. I have 38 different ones I all. With the flat rate envelope - holding up to 70lbs with no extra charge - there should be no problem with extra postage. I do not want any left over fabric returned. Do you see a problem with impacting anyone on postage or mailing logistics?

Christmas in July! What fun! Look forward to seeing how things line up!

Buzzy Bee Beatty

seasaw2mch

Ok I also though that doing both groups will be doable so I had Janice write me in on both as well.
Here is the fabric I have for the slow group.

Billi

Oh wow more awesome fabrics. So many pretty things to play with.

joanelizbay

I sent Janice an email...if there will be a "2nd" fast group after the lst fast group ends then Ill wait on that one but if there wont be then I guess Ill do both fast and slow...decisions decisions.. Heres the fabric Im thinking of using asking only white tone on tone or maybe a little bit of the blue in the fabric?

I got caught today and I guess it was funny...I made a "Steelers" quilt for our maintanence man at
the Nursing home...Was going to surprise him with it this summer. The woman that takes it to the quilters and brings it back said it might be a month because Audrey was going for a month to visit her
son, which was perfect for my timing. Soooo today the Maint. man is in my office talking to the med
passer when the lady comes in with the quilt in a bag....that man has to have hawk eyes because he
saw through the yellow bag and I thought he was going to cry when I took it out of the bag and gave it to him...talk about a WONDERFUL feeling....He didn't like me taking it back to bind it though! ... That makes my day...to see the joy something so small gave someone....life is good!!

TheMamaHauser

Bee, I did this same thing during our last super fast group. It is an excellent way to make sure that EVERYTHING will match. I am planning to do it again for at least part of a group (maybe the whole thing).

Kelly

Bee Beatty

Thank you so much for sharing that story! It made me very aware of how beautiful we humans really are. Such a deeply honest expression of gratitude is a powerful gift that keeps giving and inspires us to have hope and faith! Be blessed!

Bee

Bee Beatty

Kelly, thanks for the post. I am glad this idea has been tested! I have enough fabric and background fabric for 30+ fellow swappers. Can't wait to see what everyone will create! I am putting my quilt together from Boom 11 Blocks. Made a center medallion to tie everything together.....lovin' it.

jaba

totally agree Bee, that is what keeps most of us going! What a great gift you gave to him Joan, he'll never forget it.

Janice McC

Good morning all. I see there have been Busy little Bees working around here!

Oh, what the heck, sure, why not use 2 F8s as a trial. LOL. As Themamahauser said, this is what she did on her own in the last round. If anyone wishes to add a second fabric, go ahead, BUT, AND THIS IS A MASSIVE BUT, you must streamline your shipping so that the added bulk will not impair my ability to put everything inside a Priority flat rate USPS padded envelope. If everyone decides to send 2 fabrics, it’s the equivalent of fabric for twice as many members and shipping can become a problem. That means no individual gigantic ziplock bags and large unbendable notes that can really foul up the works. Fold and press your 2 fabrics and put them in a single small ziplock bag, the ‘zipperless’ kind, quart or sandwich size max, one for each person in your group. Make sure they are as flat as possible then put those bags inside a single large gallon size ziplock bag with your names on them. You may use any tracked method you wish to mail to me but remember, I ship in Priority flat rate USPS padded envelopes. The reason is to save my sanity because the cost is known up front. Those of you who send me prestamped tyvek envelopes for use in return shipping might find the postage you attach will come up short – tyveks are NOT flat rate and can vary greatly with the addition of just a few extra F8s. The cardboard letter and legal sized USPS priority envelopes may not handle the extra bulk so please don’t use them either. PLEASE send me only the USPS padded envelopes OR $6 in cash or stamps. Also, please don't send me a dozen first-class stamps; make a special trip to the post office to get large denomination stamps, again, to streamline. When I go to the post office with a package stamped with 15 stamps of varying non-marked denominations, it creates quite a problem for the counter person to determine whether or not the postage requirement is met. It greatly slows the process, not to mention that the crowd behind me gets restless, especially if there are multiple packages like that.

So, all that being said, if you wish to use up to 2 fabrics, it’s fine with me. And, of course, you may stick with the original single fabric as traditionally done. Honestly, I think of this as more your swap than mine so having run a couple of booms now, I’m comfortable loosening up the single fabric rule a bit for a trial run. Besides, if it becomes unbearable on my end, I’ll let you all know!

One more thing: I’ve run the numbers and sign-ups are falling short of being able to put together even one large group but we can have multiple small groups, with at least one each of the 2 and 4 month time period. The suggestion has been made to do as I did before, have one 2 month group followed by another quick group while the 4 month group remains undisturbed. It’s a possibility. Let’s continue to see how the groups shake out the next week.

janice mcc