Help please - how to organise a fabric swap?
 

I hope y'all can help me please (and that I've posted this in the right forum!).

Our LQS closed in July but a few of us meet once a week in a community centre. As a way of getting 'new' fabric, I'd like to organise a fabric swap, but I've no idea how to go about this.

Should it be like for like, i.e. a FQ for a FQ or by yardage? Or should people just put a 'value' on their fabric?

Help please!!

This time of year it might be fun to do it like a gift exchange. I would do it by FQ first to see how well it goes. You might also put up a "White elephant sale" table at your meeting. Members could bring yardage they will never use, put a price on it that they want and see if others are interested in it.

How many ladies are in your group? If it's a fairly small number, say 12, you could ask everyone to bring in 12 identical (or nearly identical) 10" squares. Then everyone in the group walks away with one of those squares. Everyone has 11 new 10" squares plus one of her own squares. The problem is if some of the ladies don't wish to participate, or forget to bring in their squares, so you may want to ask how many would like to join in first, and wait until you've collected all the squares to distribute them.

I am not sure how you would do it but I would just do fat quarters. Bring one and get one in return. Sounds like fun.

Unless you are all very good friends, no matter what rule you have for the type of fabric to bring you will probably have at least one person bring poor quality and leave with good quality. Even if they know it isn't good quality they will get all insulted and play the victim to the hilt. A fabric exchange is the best way to cull out the unfair in the group. LOL

My MQG had a fabric garage sale at this weeks meeting.

Anyone who wanted to participate could.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Y...FFa3NMcEE/view

The link takes you to information on how it was planned.

Each seller priced their own product. There was about 12 table of goods to choose from. I bought 4 different 1m pieces of purple batik for $20.00. Here batiks cost between $16.00 and $20.00/m.

It was a fun evening. Not everything sold, but quite a bit did.

Maybe it could be like a book swap, where you each bring a book (or more maybe) and all are put in one spot and then folks select the book they want. Sort of a fair exchange. Might be there would be several spots, for different lengths of fabric?

I have no idea if this would work. In a book swap, there is usually a group of books and a person just takes one book and leaves one. It is on the honor system. I visualize 3 or four tables....one for one yd of fabric, one for 2 yards, etc. Folks could put their fabric on the appropriate tables and then select what they are trading for.

I would certainly enjoy being in a book swap, no matter how it was organized. Good luck with your project. I think you have a good idea.

Dina

:thumbup: that sounds like fun -- my bee has a scrap bucket swap each Christmas from scraps collected over the year and use Easter buckets -- also you might use quart and gallon sized ziplock bags for sizes -- these might help in organizing-- good luck with your swap!!

My guild did a fabric swap with charm squares (5", but you could pick any size). Each person who wanted to participate placed 10 charms in a baggie, and you could have up to 5 baggies. We turned the baggies in to the swap coordinator, who made a list with the person's name and how many baggies she put into the swap. Then the person drew a number from a bag. The baggies were laid out in no particular order, then the person with #1 would go pick out the same number of baggies as she had brought. She would take them over to the coordinator who would count them and verify the number was the same. Then each person would pick out baggies in numerical order. The only problem occurred when we found that someone had brought 20 charms, but put them in one baggie (some people just don't listen).