I've been in swaps on my favorite gardening website but there are always those few who have to cheat the system. So I've avoided even contemplating any kind of swap in recent years.

I've never joined a swap on this board but in the past I have on other craft sites.

In the past I was dissapointed because I felt like they just wanted to get rid of their "junk" or went to the dollar store for a plastic thing and sent it to me, or did not respond at all.

I guess I'm still a little skittish.

Adding to my previous post...The one swap I was in here...was absolutely great. Organized wonderfully and seemed like everyone involved was happy with their swaps. :D Hopefully this will be the case here always. :D

I took my time joining the swaps. I was nervous and didn't want to screw up and disappoint others. Now i join lots of swaps here and really enjoy them. Are my sewing skills perfect, no , but when I am doing a block for a swap I use good quality fabric and do my best and I hope whoever gets my blocks realize I am trying my best and we all have to start somewhere. I found found on this board everyone is wonderful about what they send and receive . I also enjoy the fabric swaps and again I make sure I use good quality fabric

I don't join the ones that the fabric has to be washed. I don't wash my fabric. I joined one FQ swap where the FQ's came with fraying and strings hanging...I like the feel of new fabric...I have done 4 doll quilt swaps and have been very satisfied with what I got...love to see what other people do

I've been happy with the couple offabric swaps I've done here on the board. Haven't participated in doll or block swaps as I have to watch my time committments and wouldn't want to disappoint anyone by not following through.

I haven't joined any swaps yet due to health reasons. When the blue and yellow block swap was done last year, I was scheduled to have foot/ankle fusion surgery and I knew that I wouldn't be able to get down to my sewing room to get anything done. I really wanted to join that swap--blue and yellow are one of my favorite combinations. I also have lupus and fibromyalgia and there are days that I can hardly get out of bed, so I can't know for sure that I would be able to get things done in the time frame allowed. I would love to participate, but my health is so unpredictable that I'm afraid I would disappoint someone waiting for what I am supposed to send. :cry:

I've joined one swap here - The January Doll Quilt swap. It was fun and I really like the one I received. Initially I was hesitant because while I love to sew and have been doing this, that and the other thing for years (including a alteration business and then crafts for shows and consignment) I wasn't sure how my choices in colors/fabrics would be received. No offense to anyone on-board but I felt my quilting skills aren't up to par with some of you and there has been chatter about using only lqs fabrics, that WalMart fabrics are a BIG no-no to some, some folks would never use JoAnn's fabrics... Truthfully those are what I can afford and I will use what I can afford since I enjoy sewing in all it's many forms. I also felt a bit of a time crunch because of some of the things that were/are going on in my life right now. I don't like to feel rushed on any of my projects, I always feel they're not my best work.

I don't know if I would participate again. I don't know if I'd be lucky enough to get another swap partner like Janis.

The only swaps I have participated in are on this board. Both have been good experiences. I think part of the reason for this is the attitude of encouragement I find here. We all applaud the work of others, and try to encourage attempts at new techniques, etc. True, some prewash and some don't, so that might be a deterent, but in general, swaps can be a good sharing/learning experience.

I'm sorry others have not had as good an experience with swaps.

I agree with Lisa - I love taking part in swaps and feeling like part of a group. Particularly with the swaps on this board I find I've got a lot of encouragement when I've been starting out, and people have been very accepting of my simpler blocks. I'm slowly able to tackle harder blocks because of it.

I only join in centralised swaps, where I send everything to one person, but thats because of postage costs if I started sending one block to a dozen different addresses.