right or wrong?
 

My guild is doing a fabric swap with a pattern. When I joined this guild in January, I jumped right in and got involved with what was going on. I started with this swap. So we bring 5 peices of fabric which are 8"x20" every month for 6 months. I have gotten some pretty fabric. My question is this: am I obligated to make the quilt from the pattern that was given with the instructions for the swap? I really don't like it, and making a quilt that you don't like is no fun. I'm sure that most of the ladies in the swap won't make the quilt anytime soon, so I'm probably safe there. But I don't want to not do it and hurt the feelings of the lady heading up the swap. What would y'all do? Thanks,Gina

If you enjoy doing the fabric swap - continue to do so.

You just "might" never get around to making a quilt from that pattern.

If you use the fabrics in something else - hey - they wanted to be there instead!

(It's nice of you to be concerned for the leader, though.)

I wouldn't think there would be any problem using the fabric as you like, unless there was an agreement up front that everyone would use the pattern (which is fairly unlikely - and you would know if that were the case). If you really think it might hurt the lady's feelings, you could just ask her. Chances are that she only provided the pattern as a courtesy.

Thank you ladies. That's kinda what I thought too, but my dh thought differently. I may just ask the leader how she feels about it. :)Gina

I would continue with the swap as long as you are interested. Sometimes it can take years to make a quilt, so I wouldn't feel guilty if I never finished a quilt from that pattern. Two years ago I made 2 patchwork tree skirts from a 6" Christmas fabric swap at my guild that I did at least 6-7 years before that. Sometimes fabric has to age, like fine wine.

I agree with dunster. If the pattern was given just as a suggestion, then there is no problem. I find with guilds, there will always be quilters doing it by their interpretation. Normally, the quilt police are located there.....

ugly fabric
 

Our guild did an ugly fabric block swap. And there were some ugly fabrics and ugly blocks. Then we had a drawing and one person won all the blocks. She was supposed to put it together. Which she did, and it turned out to be a beautiful quilt. I admit, this was my idea because one of the girls at our Christmas party kept saying on our material Bingo, that "this is an ugly fabric" "looks like baby poop" (I had that) and that was an ugly fabric (had that one also) so as President of our extension I piped up and said, ok, we are all going to make a block with what they think is their ugliest fabric and see what happens. We also swapped those ugly fabrics so we were not using our own fabric. I personally don't think there is an ugly fabric. None of the colors matched, strictly scrappy, but as I said, it turned our really nice. So I proved my point. There is no ugly fabric, it's just how it's used. My baby poop fabric was a blender and looked perfect in a native American looking quilt. I thought I had taken a picture of the Ugly turned beautiful quilt, but I guess I didn't take my camera that day. Sorry.

I would just ask her to clarify the rules of the swap for you to be sure about it. In my past experience, unless the pattern is a concrete part of the swap, it should be okay to use the fabric how you want to. Find out to be sure.
peace