kriscraft99 is hosting her first fabric square swap...

This swap is for 5" charm kittens & cats fabrics

Registration is open to the first 48 members or until March 12th, whichever comes first. Please do not sign up until you have cut your squares and they are ready to mail.

Each swapper will submit 12 squares of 1 (one) washed cotton fabric (no flannels). The reason the fabric should be prewashed is because many on this board wash their fabrics as soon as they purchase them. I want these members to be able to participate also.

The THEME for this swap is: kittens & cats (think our fur babies - NOT jungle cats).

Squares should be carefully rotary cut from washed 100% cotton fabric. Keep in mind that your squares could end up in a child's quilt or a cat’s quilt. Select fabrics that will hold up to a lot of love, wear, tear, snuggling, washing and trips through the dryer. Fabrics that fray easily, or that are fairly easy to see through would not be good candidates for this swap.

Please be advised that squares that are not square, or those that are not the right size, will be returned unswapped. If you are unsure of your accuracy, over-sized squares are recommended as they can be cut down to size if needed be.. ** I would highly recommend sending 5.5" squares just to be safe since all our rulers may not be the exactly same ones**

Here’s how it works:

In your packet to me you will enclose:

1. 1 ziplock bag with 12 ct – 5" inch squares of ONE fabric. If you are sending more than one set, each set must be in its own bag.

2. all fabric must be washed, ironed and in ziplock bags for safe passage thru USPS

INCLUDE your screen name ON your ziplock bag along with SET amounts you are doing.

***Example- I would like to do two sets so, written legibly with a sharpie marker or pen, each of my Ziplock bags will have:

kriscraft99x2

also please place a small sample piece in each bag so that I can place on top of your bag when making the swap (that way you will not receive a duplicate of the fabric you sent)

*The limit is 4 sets maximum.**
**Please remember that each set should be cut from a different washed cat print fabric.
***4 sets mean that you would send 12 ct – 5" inch squares from FOUR different fabrics for a total of 48 squares. In return - you will received 48 different cat prints

Also in your package INCLUDE a self adhesive return address label, and a return priority postage stamp ($4.95). I suggest including an additional $0.70 to pay for tracking/delivery confirmation. I do not accept checks for postage.

Please remember that if you do not send enough return postage I will hold them until you send the difference. After 30 days, I will donate the unclaimed squares to charity. (PM me for international info)

I must to have these in hand no later than March 28. They need to be post marked no later than 3/24/11 - that should give the USPS ample time to deliver them. International members need to send them to me sooner- PM for details

Please remember that any packages received after 3/28/11 that were postmarked after 03/24/11 will be automatically returned unswapped.

I will then sort and mail out squares on 4/6/11.

Please PM me:
Board name,
How many sets you're doing
aprox when you plan ship your package
Your mailing address (so I can add you to the list and send you my mailing address)

Please remember that the general rules for all board swaps apply to this one, too.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-20154-1.htm

Any questions please pm me.. I'll be happy to assist..
Happy quilting everyone.
KrisCraft99

have fun :thumbup:

Link to Group Activity:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/group_a...sp?gracnum=125

I wish this was a doggy one lolol
Hugs
April

you could host a doggy one :D

Let me check my stash. Sure I have a cat fabric or two to participate. ;-)

oh feline fanatic.. with your board name.. I bet you have kitty cat fabrics in your stash :thumbup:

Kris

I need to check but I think I have some kitty fabric :D
This could be fun....ugh....like I need another swap!

Hmmmm this wording sounds very familiar... lol ;) :thumbup:

LOL....I was thinking the same thing! Why recreate the wheel when it works the way it is!!

hee hee.. the mod and I went back and forth tweeking the verbiage and that is what we came up with... lol.. At first read, I thought I had posted another swap !! I thought I was losing my mind!! lol..

My DD loves kitties, so I am off tomorrow to get some kitty fabric. Will PM when I have them washed and cut.

Wonderful Momofthree! This is a fun & easy way to obtain different kitty fabrics at once :thumbup:

I look forward to receiving your PM after your shopping trip.

Kris

I have a question about this statement: "The reason the fabric should be prewashed is because many on this board wash their fabrics as soon as they purchase them. I want these members to be able to participate also." How would prewashing fabrics or not effect whether interested parties participate in a particular swap or not?

This statement puzzled me as I read it and it's probably due to my not understanding the reasoning behind it. I am one who does not wash my fabrics until I am ready to use them and then they are washed in a color & fragrance free detergent. Many of the washed fabrics that I have received or purchased, I find have been washed in scented detergents or stored with scented dryer sheets and I end up having to wash them yet again to rid them of the fragrance. Due to this, my preference has been to receive my fabrics unwashed or right off the bolt if I can get that.

While I can see some advantage to having such small sized precuts washed before swapping (to preshrink), I overall would like to understand if pre washing fabric before swapping is a general preference among quilters in these swap activities.

I will use your comments as an enlightment and educational experience for me since I am new to this board and to the swapping activities.

I do NOT think it is intended to make a statement about weather they should be pre-washed or not. If someone washes ALL fabric the minute they take it into their home and the swap calls for "NOT WASHED" fabric, then that person would not be able to pull from their stash and would have to go out and purchase fabric just for this swap so as to have some that hasn't been pre-washed. Does that help??

This particular swap asked that the fabric be prewashed in that statement which is why I have posted my inquiries. I have seen that on the listings for some swaps, there is a request of preference for washed or unwashed fabrics. My general question of the quilters posting under this swap would be, is there a genernal preference to have swapped fabrics prewashed before you receive them? If that is so, is it because of concerns for shrinkage when receiving such small cuts?

Hmmmm......good question. I have done both kinds of swaps since I've been here. One that I do regularly asks that they not be washed and then others I've done ask that it all be pre-washed...interesting.

I have participated in a swap where it was asked that fabric not be washed.

I am the hostess for this swap. While working on the guidelines for this particular swap, I thought more members may consider participating if the fabric could (and has to) be pre-washed. We have many on this board that wash their fabric as soon as it comes in their door.

Some fabrics tend to shrink a tad bit more than others and since this is a 5" square swap, that was another consideration.

I hope this explanation helps :thumbup:

Kris

I would like to be in this swap. I dug thru my fabric and found more cats. It will be fun!

Sign me up x 4 . I love kitties !

I also think the washing issue may be an allergy thing. Some people have severe allergies to the chemicals in fabric so if washed it helps.
Hugs
April

Here is an excerpt from the General rules for swapping activities on this board.

"5. When an activity includes swapping fabrics, they should be washed, dried and ironed and cut as precisely as your skills allow. Oranizers should not require they be starched or otherwise treated unless it's essential to success in the type of project involved. Those of us who don't normally prewash should make exceptions when joining in group activities. It's a courtesy to others who may have allergies or other health needs requiring smoke and animal free environments/supplies."

If a swap host/hostess wishes to "differ", they can...but as a general rule...this is what we all agree to follow when we join a swap on this board. Just FYI....the entire section is posted at the top of the "Swaps section" and is also linked to on page 1 of this thread where Kris referenced the general swap rules.

Thanks for the info all. I thought the prewashing may have to do more with shrinkage concerns than personal preference. I was just curious as to what most quilters prefer: prewashing or unwashed.

As a life long clothing sewer (over 40 yrs) and formally educated design student (had designed a line of kids clothing), I would never have accepted fabrics that were prewashed by someone else to use in my garments because I was particular about what type solutions were used on those fabrics.

As a new quilter (about 2 yrs now) I am observing that this process is different with quilters here and as well may apply to quilters overall. Participating in these quilting board swaps is my first forays into exchanging fabrics with others that I do not know personally. This is all a learning process for me and I often want to understand the logic behind certain actions so that I can thoroughly get the process. That's the trained technical side of my left brained life. My right brained functions allow me to be creative which a quilting outlet has allowed me since I no longer sew or desgin clothing.

As I participate in swaps on this board, I will have to retrain myself to think prewash, prewash. New learning curve for me but I will get it. Allergies to chemicals I understand well, I have plenty of them. Again thanks everyone for your comments. It helps. Sorry for being so wordy but think of it as an eye excercise for today (the silver lining).

I personally prefer unwashed but go with the flow lol
Hugs
April

I'm off to check my stash! I would love to be part of this one and I promise all my blocks are going to be 5.5". I have learned something from experience!! LOL

Oh great, wildyard, I look forward to receiving a PM from you :D

Kris

Well, just dang, so sorry but guess you all will have to go along without me. I'd love to participate, but just realizing that a total of $10.00 in postage is going to make that some expensive fabric. There are 2 other swaps I wanted to do also, and that makes it $30. Arghhhh, where to draw the line. So, guess the best thing for me is to pass and hope for better times down the road.
Y'all have a wonderful time petting all the kitties tho. Smiles and hugs and I'll be thinking of you!!

I haven't been able to find the cat fabrics I want. The closing time is fastly approaching. I'm gonna look some more before I give up.

I a having a hart time locating kitty fabric too.

Last time I was in JoAnn's they had some Debbie Mumm cat prints. I have plenty of cat prints in my stash.

i sent mine out yeaterday, they are meowing all the way there.

I was choosing cat fabric tonight. I got some really, really cute fabric, you guys are going to love it.

I did buy the one in the picture because I laughed my head off!!!!! If our leader allows it I'll send it as an extra, if not I'll save it for the ugly fabric contest next year!

oh my goshhhhhhhh.. that is hysterical!! I love it!!

that fabric is too cute....!

I would love to join this swap.....I will PM as soon as I wash and cut my squares.

I obviously love my furbabies!

I love it!

We are approaching time to close this swap to sign-ups.

There has been a lot of interest and a great number of participants that have joined. There is only 2 more days and room for 4 more set of kitty cat squares until we reach the maximum sign up of 48 sets.

PM me quickly if you want to join in.

Kris

Is it 48 members or 48 sets that was the limit? The listing said 48 members. I was looking for cat fabrics before I joined for sure to give myself time but if you are cutting off at 48 sets I will forgo this swap this time around.

Fryguy that cat fabric is a riot. I am sure if my cat Samson could get his mouth around any of those things, he would look like some of those cats in the fabric. He eats anything that doesn't eat him first.

This is my first swap and my last post was a mistake. This swap is open to the first 48 members (not 48 sets as I just posted this morning, before I had coffee) :roll: ... Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention :thumbup:

There are 2 more days for sign-ups!

We are going to have a great kitty cat swap.

If you plan to participate, please PM me on or before 03/12/11.

Kris :D

oh fry...that fabric is a riot! Can you tell us what it is please?????

Michael Miller Fabrics Cats Meow

Oh thank goodness!! I was freaking out....LOL! I bought some kitty fabric from another member here on the board and just got it in and washed last night. I was gonna be so upset if I couldn't use my little kitties :D
I'll PM you right away but I am in for sure! :D