June I Spy Swap with a FOOD JAR twist!
 

June I Spy Swap with Food Jar Twist:
Signups are open until June 15
Swaps need to be in my hands by June 30

It's time to start putting together another I Spy swap for June. Owlvamp is still taking a rest from the swap, so I will be helping her out again this time. Please pay CLOSE ATTENTION to the new cutting and packaging method. It is different than all I Spy swaps previously.

Our theme for the June "twist" (side swap) is food, like you would see in a jar quilt. Several have expressed interest in making jar quilts and/or picnic quilts, so I thought we'd try out the food theme. Anything you would find in a canning jar is fair game! Even fireflies.... Try to find raw food rather than packaged, as you would see on the shelf in a mason jar. Cukes, potatoes, tomatoes, berries... are all great!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take your time cutting and be sure you have correct 5" squares. I will not be taking any squares out of their bags this time, to check the cuts. Last swap I unfortunately had to return bundles of squares that were cut too small or not fussy cut, and I spent hours trimming ones that were cut too big. This time, your name will be on every one of your bags and if your squares are found to be cut wrong, you will be expected to send replacements to whoever received the bad ones, in order to stay in good standing as an I Spy swapper. Who wants to deal with that hassle and extra expense?? No one, so please take the time to cut well and check your squares before you put them in those bags. Lets have all good squares this time.

NEW CUTTING/PACKAGING METHOD:
We will now be sending 10 DIFFERENT fabrics in each bag we swap. All your bags can have the same mixture in them, or different, but you cannot repeat fabrics in any one bag. We will be swapping bag for bag, so there must be 10 different fabrics in each bag. Please put your board name and state on every bag you are swapping.

You may swap a max of 16 bags, because you will get 8 squares per width of fabric, so two of those will give you 16. If you take 10 fabrics and cut two 5" strips x WOF from each, then cross cut into 5" squares, you will have your 16 bags' worth. Or, if you cut only one 5" strip x WOF from each, you will get enough squares to swap 8 bags. If your prints require fussy cutting, you may not get 8 squares per WOF... please be aware of that.

The twists will be a max of 8 bags of 10 different squares.... So you need 10 different foodie fabrics to give you 10 different squares per bag, same as the regular swap.

THE USUAL 'STUFF':
1. Please cut your charms before joining.

2. Try and find new prints you have not sent before or seen in the swap, if at all possible. We all like new stuff! Also, you may not use the same prints in the twist as you used in the regular swap. Twist fabrics should be different from the regular swap fabrics. Send only 100% cotton quilting fabric. Please do not send thin or loosely woven fabrics. If it has to be starched to be acceptable, it's probably not a good candidate for this swap. Please select prints that would be acceptable in a child's quilt. No flowers, lines, stars, geometrics. We need recognizable objects. Send what you would like to receive!

3. THEN, pm me (Sewbizgirl) and tell me you want to join and how many bags you intend to swap in the regular swap and in the twist. The twist is optional. I also need your real name and address. I will respond to you with my mailing address for you to mail your swaps to me.

4. Put all your swap baggies in one big ziplock with your name and mailing address, as well as your board name. That will keep them together in your package and if it happens to get torn open in shipment, your address will be there for the P.O. to return to you. Speaking of "torn open"... those paper flat rate envelopes are the pits. They tear so easily, especially with lumpy contents in them. Do yourself a favor and use something better-- like the Tyvek envelopes or padded flat rate envelopes. You have to order the latter from the post office online, in packages of 10, but they are free. If you do it NOW, you will have your envelopes in time to mail.

5. Postage: I will print and mail your postage online and ship in the padded flat rate envelope. There is no need to send a return address label this time. The online shipping is discounted to $5.70, so that's how much cash you need to enclose in your package. If anyone is nervous about sending cash in the mail, mention that in your pm to me an I will give you my Paypal addy to pay me with, instead.

Remember to send in what you would like to receive back.
Let’s have tons of fun,and of course you have to follow all the basic rules, found here.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-20154-1.htm

Can't wait! Here's a little I spy inspiration ... I made this for my first ever craft fair where I will be selling some I Spy quilts and kits for fabric books and matching games. :)
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Can't figure out how to edit...so just wanted to add: if you are in the Denver metro, I'd love to meet you at the craft fair...Saturday, June 13, at the Woodlawn Center in Littleton!! My booth is called "Sew It, Sister!" Send me a pm if I should look for you.

Hey, Bonnie - you should come on out!!!

I wish I could, Peg! Good luck. Your I Spy stuff is great!

UPDATE ON TWIST:

For the twist (foodie) fabrics ONLY, let's change the size of the blocks to 5x7" rectangles. That way we can make the taller, upright jars, like Mason quart jars. So for your twist blocks only, cut 5x7, rather than 5x5. The regular I Spy blocks will still be 5x5...

Here's some inspiration for a canning jar quilt. These show the taller jars that we will be able to make with the 5x7 twist rectangles. This quilt was made by someone here on the QB and is the prettiest one I have ever seen. Just look at that border!

Looooove that quilt!

I am in for 8 bags of the original swap and I am hoping to find 10 fabrics so I can do the twist.

Great, Jannie! Be sure to pm me with your count and address, once you get your squares cut. Don't forget to cut your twist fabrics 5x7!

Do you only want food for the twist? How about bugs, buttons, etc. that can be put in a jar? Before I shop, I need to know.

These will be for food jars, or picnic quilts, so please use food for the most part. If you want to throw one in with bugs, I would think that would be okay, even cute.

Love that quilt. Wish I could play but no cutting for me and I have no food fabric. Love all the food fabric in that quilt. One day I'll be able to do one. Can't wait to see what you all do.

Looks like I better get started on my cutting!

Good to have you, Bullock2us... I have been ordering the foodie fabrics (have plenty of the regular I Spys) and I'm getting excited about swapping and having some different ones. Starting to get excited about the jar quilt. I have more than 10 now, all packed food like you'd see in jars.

Hope everyone has a special Memorial Day and remembers those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom and way of life. Treasure that... it was bought with a very high price! For those of you who have family in the military, I thank you for their service and your sacrifice.

I think I would like to join in on this one. I haven't done an I-Spy quilt yet. I will send a PM and let you know how many I will send. This sounds like fun.
Hi Peg!

Hi Karen, glad to have you! Please be sure to cut your squares before joining. And did you see that the twist blocks will be 5x7", for the food jar quilt? The regular I Spy blocks are still 5x5", as always.

This swap is getting off to a really slow start. I know this is a busy time of year with school ending and vacations and gardens and all. If we don't have enough players I can do one of two things... I can postpone the signup and due date a month, OR we can swap for less sets, say 8 of each. Or I can do both!

Keep this in mind while you are cutting. Maybe don't cut 16 of your I Spy sets, but just cut 8 and set the rest of your fabric aside to see if we pick up more swappers.

And... tell your friends about this swap! It's loads of fun.

I am ok with waiting an extra month if it means more people will play.

I'm in! I just need to get my fabrics together. I need to start cutting!

Welcome, suzmcdan1214!

Hi Karen!! You'll love I Spy!
I'm also okay to wait for more people. I already have mine cut (though hope to gather more food fabrics - I have peaches, blueberries and strawberries is far).

I won't be joining this time because I don't have at ten different fabrics to swap. The new rules make it kind of challenging in that we used to be able to only buy a couple of fabrics and send ten/twenty squares of them.

I'm so sorry for the new challenges. Believe me, it saves at least 5 hours of tedious, back straining WORK for the swapper by have only to swap bag for bag. It only takes 1/8 yard to cut one row (8 squares) of I Spys... not much at all if you have to buy new fabric.

Hey, come on, everyone! Join in and stop lurking. Sewbizgirl is right...just buy a small bit of a few fabrics and it will feel like you are buying MORE, though you aren't really. Plus then YOU get to "sample" several different I Spy fabrics you've wanted. Mine are all cut, but I nabbed this for next time...
https://www.etsy.com/listing/2325467...f=sr_gallery_1
It will be great for anyone who does ABC I Spy quilts and gets as frustrated as I do with the letter X!! (Sorry, xylophone should definitely have been spelled with a Z!!)

I will be joining but just need to finish cutting.

sewbizgirl - Sending pm for 8 sets. All bagged and ready to mail!

PeginCo - Love those X-ray cats!

NOT trying to be argumentative, only informative: depending on who's cutting fabric at the quilt store, I get 4 1/2" for 1/8 of a yard, not 5". There's one employee who will give me the extra 1/2 inch and cut it at 5", but both owners cut at 4 1/2".

Just beware, quilters, that you're not buying something you can't use for the swap.

If I get 1/4 a yard, that's only 9", so there's a wasted 4" (wasted if I'm only buying for the I Spy). I've got to go 1/3 yard to get 2 rows with a leftover 2 inch strip.

Just a thought, there is a quilt shop I go to that has tons of fat quarter novelty fabric. I am able to get 12
squares from each piece. The more you buy the prices lowers. Perhaps you can find such a deal.

Yep, that was my mistake. 1/8 of a yard is indeed 4.5". But, you can always ask for 5" (or 6" to be safe) of fabric to be cut.

I was just trying to find a new way to bag the swaps that would actually keep this swap running. Owlvamp did hours of work every time, and got tired and burned out. I did it that way exactly ONCE and will not do it again. This is the reason for the new method. Most of the swaps on the board that are for smaller squares swap bag-for-bag.

Save those leftover strips from cutting! Here is a quilt I made with mine:

That's a great idea, mommiepainter! I'll try that.

I used to be able to ask for a 1/6 of a yard. We used to have several quilt stores to choose from, but now it's down to one. These owners aren't as willing to work with us as we would like, (illustrated by the fact that they will not cut 5").

I understand making the swap easier for the hostess.

Just for conversation my LQS will not cut less than a .25 yard of fabric. I am totally in favor of packaging my charms in individual bags ready to be swapped by the hostess.

Sewbiz, your I Spy spiderweb looks like lots of fun. Great use of scraps!

I am also okay with bagging them. Either way I have to bag them. I will be joining-just have to get mine cut. I didn't see here- are we waiting the extra month- or going with the timeline. Just wondering

I'm waiting a bit... We have 7 people who want to swap, so far. If we each send in 8 sets, rather than 16, we will need two more swappers. Go ahead and cut 8 sets, Ginger. I've asked people to wait til further notice from me before mailing. If we get more swappers we can mail in more sets! Lets hope so... :)

This looks like fun sewbizgirl...I love the canning quilt. I will check to see if my quilt shop has fabric and then hopefully I can join. :)

Barb

Yay, Barb!

I found the 10 fabrics for jars, so i am in for the max of whatever we can do. I haven't started to cut yet, but can do whenever we are ready. I will also be in for the max amout of regular 5x5 squares too!

That's great, Suzanne. You can go ahead and cut 8 sets of each. We should have enough to swap 8.

Glad you are going to play again!

Can I still join this swap? Hope so! I have my fabrics cut and ready to bag.