hey barri i see you have joined the yahoo postage stamp group. it looks like you and i along (and perhaps others) have been cutting 1000's of these little squares for the various swaps. well i am happy to report i have cut and mailed all of my squares for the 3 different swaps (yahoo, curious quilter, quilt board). now all i need to do is sit back and wait for my little gems to roll in. what anticipation!

mary

Well thank you! I'm sure there would be more of us if people "Down Under" knew about this group. I found it by "chatting in cyberspace" to Barri via another swap (Curious Quilter). Don't worry anyone who swapped with me there...I'm pretty sure 40 of the 50 charms are ones I haven't swapped before!
I finished packaging them all up last night so they will be in the mail tomorrow morning (Monday). We don't have post on weekends!

Hi Mary,
I joined the Yahoo swap, but haven't gotten anything about being accepted. I must be insane. I have the envelope for Mariposa ready, but have to hit the P.O... Mom volunteered to go for me, but I hate to impose. She's 84.. I won't have a chance this week, as I'm in one office, and I'm covering.. In other words, working for two. I am hopefully going to Haiti in Oct, and need to save up time.. I also got two new boxes of scraps. I do have a major concern.. I'm not thrilled with my accuracy of cutting. Sheri was nice enough to do a demo on how to cut, and hopefully I will get to try it..

Sam
How about spreading the word down under that the US people have squares to swap.

what will you be doing in haiti? i interviewed with an organization last week with a business in haiti and am just waiting to hear from the director, yeah or nah. i need to get some of these boxes of scraps your receiving. what joy. if you find a solution to cutting your squares more efficiently then your accuracy will follow. there are so many ways to cutting 1.5" squares even from scraps. using the 1.5" corner of a ruler template with scraps should work wonders.

here's hoping you find a good solution for you.

I was invited to Haiti to help open a medical office. I have a bunch of friends in the NE corner of MO that support missionaries all over, and Solonoque has a brother that graduated medical school, and is in need of help opening an office. It's a little funny when I go on missions with my friends. These are Christian missions, and I am Jewish. It's interesting because I am parallel in religion with them, and can have major discussions on the Old Testament. I don't know much about the New Testament, but we have a lot of fun with interpretation of what meanig, or underlying meanings on some things.
The scraps were rescued from someone on the board that was going to use them to stuff a dog bed. She mentioned that she needed help with how to do it, and I mentioned that there are a bunch of quilters that would be glad to take her scraps, and create quilts. I sent her postage, and she sent me a 6lb box. She said she had more, so I sent her more postage for a friend, and me.. She sent me another 6lb box.. Just think.. Some nice dog would otherwise be sleeping on beautiful, nicely ironed, and perfectly cut 2.5" strips.. I wonder if we could put a note in the offers section advising that we are looking for scraps, and how many people would be glad to oblige. I have enough scraps to probably make a dozen or more quilts. There isn't enough fabric to make a quilt that isn't scrappy.
Thanks for advising me on how to cut the squares. I have been sitting on the couch with a sharp scissor cutting around a template. I stack the fabric about six fold. I am noticing the inaccuracy, and tossing a bunch. Will try it your way, and Sheri's..

barri1 i am a christian and have both jewish and muslin friends. the jewish faith and christian faith are so closely aligned but my learning curve is with the muslin faith. i have had some very in depth conversations with my muslin friends to try to understand islam a bit better. there is even a woman in my women's supper club group that is an agnostic. i am all about tolerance whether religious, ethnic, eclectic personalities, whatever. when we come together to do mission work it is all about helping the people rather than our religious differences. good luck on your haitian mission.

i wanna see some of your scrap quilt creations when possible. the offer/wanted section was used more frequently before the board changeover but since the board changeover not so much.

I, too, had a swap partner from Australia for the Curious Quilter swap. When I invited her to join this group she was concerned about having to pay postage twice. I guess she means mailing her squares and sending a SASE. I meant to try to figure out the cost difference to see if it was actually that much, but never did.

it's about $2-$2.60 to mail the squares one way to/from australia. it cost me $2.53 to mail to australia (my pkg wasn't flat enough; otherwise $1.92) and the package i received from australia was $2.35.

I can't figure out the US mail system. I had three to Australia @ $3.85, and one to Canada @$3.85, and the nine to US @ $.85. The US postage bothered me. I went in with the packages, and they wanted to charge me $1.95, and advised me that if it was thinner it would be $.65. Of course I went home, and repacked them, and took them to another post office the next day, and it was $.85.. It is a lot cheaper to do the swap where you send all to one spot, and Rhonda posts them in the SASE. Anyway.. I am having a lot of fun, but am getting grossed out with my livingroom looking like it was taken over.. I enered the Yahoo swap, and am still waiting for an acceptance.. I'm okay with waiting, as I want to finish my project..

All are sets are now in the hands of the "Postal Gods"! Whoo Hoo!

barri the postage will all depend on how you pack the envelopes, the thinner the cheaper on postage. they have to fit through the first class letter slot for the lower fees or the envelope gets classified as a package and the postage costs more.

someone mailed me ps squares in one of the card sized envelopes (i.e. birthday card) instead of a legal sized one so she was able to spread them all out for the lower postage. i never thought to use the card sized envelopes as they are taller and have more room to spread the squares out.

with practice you will learn to package the envelopes thinner for the lower postage.:thumbup:

I bought small brown envelopes at Dollar Tree, and they are about the size of the b'day cards. That is why I was able to spread them out, and change the postage. I thought $.85 was good.
I have a list for my mom to take to the post office when she goes to the gym. Everything is packed for the swap. I don't have priority stamps, and I am busy as crud.

Hi, I have browsed this thread several times and have decided to put my Accuquilt Go strip set to work...They do turn out perfect. I'm a little confused with several things...how do you get all 30 sets in baggies flat enough in one little envelope? Do all the sets go to one person? Would I be able to wrap 30 sets of 50 separately then in an envelope with the SASE same size envelope. Will I be swapping with 30 different persons? Who do I send the envelope to? As you can see..I'm confused and don't want to take on more than I can handle... Honchey

honchey for this swap the limit is 30 sets of 50 different fabrics. the sets can be identical but each of the 50 fabrics in a set must be different with no duplicates. each set would be bagged separately, include your name & board name with each baggie then all of these sets (how ever many you choose to make up to 30) would be mailed in one large envelope to mariposa. included with this mailing to mariposa you will include a large sase with as much postage on it as it takes for you to mail your package to mariposa.

a couple of weeks after the deadline date, mariposa swaps all of the baggies received and mail backs a package to the participants with baggies from the other swappers. you will need to send a private message (pm) to mariposa and let her know you want to participate. once you have all of your squares cut, send a pm to mariposa and request her mailing address.

many of us use sandwich baggies to put our individual sets in. some of us use the clear plastic jewelry bags from craft stores to put our sets in. either way is fine. i have found that around $3.30-$3.60 is a good estimate for the sase return postage. i have taken my sase with baggies to the post office before to have them weighed and that is about near what the postage is. i am trying to include just a bit more over what the usps estimate is to account for the different size baggies used and the weight of the various fabrics. i hope this answers your questions.

cmon and join us. you know you want to.:D

I guess the US post office is making money off me.. I use the priority envelopes.

They make $ from me as well- I use the "padded" flat rate envelopes! :) Easier for me too~

Well, I am 1/5 of the way thru...I cut 300 today...1200 to go... Honchey

Just wondering...does this swap occur on a regular basis or is this just a once off swap?

about 4 times per year: spring, summer, fall, winter and there was a neutral swap but mariposa can give better info as she hosts this swap.

the accountant in me won't let me arbitrarily over pay on postage. my mind would be calculating what other items i coulda mailed with the over postage i paid. so i try to stay close to what it costs me to mail items in the various swaps i participate in. i know is may just be me.:D

I will be doing the 30 sets...I

I never got to finish my reply something crazy happened to the pc or the internet... awhile ago I wanted to join in a ps swap and cut a bunch of them..BUT...I ended up sewing them together :)....I now have 500 done..1/3rd of the way thru...so I guess you could say that I'm joinging this group!!! Honchey

Honchey-- Glad to have you along! :)

My goodies are on their way to Mariposa. Can't wait until it is time to watch the mail box!

Think I'm getting jealous.. I have no way to get to the P.O., as I am in the office when the P.O is open. I'm relying on my 84 y.o mom to help.. There is one near the gym that she goes to, but it's been too hot to keep stopping..

can't you do a mail drop at work? i use to take my personal mail to the mailroom to have it mailed out when at work or perhaps you can have it go out with work's mail when the postal carrier shows up for the day. also if you p.o. has boxes outside the bldg. you can drop your mail in after hours. it will get in the system. no need to task your dear old mom.:)

Besides being jealous, I'm also getting grump with the US Postal authority. Mom came home with three envelopes that were not priority, and were $2.19 per.. I also needed stamp.. I have to go in after work tomorrow.. They said they didn't have any. I find it hard to believe..

Sorry you are having trouble, barri1. It will be worth it, though!

I'd like to join again. As long as I'm feeling better, I'll do 30 sets. I have a lot cut already. Found out I have a blood clot in my leg today, but by then, I'll be OK.

oh the postage amount issue. just a mini suggestion, since you participate in several swaps i would buy a postage scale to help with monitoring how much postage your envelopes will cost. i got mine from ebay for around $15.00. it is worth its weight in perhaps silver.:)

i weigh my envelopes and packages, check for postage amounts on usps.com, stamp my envelopes or print out postage labels for my packages. it is all quite convenient. i use to collect stamps (who knows why) so i found i had a lot of $0.32 stamps around so i started using them up plus i occasionally buy stamps when i go to the po.

overall stay calm and cool as swapping is suppose to be fun not stressful.

I think it was because I was stuck in the office all week.. and now I will try to pack a ton of stuff in over the weekend. Of course the dog had an attitude that he deserves to be played with.. He wouldn't let me sew.. I was nice.. Now that he is in the dog house at my feet, and sound asleep, I'm wondering if I should bang on the dog house, and wake him up.. He doesn't do mornings..

I dont want to swap but have some padded envelopes with 1" postage st amp pieces if anyone wants them!! Just pm me!!!!

goldendog-- glad to have you playing along with us! Hope your leg gets better quick!

thanks paniacs. i could use this size for my ps potholders. i sent you a pm.

I haven't checked in here in a bit and had to do some "catching up!" I've sent Mariposa a PM to get mailing addy so my package can go out to her.

The talk of the Post Offices and pricing for mailing makes me giggle. Out here in the boonies, the local "post office" doesn't deliver, only has boxes and is only open for a couple of hours on Saturdays. When we first moved here, that wasn't a problem as I didn't work and could go pick up the mail. When I went back to work, though, we changed to the PO from the next hamlet over as they do deliver - including to our road. Go figure.

That PO is about 5 miles away and is considered a "small facility" by the USPS; the next one would be about 12. When I sent my CQ swap packages out, Austrailia, Germany and Malaysia cost $3.78 each. Canada was $3.12; US ones were just under $2.

peaceandjoy- sounds like you are very busy with all of your mailings! :)

Does anyone else feel like all they do is CUT? lol......I do love getting my surprises in the mail so it's worth it!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]356950[/ATTACH]getting all my 1.5" postage stamp squars ready for mailing.