I got home to a lovely package of fabric I’d forgotten was coming today! It’s so nice to get things in the mail, and I really must not do any more ebay fabric buying this year (which I do sometimes just because I like gettin things in the mail. So how can I get around this resolution and still get nice quilty things in the mail? A swap seems to be the obvious answer!
The problem is that most of the quilty swaps seem to be in America, and/or on-going. I’m lazy / commitment-phobic and can’t commit to a block a month as I may get bored… So what to do? I’m wondering if I can scare up enough Aussie online quilting friends (say 10 – not being ambitious here) and do one of the following….
1) Fabric Swap
Eye-spy Charm squares – each person would send 10 charm squares (same or not) and a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE), to one person (me I’m guessing) who would then sort them into 10 piles, and post them back. That way you’d get to clear out a bit of your stash and get 10 different charm squares (hopefully) without having to buy 10 different fabrics. Everyone wins!
2) Colour coded swap
As above, but send 10 charm squares of a specific colour (same or diff) … etc.
3) Block Swap
This one is easy – choose a block type, and probably a dominating colour would be a good idea, or a theme, draw someone’s name out of a hat, and do a swap. This is probably better as an ongoing swap. I’m not sure I see the point of getting one block of a type. If I want heart blocks or pin-wheels, or something else, I don’t want just one of them and I don’t want totally random colours/patterns. So it would be better to take turns at being the ‘receiver’ and get a number of blocks from a group. So I’m thinking this one is too much for commitment-phobes like me. 😉
4) Mug rug swap
I like this one as it’s an easy one. The idea is that you draw a name out of a hat, and make that person a ‘mug-rug’ which is essentially a large coaster – has room for a biscuit and a cup of tea. (Notice I put biscuit first – says something about my priorities!). Beauty of this is you get a ‘whole’ finished product, it’s not too much commitment. You could specify “I would like an orange/owl-themed mug rug” or you could leave it up to the mystery swap person. You KNOW there’s going to be some applique in whatever I make, and I love a challenge.
5) Mixed option – Mug-blockswap
Participants draw a name out of a hat. You make a block of specific size (say half the size of a mug rug), or choose a fabric you like, and send it to their swap person who will then finish it off into a mugrug and send it back to you. I kinda like this one as customisable, but the problem is that I’d have to do some work first and I think that would slow things down considerably.
I’m leaning towards option 4. What do you think?
Quokka Quilts 
Ok Laura…I am keen to do option 1. I can have 10 x 5″ or 6.5″ posted this week if anyone else is interested.