"Million Square" Quilt Swap (sign ups CLOSED; mail by July 14th)

[starlawill]

Swap name: "Million Square" Quilt Swap (sign ups June 11th - June 18th, Send outs July 1st)
Craftster member who is organizing this swap: starlawill
Sign-up date range: June 11th - 17th
Date to send item by: July 1st

Limited to a certain number of people? (optional): No

Non-U.S. participants allowed? Yes

All ages allowed? Or 18+? Yes

Organizer is aware of current list of "suspended traders"
list and will not allow those members to participate: YES

Organizer meets the 4 conditions for swapping and will make sure that every participant meets these conditions: YES

Details of swap:
This swap was inspired by kitty1256's quilt seen here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=93968.0
What we will be doing is swapping 1.5 inch squares to hopefully get us started and on our way to one of these fun quilts! You will be swapping with everyone that participates so be prepared to send to more than one address. Each person will cut out squares to send to each swapper. The number of squares you send, will depend upon each swapper's preferences. Only send what the other swapper is willing to send. Even if you want to swap 40, but they only want to send 20. So you send 20. Hope that makes sense.  Please fill out the questionnaire and PM it back to me. Keep in mind, you may or may not receive fabrics exactly matching your preferences as some people might be cleaning out their scrap bin. But that's what's fun about this quilt, it's all over the place!
Also please make sure you only send 100% cotton. No silks, polyester, etc. Also, please try to send a variety of fabric. You don't have to send 20 different squares of fabric, but make the colors a little mixed.

Once you have everyone's info, please keep in communication with each other. There will be alot of packages getting sent out so communication is key! PM me when you send, and when you receive. Because of the large number of packages you will be sending, DC's will be too expensive. BUT, I do want you to get a receipt when you mail. If something happens and a package gets lost, this will be your proof you sent.


If you want to participate, information to send to organizer:

QUESTIONNAIRE TO ANSWER:
Name of swap:
Craftster username:
Email address:
Your real name:
Mailing address:
Would you be willing to ship to an address outside of the US?:
Favorite colors:
Colors you dislike:
How many squares are you willing to send per person(in increments of 20):


IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE, REMEMBER TO SEND YOUR INFO TO ORGANIZER VIA PRIVATE MESSAGE AND NOT TO REPLY WITH IT HERE.


Also remember to read the Swap Info Guide to find out how to ship your item and other details about participating in a swap.

APPROVED SWAPPERS/# OF SQUARES WILLING TO SEND:

blue is sent
I will list people as they receive from you next to your name. In the end, you should have 14 names.
green means everyone has received from you
Red means you need to contact me, you're in danger of receiving negative feedback

starlawill - 40
angelofmusic - flexible
Ezri_B - 40
Miss Mordoria - 20
charliebrown - 40
simply - 40
momwith3kids - 40
ctgirl - 40
bloomingkinder - 40
gaudiknight - 40
highway16 - 40
kitty1256 - 40
kirstyd - 40
Stephen Weaver - flexible
craftgirl_sampson - 40

[angelofmusic]

I've sent in my sign-up.  Off to go dig and cut!

[kirstyd]

I've sent in my sign-up too. Can we all use 100 % cotton? Synthetics can be really hard to manage when they are teeny tiny bits like this.

[Stephen Weaver]

I won't qualify to join this until the 30th - new to Craftster - but will send you in my questionnaire then, so "pencil me in" as the agents say!

[angelofmusic]

I've sent in my sign-up too. Can we all use 100 % cotton? Synthetics can be really hard to manage when they are teeny tiny bits like this.

Obviously I'm not the organizer, but I would say 100% cottons would be fine.  You might want to include a note with them saying that they are 100% cotton, so no one will accidentally wash them in warm/hot or dry them hot and shrink them. 
I usually quilt in Poly/Cotton blends and have never had a problem cutting 1.5" squares.  I actually already have a large collection of 1.5"s that I was saving up to make a "postage stamp" quilt and they are all poly/cotton blends. 
One tip I would give for cutting individual blocks from small scraps (not strip quilitng) is to invest in a 1.5" square template from your local quilt store or craft store.  I got mine at Hobby Lobby on sale 50% off.  Mine is made by Omnigrid and I love it.  I also have the 2.5" one.  They are designed for use with rotary cutters, so you won't cut your template all up and thus end up with oddly shaped pieces (those of you who use cardboard templates know what I'm talking about!)  Anyway...just a bit of advice.

[starlawill]

ok so i sent a pm to the swap mod. this topic will either be deleted or i'll just change the dates. the template thing is a great idea! i'm going to pick one up this week. and i also was more specific about types of fabric.

[starlawill]

alrighty so i got the ok from the swap mod just to push the dates back. soooo, the dates are changed and as soon as everyone has the ok to swap, sign ups can begin. i've saved the pm's i've received so far. i'll remind you guys again once the dates come up again. lol

[Ezri_B]

Are we going to need a dc number to send these? I would imagine that we could fit 20 squares in an envelope with a normal stamp, having this many send outs and this many envelopes could get really expensive for a fairly inexpensive swap.

Plus we're sending to multiple people, so it's really easy to see who flaked and who didn't.

[Stephen Weaver]

I agree - tracking all these sendouts could be very costly, especially from UK - US or vice-versa.  Personally, I would prefer to trust other crafters and if anyone didn't get my envelope, I can always send another - I'm NOT short of fabric!

[angelofmusic]

I agree about the DC numbers.  It's not very likely for an envelope not to make it through the mail & if we're only doing 20 squares, it's not like we couldn't send another if it did get lost.  And flakers would be easy to spot!

I looked up the information on the USPS website.  This is all for sending in the US only:
A first-class envelope stamp is $0.39 (I would hope all you Americans knew that! lol!)
Delivery Confirmation on first-class mail is $0.60.
So if you sent 1 envelope with no tracking: $0.39
If you sent 1 envelope with DC: $0.99
If we had, say, 12 swappers - no tracking = $4.68; DC = $11.88
So as you can see from the math, it could get quite expensive using DC.

Here's the calculation for one letter to the UK at Air-Mail Letter Post rates:
1 letter airmail = $0.84
If you added the Certificate of Mailing for $0.95 your 1 letter would cost $1.79.

You'd probably have to run it by the mods first, but my vote would be no DC! (chant with me: NO DC! NO DC! NO DC!  lol!)