Fabric Swaps

[Grama Debbie]

I've done several swaps and really loved them. It does seem like life has gotten in the way, at least for me.

[Carlie Wolf]

"I see that there are a bunch swap groups, but only 3 active ones, with all of them closed until the end of the year. Is that because many are working hard on holiday projects, and it's harder to get people involved?


How do the fabric swaps work? Can anyone in a swap group start a swap, or only the moderator of the group?"




In the case of our Secret Santa 2020 swap the reason it does not remain open is that each individual who signs up commits to making 12 individual gifts based on a monthly theme. That's a lot of work and a person who might want to sign on, say, in August would be far behind the eight ball to complete 12 projects prior to the early December date for actually shipping to their Secret Santa recipient.

The other thing is that once a member signs on and they commit to this they will be paired up with the individual member they will be sending their gifts to. This takes planning and when you have around 25 members it becomes problematic if a person drops out throughout the year or if new members are added....i.e. there might not be anyone to pair them with. Once paired up and membership shut down people can get to work tailoring their gifts to their individuals likes if they wish rather then having all generic gifts :-)

So at least with a swap like this particular group having some limits in your rules kind of places some "order into chaos". Not sure if this applies to all swap groups but this is a rather large group.

Yes anyone can start a swap group, or any group for that matter. Set the perimeters of what you'd like the group to be and go to the Group Section. Fill out the items there listing yourself as moderator. Most will then post that they have formed a new group in the forum section so people can join. At some point if you no longer wish to be moderator either find someone who will replace you and they will take charge of the group or you can disband the group completely by deleting it from the Group section.

[Granny Judy]

My thought on the groups/swaps not being active was too many other projects for the holidays got in the way. I have done tutorials on how I made a quilt from scratch-No pattern. So I made up a pattern and shared it for my Hobo train quilt. That was a few years back. (2012)

I love the short and quick projects with Mug rugs, hot pads, wall hangings and ornaments. They can be done in a month and you are paired up with just one other person, so you are not making an item for each person who signed up. If there was an odd person, the moderator saved herself to be the partner, otherwise she was just free to moderate and chat with all members. To save on mailing cost, each member just sent off her item to whom ever they were partnered with. The problem is when someone has to drop out. That is when the moderator got busy and made the item for the single partner.

I don't recall having a round robin swap, but I did enjoy the block of the month swap. But that was several years ago. And that Mystery swap was amazing with the "2013 into the light" quilt blocks for the Mystery Quilt. The picture is just 1/4 of the one I made.


It seems those host of swaps have disappeared and I miss them greatly...

[Carol336]

I never really did any of the groups. Always intended to, but for some reason it just never happened.
I have wondered for some time now where all the people that used to be on here, the original members I guess, went.
I just figured maybe they liked the closeness of a smaller forum and when this one got too big they just moved on to another spot. I didn't know many of them personally, but I did enjoy their postings. I've been a member for about 6 years and have seen this forum grow by leaps and bounds and have seen many peeps come and go.