Join the Tell Me A Story Block Swap–Holiday Edition! This is a last minute swap so you need to read the guidelines below and sign up before November 1. All blocks must be sent by December 1. If you are shipping internationally, I would ask you to try to ship even earlier. The rules are different for this swap so please read carefully! You will be swapping in groups of 9, one block each, so that you can make a pillow as shown above in time for Christmas or winter. Important note: my sample is not sewn in the color palette that we will be following so pay attention to all the verbiage below! To be inclusive, there are both Christmas and Winter options. This swap is not taking the place of another regular Tell Me A Story Block Swap. We will have Round 7 after the holidays.
If you are new to paper piecing, I have a YouTube video available to help you. Find it here. Even if you aren’t new, you might pick up some tips!
In order for a swap to be successful, there need to be guidelines. Here they are:
Making the Blocks
1. You must purchase a copy of my book, Intentional Piecing, in order to get the Tell Me A Story block pattern. Signed copies are available in my Etsy shop with free media mail shipping to US customers. You can also find my book on Amazon (this is an affiliate link), or at your local quilt shop/book shop, or your town library. The block pattern cannot be purchased independently due to copyright reasons. Please remember that it is against copyright law to make copies and distribute them as well.
2. The idea of the Tell Me A Story block is that you are telling stories with your fabric selections. It’s silly fun. Here’s an example: the gnome searched the entire forest with the help of his deer friends to find the perfect tree. He felt very satisfied as he placed the star on the top.
3. IMPORTANT: My example is not sewn following these instructions because I didn’t have enough time before posting. There are two options for this swap: Christmas and Winter. The fussy cuts should be modern fabrics or quirky Japanese prints. I suggest Cotton + Steel, Art Gallery Fabrics, Heather Ross, Lizzy House, Riley Blake, Dear Stella, etc. Avoid children’s novelty prints (cartoon like, babyish, licensed prints–stay with the more modern aesthetic). Please try to find fabrics with this look so that the resulting projects hold together with blocks that have the same feel.
***Christmas Swap: Both the borders and the fussy cuts should be traditional red, green, white, silver and gold Christmas colors. Touches of other colors are permitted but they should read as traditional color schemes overall.
***Winter Swap: Prints must have no reference at all to Christmas (religious or secular) but rather include snow, snowflakes, little winter animals in scarves, etc. Because of the range of fabrics you might find with these themes, there are no color restrictions for the fussy cuts and borders in the Winter swap.
4. The inner triangles must be pieced in black. You may use any quilt shop quality fabric but it must be a solid black.
5. The outermost triangles must be what I call “way low volume” fabrics. Here is a photo of what I mean. The fabrics should be white or off white and any print must be white, light beige or light gray. I don’t want any colors added in these triangles.
6. Make sure that you photocopy your foundation pattern at 100% so that it measures 6 1/2″ square unfinished (including the seam allowances).
7. Please press well between each step so that your blocks are well sewn and will fit together well with the other blocks. Creases and folds in your fabric can make it hard to piece the blocks together.
8. Please leave the foundation papers in your blocks. This will keep them in better shape and avoid any stretching on the bias. If you need to remove them to reduce international shipping costs, that is an exception.
It’s my hope that by sticking to these guidelines, the finished blocks will work together beautifully in your pillow top and you will have such a great assortment of fussy cuts to round out those found in your own stash.
Swapping Logistics
You will be assigned to a group. The number of groups will depend on how many participants we have. Each group will include 9 people.
Everyone in your group will receive your mailing address so that they can ship to you directly.
You will sew a total of 9 blocks and send 1 to each person in your group (keeping 1 for yourself!). You can either make them all different, or you can use a single fussy cut/fabric combo for all of your blocks.
You may be required to ship internationally.
In order to keep shipping costs low, and to allow international participation, we want to be able to mail as a first class letter. This should be possible if you just send the one block in a note card. If someone has the means to send extras and wants to, it’s ok. But it is not expected with this swap. It’s supposed to be inexpensive, quick and easy!
You must email me when you ship to your group. It’s just about accountability! I want to make sure that everyone sends so that everyone receives.
If your swap members do not receive blocks from you, you will be asked to resend.
You will receive your group assignment by November 3, 2019 via email.
You must ship by December 1, 2019. Please do your absolute best to meet this deadline and to be fair to your group members. You may ship early!
To sign up, please complete this short form by November 1, 2019.
Let me know if you have any questions and I will answer them here, in the comments, for everyone’s benefit. Yay! Let’s get fussy cutting!!