Why swap?  Well, if you are working on this quilt, you quickly find yourself running out of fussy cuts from your stash.  By swapping, you will receive a variety of fussy cut blocks to include in your quilt top. You also meet new quilting friends from all over the world and have a reason to run to your mailbox!

If you are new to paper piecing, I have a YouTube video available to help you. 

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 inexpensive media mail shipping to US customers.  If you are able to purchase the book from me, it really means a lot to me as the author and small business owner.

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. Basically, come up with a fussy cut fabric and a border fabric that together tell a story. You can watch my “Anatomy of a Tell Me A Story Block” video that I made to illustrate this point. It’s nice to include your stories with the blocks when you send them. Please also remember that the border print is a part of the story, not just the fussy cut, so refrain from using blenders that have no part in the story but just match colorwise.

For example, in the block above, the little bee is busy collecting pollen from all the beautiful flowers. It can be that simple!

3. This round will have two options–an Under the Sea theme and a General theme. I only had one piece of fabric suitable for the Under the Sea theme but I have seen so many in shops recently that I know you can find them. If you swap with this theme, make sure that your fabrics have Under the Sea themes and tell a story with your choices. If you join the General swap, your stories can be about whatever you like!

The fussy cuts should be modern fabrics or quirky Japanese prints.  I suggest Cotton + Steel, Ruby Star Society, Art Gallery Fabrics, Heather Ross, Windham, Riley Blake, Dear Stella, etc.  Avoid children’s novelty prints (cartoon like, babyish, primary colors, licensed prints–stay with the more modern aesthetic).  Please try to find fabrics with this look so that the resulting quilt tops hold together with blocks that have the same feel.

You may join up to two teams.

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). Double check this before you start piecing.

7. When you are piecing your block, take note that you are working with the foundation facing in the correct orientation. When you look at the front of your finished block and turn it over, like the page of a book, the letters and numbers should be in the correct direction (not upside down or sideways.)

8.  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.

9. 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.

10. Please backstitch. With so much handling, the stitches can come undone. Remember, these blocks are often collected for a long time before they are sewn into quilts!

It’s my hope that by sticking to these guidelines, the finished blocks will work together beautifully in your quilt 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 10 people. I can no longer attempt to avoid matching you with previous swappers so you may have repeats in your group from previous rounds. If you request multiple teams, you may get overlap too. Depending on interest, I may need to modify the group size a little bit. Sometimes I have had teams as small as 8 or as large as 11.

Everyone in your group will receive your mailing address so that they can ship to you directly.

You will sew a total of 20 blocks and send 2 to each person in your group (keeping 2 for yourself!).  You can either make them all different, or you can use a single fussy cut/fabric combo for half the blocks and another combo for the other half.  You just want to make sure that you send two unique blocks to each person (in other words, not two identical blocks).

The swap is open internationally but you will be asked if you are willing to send internationally when you sign up. I am sorry but I have to eliminate Australia from the swap. It has become too expensive and difficult to ship blocks out from Australia. Recently, it has become more expensive shipping from Norway too so please look into this before signing up.

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 two blocks in a greeting card.  Putting them inside of a card makes it feel like a thick card and there is usually no problem with a letter stamp. If fabric is detected (when they are loose) then you will be told to send as a package which is more expensive. Do weigh your envelopes because they can go over the one ounce limit and you may need to add a tiny bit more postage. Extras are not included in this swap. Just send your blocks and their stories!

I made a video showing the best way to fold your blocks to mail them.

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.

What Happens When Blocks Don’t Arrive?

I will send an email to your team when everyone has mailed their blocks. If you do not receive all of your blocks after 3 weeks, let me know and I will ask that person to make and send new blocks. I track the sending of blocks but not the receipt so if you want blocks resent, you need to reach out to me.

Obviously, I cannot go to a swapper’s house and physically make them send their blocks or replacement blocks. If a swapper does not follow up on their obligations, you will not receive the blocks, but they are not welcome to swap in the future.

If your swap members do not receive blocks from you, you will be asked to resend. Please also understand that sometimes unexpected things happen and a team member is unable to meet their obligation. If you feel like you will not be able to accept this possibility graciously, this swap may not be for you. There will be no swap angels.

You will receive your group assignment following the close of signups via email.

You must ship by September 23.  You may ship early! In fact, I love it when people send early!

If you joined a previous round and did not send your blocks, you will not be allowed to participate in the next round. 

Please join us!

In order to fit in a Halloween swap followed by a Winter/Hanukkah/Christmas swap, sign up periods for the next swap will overlap with the current swap. If you do not send your blocks by the deadline, you will be removed from the next swap because there will not be time to make good on your commitment before the next swap starts.