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!
The Tell Me A Story Holiday Swap is my largest swap of the year. There are 4 different themes that you can choose from when signing up and you can sign up for up to 2 teams.
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: This snowman just visited the candy shop for peppermints. He’s hiding them behind his back and is running to share them with his sweetheart before he melts! I would love it if you would share pictures of your blocks and tell their stories on Instagram using the hashtag #tellmeastoryblockswap. If you do not use IG, that’s ok too. It is not required, but swappers really appreciate it when you share your stories when you send your blocks. You can write them in the card, type and print them up, or write them on the foundation papers on the back of the block.
3. This swap has four possible themes! Read about each and think about which you would like to sew. You will be able to sign up for 2 teams on the sign up form (only one for each category).
***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. (example with the snowman above)
***Pink Christmas: Both the borders and fussy cuts should be primarily pink. Thank you to @moonlightquilters for making these samples for me.
***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.
Here’s an example: This deer is getting ready to celebrate the first snow fall of the season at the annual forest ball.
***Hanukkah Swap: Prints should have Hanukkah theme with Hanukkah imagery and tell a story about the holiday. There are no color restrictions as long as the imagery is in keeping with the holiday.
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. Due to the size of the Holiday swap, I will not be permitting additional teams. You are welcome to set up side swaps if you crave more! I would ask that you please do that independently from the official swap group email chains to limit confusion.
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. I can provide more varied teams if more people agree to send blocks internationally.
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 December 7, 2026. 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!
If you do not send your blocks on time for the Halloween TMAS swap, you will not be allowed to participate in this swap.