Swapping and personal responsibility

This spring and summer I've hosted and participated in a few (um, a few too many!) fabric swaps. And something I'm realizing is that without a personal connection to the people one is swapping with, drop-outs and timeliness are real issues. And, I would hazard a guess, the quality of fabric goes down.

In particular I've noticed a lack of necessary fussy-cutting for I-Spy fabric squares. This is a real shame, because a perfect fabric can be ruined by cutting. As one swap guidelines said "no one wants half a turtle!" It's really frustrating because swapping is pretty much the only reasonable way to get the hundreds of fabrics necessary for a good I-Spy or storytelling quilt.

I think that leading into summer is also just a bad time for swapping - people are focused on getting their kids out of school, there are schedule changes, vacations, lots and lots of distractions.

I've been thinking of hosting an I-Spy swap this fall, after Labor Day. But I'm struggling with how to get participants to take the swap seriously, provide good fabric, and not come off like the Fabric Swap dictator.

In related news, I've been reading Daniel Pink's Drive, and MrNutterson has been reading Predictably Irrational. These books both center on human behavior and the surprising ways we all act. Some of the information I've learned from these books has led me to think that getting good swap participation is NOT about awarding prizes to swap participants, publicly shaming those who are late, or otherwise giving "external" motivation. If I can vastly paraphrase two entire books, it's about work being satisfying emotionally, and feeling challenged creatively.

So perhaps it will motivate people if I'm able to help participants remember that you literally give as good as you get, and that these swaps are only awesome when we all choose great fabrics and cut carefully!