UPDATE: The swap is full!

Fabric has started arriving for the i-spy fabric swap! There are so many amazingly cute fabrics, and the charm squares are always so satisfying in their little piles.

We still have space available, and I hope the spots will fill in the next few days so we can have a quick turnaround! If you know someone who would like to swap, please pass along the links to the signup registration form and the flickr group! And if you would like a second spot, please let me know! The flickr group has a thread for that. :-) http://nutellanutterson.blogspot.com/ and http://www.flickr.com/groups/1931379@N25/

I have sent everyone who has signed up the mailing information, so if you filled out the form but didn't hear from me, please leave a comment here or on the flickr group.

I'll be headed to Fabric Depot next weekend, so I'm resisting buying fabric until then. Which was made especially hard when Fabric.com had their boy/girl sale. It's like they knew our swap was coming!

Boy/Girl I-Spy Charm Square Swap

UPDATE:
SWAP IS FULL! YAY!

The mailing deadline is now FRIDAY JULY 20th. (Unless you are international, see below). This will give our newest swappers some more time to find fabulous fabrics.

It's time for snips and snails and puppydog tails! Get out the baking supplies, because there'll be sugar and spice and everything nice, too! Yep, I'm hosting our Boy/Girl themed I-Spy charm square swap.

As for what makes a boy or girl themed fabric, well, as the saying goes, we know it when we see it. I always try to provide "gender neutral" fabrics for swaps, but my little girl loves butterflies and kittens and she has somehow become acquainted with a certain group of friends who happen to be horses of small stature. Ahem. So here's the chance to send in trucks and trains and dinosaur eggs, or sparkly hummingbirds, kittens with hairbows, and panda-bear ballerinas. (I don't think this last one exists. I think that needs to be rectified, STAT!)

This is a i-spy themed 5" (charm square) swap for two different fabrics, one "boy" and one "girl" themed, with 1 yard of EACH fabric and cut 56 5" squares, 112 squares in total.

UPDATE: This swap is now open internationally! Please buy and send your fabric ASAP if you are outside of the US. I will keep track on the sign-ups and be sure to send you my address immediately if you are international.


Please follow the fabric cutting and shipping instructions, they are there to keep everything running smoothly!

With huge thanks to Ellison Lane's "how to host a fabric swap"

Here are the fabric requirements:

For swapping 5" charm squares, each person will purchase 1 yard each of one "boy" and one "girl" themed fabric and cut each into 5" charm squares. 1 yard = 56 charms. (I recommend buying one and an eighth or one and a quarter yards- never hurts to have a little extra in case you make a cutting mistake.)

Choose a fabric that has a small enough print suitable for an 5" charms. Scale of the print is very important as smaller works better in this case. A larger print has a larger repeat and you want each charm to have enough of the print showcased on each piece. In other words, no one wants to play "I spy" with just the back half of a horse!

If you choose a larger print, please buy sufficient material to "fussy cut" squares that will show entire objects centered on the square.

Please choose fabrics that fit with both I Spy (meaning an obvious object to "spy") and that are strongly boy or girl themed.

Please NO licensed characters. Yes trains, no Thomas. Yes fairytale castle, no Princess Dora.

Fabric should be designer label, 100% cotton, quilt shop quality fabric. No Hancocks, Joanns or Hobby Lobby fabrics. For a fabric swap, the fun is receiving quality fabric that you might not be able to pick up around the corner.

Fabric must be new and unwashed and must come from a smoke free environment.
Before mailing, cut your fabric into 5" x 5" charm squares. Press your fabric before cutting. 1 yard = 56 charm squares (5" x 5".) Here's a great tutorial on how to cut fabric into charms by Elizabeth Hartman.

Please stack your two fabrics into pairs and alternate angles for ease of sorting. (If this is confusing, I will post a photo onto our Flickr group of what I mean!

Put your fabric in a ziplock bag and include an index card with your name and email address. I like to put a return address sticker inside my ziplock, it's extra insurance for your fabric!

Upload pictures of your fabric to the swap Flickr group and include the name of the fabric, designer, etc. This ensures that there are no duplicate fabrics chosen and allows everyone to find out more about the fabrics in case they would like to order more once they have received their charms.

Shipping:

Participants must include a prepaid self-addressed, stamped envelope along with their charms when mailing them to you. A very easy way to handle this is to include a SAS priority mail envelope for $5.15.

Smaller package envelopes are fine too but participants should keep in mind: bubble envelopes or tyvek work best - no risk of tearing in the mail. Self sealing envelopes are also better. It saves the hostess (me!) from having to lick and secure flaps with tape.

To figure the postage cost, have the postmaster weigh your SASE along with the charms and purchase enough postage to cover the cost. Then put that postage on the SASE and place it inside your package along with your charms. Please use stamps, as the barcode from the machine is tied to *your* post office and date!