formerly "the cozy quilt
patch"
SMS Swap
Philosophy
I have been asked this
question from time to time and this is what I believe:
Only swap fabrics that
you would like to receive. Sew from your heart. If you do your best
it will reflect in your work. I give plenty of allowance for
deadlines so don't rush your work, it will show. Also there is really
NO excuse for being late in my swaps because of the time I do allow
for getting them in. You have plenty of time to make arrangements to
get them to me. I will work with you, just communicate with me and I
understand unforeseen circumstances too.
I'm not the block police
and do not plan to be. I swap with ALL from experienced to
beginners. I'm not perfect and think that people
are more important than the blocks. I will NOT hurt any feelings,
but I WILL offer suggestions to help them improve their blocks and let
them know that they need to be more accurate on their sewing and/or
cutting. If you expect ALL perfect blocks from my swaps then you may
want to sew them all yourself. I do not want to exclude anyone for
any circumstances. We have all had to learn somewhere. I welcome
hand sewn blocks as well as machined. I think these things give our
blocks character. The
only exclusion to this is: if your blocks are totally crooked, points
are way off or the final outcome size is lacking measurements of the
specified size, will I consider not swapping the blocks out. This is
only fair to those who have taken their time and ripped many stitches
just to get theirs right.
I keep an open
mind in my swaps and I admire swappers who are honest with me and keep
me informed of unforeseen circumstances or if they just cannot do the
swap. I will go way out of my way to establish contact with swappers
whom I have not heard from and if their swap never makes it to me, I
will send an email to never join my swaps again. I've had to do this
and it crushes me because not only are they letting me down, but the
entire group. I will always try to sew extras to fill in the empty
spots so none of us end up short of blocks, but I can't guarantee this
always.
Dealing with
soooo many people is a big job. I can't please them all and when the
fun is gone, that's when I hang up hosting. I try to keep things
fresh and fun. I email my swappers often and keep them posted and
updated... I sometimes even have to nudge a few.. LOL. You are more
than welcome to email me your opinions and I WILL read them, I may not
do anything about them.. but I WILL read them and take them into
consideration.
Charity:
Please always mail in "1" extra swap block. I send over 100 blocks
out at a time to various charities. I'm a stickler on this. I feel
that when donating blocks to charity that you give your BEST. These
are people who REALLY NEED them. If you send something that you would
not have even used yourself, you only hurting the ones who have less,
because it reminds them who and where they are. I pray (tears in my
eyes) that you give from the heart or not at all. I send these blocks
off and I'd much rather see a block that can be used to make a quilt
than one that is just looked down upon thinking... "Can you believe
they sent this?" and put into an unused pile that the quilters are
going to have to go and do a lot of work on it to be able to even use
it..
Now that you've
read this, I hope you understand my philosophy in hosting, swapping &
charity work.
Much Love,
