Starting Early…a Christmas Quilt Swap!

UPDATE : The Quilt Block Swap is now full. All of those who commented are in. Please keep an eye out for an email with full details about the swap! Can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with! YAY!

Keep commenting or emailing though…if there is enough interest (12 more people), we could do 2 group swaps! 🙂

Oh yes, you read that correctly. I’m thinking about Christmas. With this sweltering Louisiana heat, it seems hard, but lately, all I can think of is cooler weather, a kitchen smelling of cinnamon and a Christmas tree adorned with presents underneath.

Since starting my sewing hobby last November, I’ve been thinking about the day when I could add handmade Christmas decor to the house. Last Christmas, I was lucky if I was able to make a tote bag, much less a Christmas quilt.

My blogging friend and fellow ‘bee, Jennifer of Moonlight and Magnolias, also sews and quilts. She actually brought up this Christmas quilt idea , since quilting has become such a fun hobby!

We want to involve you guys: our readers. How, you ask? A centralized quilt block swap! Are you intrigued? I sure hope so! This is going to be fun!

Image credit

Now, here’s the deets. This is the quilt block we will be making, which is from Moda Bake Shop by Doug Leko. While that quilt has 35 blocks, we don’t want to make this super daunting on every participant (35 blocks is  a lot to take on and that makes a huge quilt). So, this will be a 12 block quilt.

As you can see, the quilt blocks themselves are fairly simple, so most quilters can participate and end up with a great quilt in the end!

Each participant would make 12 quilt blocks (using Christmas-y quilters cotton…there’s tons of fun prints out there, so GO WILD!) and send them to us by October 15th (you have plenty of time). Please  include a paper name tag pinned to the back of EACH your blocks, so the recipient will know who else has generously swapped. Name tags should have your first name, city and state, and blog if you have one.

You would then take your finished blocks to the post office without sealing the package. Have them weigh your package and buy that amount of postage, plus $.20 to make sure, and stick that on your return envelope. Place that envelope in with the blocks and send it on its way.

Once we receive all of the blocks, we will assemble the new kits of 12 blocks and send them your way. You should get your package by the November 1st.

After that, it’s up to you to make the quilt. When you’re done with the quilt, send us a picture of your finished project by December 15th, and we’ll do a quilt block swap round-up on our blogs!

Since Jennifer and I are participating, all we need are 10 more people to make this quilt block swap happen! If you are interested, just leave a comment here with your email address by September 15th. To keep shipping simple, we ask that participants must live in the continental U.S. The first 10 commenters on either blog will be in. Please only comment if you will truly commit to this swap, so everyone will end up with their 12 blocks in the end. 🙂

If you have any questions, please email me at niftyfoodie at gmail dot com or comment!