Are you guys watching?

Because I sure am!

I finally have curves!

August Bee Inspired Block for Krista
Originally uploaded by MeredithOK

I just tried a curved pattern for the first time for Krista's month in Bee Inspired. I was a little nervous about this, but I used this tutorial which worked perfectly...

How to Host a Swap...Without Going Insane

One of our swap participants asked that I blog about the actual process of managing the swap. It seems complicated, but really it's very straitforward, and anyone can do it. So...here's how it worked...

1. 
   
   I co-hosted the swap with my sister-in-law, Wendy. This was nice because it cut down on the work for one person. She coordinated all the sign-ups and sent instructions to everyone. I received all the fabrics, distributed them, and will mail them out.
   


2. 
   
   We had 20 participants (including ourselves) who each sent 20 4 inch squares of 10 different patterns (total of 200 squares from each person). Each person will get 200 squares back, but with 200 different patterns. So, just remember that the amount of fabric people send will be the same amount that they get back.
   


3. 
   
   This meant that I was collecting 4,000 pieces of fabric which seems overwhelming, but really, it was just a matter of storing them until I was ready to distribute. Whenever I got a package in the mail, I'd mark the person down, and stash their squares in my very sophisticated storage system...
   
   
   
   

   



4. 
   
   Once I received everyone's squares, I started the process of distributing them into 20 different stacks. Starting with the first pattern...
   
   

   



5. 
   
   And going through all 200 different patterns...I'm sure there are lots of ways to do this, but by doing it all at once, and one pattern at a time, I could be sure that each person got every single pattern. This took a LOT longer than I thought it would. About 4 hours. But I got to touch every single piece of beatiful fabric, so that made it worth it :)
   
   
   

   



6. 
   
   We also asked each swapper to send a self-addressed stamped envelope with their fabrics. This made it MUCH easier to package the squares up to send out.

And tomorrow I will head to the post office!

So that's pretty much it! Not so scary, huh? This was my first swap to host and it has been a great experience! I highly recommend it!

And then there were 4,000!

It's official...I have 4,000 squares of novelty fabric in my house! Here are the last three sets...Hopefully I'll have everything divided up and ready to ship on Monday. Also, I had a request to do a blog post about the process of hosting a swap in a semi-organized fashion. Stay tuned.

On to the important stuff...

Gina from TX sent these in...aren't those lips cool?

(Public Service Announcement: My camera is off. way off. It needs to go to the camera graveyard. That cute froggie is actually on HOT PINK fabric.)

Anna from WA sent these...*Gasp*

And lastly...here are my picks. This was my first time to shop specifically for novelty fabrics and it was SO MUCH FUN! When else do you have a reason to buy singing pigs or wiener dogs?

So that's it...now on to make some sense out of this craziness!

Bundles of Love

Or as I'm calling it..."Purge for Peace"...

I ran across this blog about 30 minutes ago. The woman's husband is in Iraq and is collecting bundles of fabric supplies to hand out to Iraqi women who can use the items to make a living. Um - yes! Sign me up!

So in less than 30 minutes I gathered up a stack full of supplies that will soon be on their way to the middle east...

• Several yards of solid fabric that didn't make it into my "Bee Inspired" quilt
• Lots of extra fat quarters left over from the vintage sheet quilt I did last year
• 4 balls of yarn from my crocheting days.
• A pair of the 53 pairs of scissors living in my house
• 3 spools of thread
• Extra pins
• Buttons & velcro
• A few pieces of ribbon
• A travel sewing kit filled with goodies
  
  
  
  And I even found an extra tote bag to bundle it together!

I don't even know where that bag came from...isn't crazy how much extra stuff we gather?

Go over to see Kristin if you'd like to participate...it will make you feel good, I promise!

Two More!

Deb sent these all the way from New Zealand...if I HAD to pick a favorite, it'd be those sheep!

And Donna sent these from PA...that red cardinal is most definitely my favorite!

And lastly, I have been resisting the urge to buy my own I-SPY fabrics until everything came in so that I could be sure I wouldn't buy a duplicate pattern. But today it happened...I reached my limit on self-control and I caved. I'll wait to post pictures, but get ready for some wiener dogs in sweaters!

We're getting closer!

Dianah from CA sent these...

and her mom, Liz, sent these...and I really want to go to their fabric shop because some of these prints are amazing!

Next up...Gail from MO sent these...love those frogs!

And Deanna from FL sent these...I spy flamingos!

And last, but not least, Annie from TX sent these...those hearts totally remind me of my childhood for some reason...

ALSO - Hosting does not come without it's rewards! Gail sent us some cute fabric and Whitney sent us some jellybeans! Those are Wendy's jellybeans in the picture...mine were eaten a long time ago. I'm pretty proud of myself for NOT eating Wendy's and never telling her that they were sent. Not that I thought about doing that...