Wednesday, September 18, 2013

More I spy goodness

I have been collecting I Spy squares to make quilts and other project for my kids and for gifts. I hope to be able to gift at least one I spy quilt for my nephew for Christmas. (Good thing he can't read yet, Hee Hee!)

I wanted to make a quilt for my youngest son with the things he loves, mostly cars, trucks, and everything else that moves! I found some great examples of I Spy Transportation quilts.

I found this one from www.blossomheartquilts.com. I love that the back of the quilt is a panel.

You can play I Spy with the front, and run toy car on the back! 

I also found this one at betteroffthread.com.

I would love to create a Transportation I spy quilt for my son, so to collect all the squares needed, I opened a swap for I spy transportation fabric. See this post if you are interested in collecting transportation charm squares for your own quilt. You can see selections of fabrics other swappers are submitting here.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

I Spy Transportation swap open!


This swap is now closed! What a great turn out! 

Have you heard of I spy quilts? They use novelty prints with all types of images a child would recognize and be able to play "I Spy" with. 
 I just discovered I Spy quilts and swaps, and have become a bit obsessed! I would really like to make a quilt for my youngest son, who loves trucks, cars, trains…. You get it, everything that moves! To collect a variety of squares for his quilt, I thought I would host my own swap.

One of the fabrics I have picked to swap. 

We will be swapping sets of 20, 5 inch charm squares of transportation related fabric. This can be planes, trains, cars, work trucks, bikes, tractors, or even shoes. In addition, street signs, railroad tracks, or any other transportation related items would be great.


Another fabric I am swapping. 


 You can swap more than one set, up to 4 sets (each set a different fabric). You should be able to cut 20 five inch squares from around 1/2 yard of fabric depending on the design spacing. Please make sure that the image is close to center on the square as possible, and fussy cut if needed.

Carefully rotary cut your fabric in to 5 x 5 squares. Be sure to remove the selvage from both sides. Squares that are poorly cut or wonky and cannot be used as received will be returned unswapped.

To brush up on cutting charm’s see this tutorial. http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2010/05/charm-squares-101.html


Please send 100% cotton only quilt shop quality fabric. No Joannes, Hobby Lobby, or Wal Mart fabric. Mind the golden rule, send what you would like to receive. Also, keep in mind that the charms are designed to be in a child’s quilt, and should be recognizable to a child. 
Please post a photo of your selected fabric to our flicker group, and check out the photos before selecting your fabrics. That way we can avoid duplicates.


Place each set of 20 charms in a zip lock sandwich size baggie. Include your name, address, and flicker name on a piece of paper and put it inside baggies. Also include a self-addressed postage paid envelope for your charms to be returned to you. DO NOT use metered mail. (When I send off for swaps, I take the package in to be weighed with the return envelope in it, but left unsealed. I have them weigh it to determine the postage, add the postage to the return envelope, and seal up the package to send off.) You can get free flat rate envelopes from USPS on their website. They take a few days to arrive after order. 

I hope to have sign ups for at least 80 sets (4 groups of 20 sets), so we don't have duplicates. I will keep the sign ups open until Oct 1st, or until full. 

I will collect all the charm sets, distribute them randomly and return to you the same number of sets you sent in. I will try to not send out duplicates, but that will depend on the number of participants and how many sets you sent in.



At this time the swap is open to US residents only. If this works out, I’ll get brave and have another swap open to all.


The last day for me to receive the charms is October 18th, and will hope to get them back in the mail by the 25th. (Your own little trick or treat package!) I will update the list when I receive your charms. Anything received after October 18th will be returned to you.

To sign up, please email me at sweetiepgarden@yahoo.com or add a comment below with your email, flicker name, number of sets you would like to swap. 

I will send an email out with my address and any other information needed for the swap. I will also update the flicker page with a participant list and packages received. 

Thanks for playing! 

10/4 UPDATE: We still have room for a few swappers! If you are interested, please leave a comment or send an email with the number of sets you would like, your Flickr ID, and an email address to contact you with the swap shipping address. Please keep in mind that the charms need to be to my by Oct 18th so I can get them back out by the 25th as promised. 

Monday, September 2, 2013

I have been swapping like crazy.

So I have been absent form my little blog for a few weeks. Summer got busy, and the kids wore me out! Each night I would have a plan for making something I would blog about later, but it never happened. I never got the time...

Ok, I'll be honest. I signed up for that first I spy swap that I told you about, and was totally hooked! I found a quilter's forum, and signed up for another swap of creepy crawly fabrics as well as a doll Quilt swap. Then I found an i spy swap group in yahoo groups. I have gotten back one set of squares and sent off another with them all ready. I also did a flicker group swap of rainbow F8 to add an assortment of color to my little stash. I have been shopping, cutting, and mailing fabric all summer! 

I am addicted to swapping fabric. I have got to find time to create something out of the mass of i spy fabrics I am collecting. I have a great idea for making my nephew an i spy quilt, and I was thinking that making Boo Boo bags from novelty fabric may also be a good idea for the 6 1/2 inch squares I have. 

In the mean time, I found another swap at my fabric obsession, and was the first to sign up. It is an ABC swap, and I picked the letter "F" because I already have some flamingo fabric all ready for i spy cutting! 

Have you done a swap? I have to say it is just too much fun!