MAKING NEW FRIENDS!!

I am just now getting caught up on the SOTTS Forum, as I have been a little busier than I normally am. I am about 20 pages behind right now, but there was a LOT of talk about duplicates, triplicates, or not getting any from....... Anyway, I have just made some new and wonderful friends! SOTTT sisters. WHY? Because of overages, unders, shortages, and duplicates! Jan Billings (fiberwoman) was able to help me in a big way, as I was 28 short. She even gave me a list to chose from! I had never corresponded with her before, and now have a new sister! I found two international ladies who only received HSTs from the USA, and since I was blessed with many outside of the USA, we have been corresponding to arrange a trade. Two new sisters here! And, thank you Roseanne for the LA HST, and Shirley for the last 3 HSTs that I needed. Two MORE sisters! If this was a perfect world and we all had gotten exactly what we anticipated and wanted, there would not have been the need to contact others. There has been such an outpouring of jenerousity that we would have never seen, and so many new friendships that would have never been, if this had been a perfect exchange!!!!!!!

Thank you again, Debbie and Clara, and all of you who made HSTs that winged their way to my house! I have been blessed!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

it's really tough when you can't keep up with the forum for a few days!! HST's arriving all around the globe! I know some are still waiting, bless you for your patience!
And Hanne-Grete you so deserved these HST's, what a year you've had! I pray things settle down for you so you can sew to your heart's content!
And I missed all the anniversary wishes and wedding dress stories, I just have to add that I did NOT make my own, but I spent a whole $4.99 on it... then sprung the big bucks and spent $19.99 on a veil... Oh, those were the days! This is probably why I never had daughters, I'd have been accused of child abuse as I shot down wedding dreams!! HA!

lotti wrote:
Well said, Lotti!

I woke up at 3:30 am today because I was dreaming about a huge flock of HST geese flying like a long Kite (3 football fields long!) and saying, "GET UP AND PRESS US, SO WE WILL BE READY TO FLY INTO YOUR QUILT WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM YOUR 2-WEEK TRIP TO ORLANDO!" So, I did...and I just love every one of those sweet HST's from all of you! I am just in awe at the colors, prints, batiks, novelties...everything all of you used! And...I didn't smell any smoke on them...thanks to Debbie and her helper! As I pressed each HST, I kept thinking about reading your bios, looking at your beautiful quilts on your profiles, the sharing of educational resources, the abundance of creative ideas, and terrific humor we all shared these past months on this Forum. My HST quilt will always be a reminder of the friendships we developed here and the love we all shared. I have other quilts that I can make into "art" quilts, but this one is special all by itself. Thank you, everyone, for your contribution to this friendship exchange.

I'm sure a wonderful set of guidelines will be forthcoming from those SoTTT sisters who served all of us so well, and that they will be edited many times afterwards. I'm enjoying the moment now!

Woo Hoo! The book is here! NOW, I can start planning my quilt! Hmmm, what to do,what to do? While waiting I made another 400 HST's. Maybe those will be the border on my masterpiece? Time to start playing!

Debbie, those were wonderful pics of your special day! What a wonderful husband you do have! I'm sure he's been a gem all these years!

I am excited for our International Sisters as they start recieving their treasures. I wish them all the most enjoyable time fondling each of the squares!

I'll be looking forward to hearing all the opinions on futuer swaps. This has definitely been an interesting turn in topics. For the record, I too keep a smoke free home, and enjoyed recieving fresh HST's in my package. When I thought one of my fabric selections wasn't quite as fresh as I liked, I laundered and pressed each length, so I could bond with my sewing machine and "practice" my paper piecing skills.

Stay in stitches!

I had no problem at all with any of the metered envelopes I mailed out. Since we had asked everyone to use their own address as the 'to and from' address, the envelopes went right through. There were a few members who didn't do that, but as I was packaging them up, I changed those.

The postal worker said because of that if there was any additional postage that needed to be paid, they would collect it on the receiving end. I highly recommend that you do that with any packages. I had over three hundred to mail and none had any delay at the P.O. because of the metering.

Our biggest challenge at first was the return International mailing, but since Clara and Margo both offered their PP accounts for SoTTTs and Batiks-R-Us, that problem was solved pretty quickly. However, SoTTTs did require that only International Flat Rate postage could be used and members needed to determine what size envelope/box would be needed and they had to charge that amount on PP.

All I know is my post man got really happy when it came to packages with metered mail. He zipped right through them. We were also looking at 14 garbage bags full of HST packages too! Clara

For what it's worth, the supervisor of my city's post office said that metered mail could NOT be used for return postage because it is dated and must be used on that day. Some businesses who have their own meters for business mail have the option of turning off that dating function, but most of us do not have access to those meters.

Clara--my post office said that the only reason they sent out the ones that had metered postage is because the date I was sending them out was close to the day that it was metered. They do not want you to meter postage in advance.

I will send my list of suggestions to Debbie in the next few days but I will tell you how I did mine.

I asked for the amount of members to be sent. In this case 136. Some of the members dropped out so we only had 124.
I took a baggie with the name of each member of the exchange on it and pinned it to the pews at church(this won't work if your pews are all wood, the backs of ours are upholstered).
Then we took a colored rubber band--each sorted had a different color. This was so they could put it on the baggie that they were starting with--when they got back to their rubber band--they went to a different baggie.
So, they picked up a bag that was sent to us; went up and down the pews, putting one HST in each bag until they got back to their starting point. This way--everyone got one from each person.
This worked extremely well.

I, too, suggest no more that 150 participants.

As promised, here are my suggestions on doing an exchange.
Thoughts for anyone else, as wacky as we were to start their own exchange. Hey I’m wacky and proud of it!

BASICS
WARNING… Set maximum number of quilters at day one. I would recommend stopping at 150. Go for the gold if you want, but there is a price to pay.

To sign up. Have them send you a personal email with info that you need. One spot to sign up makes it easier to know how many are participating and limits the surprises. (This one was a lesson I learned. We had quilters signing up all over the website. I’m sure we missed some.)

Set maximum and minimum number of HSTs or blocks exchanged. Remember 150 x maximum is a whole lot in a hurry. Ritzy had a great idea that the maximum was based off the number of people who signed up.

Deadlines are critical. Everyone needs them, or you will have stragglers on every deadline. Life gives you curveballs, you will know when to stretch and when not to. Deadline to sign up. Deadline to get in your HSTs or blocks.

What type of fabrics. I’d say, go with your favorites. You will find lots of quilters that like your style and will get more out of it.

Set up your guidelines for your exchange on the first page of the forum. You can edit as the exchange is going. Write it in a way it is easy to scan and find the info they are looking for. Formatting might be limited. Be creative.

FORUM
Do have them post something on the forum you start. That’s important. That way they don’t miss out on the social aspect and great hints, tips and stories. Using the forum for communicating worked great and has been a helpful tool in just adding the social factor to this experience. That experience was the best part I think.

FOR THE PARTICIPANTS
Mix it up with your fabrics. Use a variety, so if someone has multiples from you, they will also have multiples of different fabrics. They tend to stick together and not mix easily.

Check over your guidelines. They help everyone stay consistent and there might be valuable info to help you.

Send in an allowance for the sorters/organizers. We had expenses coming in from everywhere that were unexpected. No complaints, it’s just what happened. $5-10 allowance per person would help. Everything from food to a bit of extra postage to get all those packages out of your car.

Smokers. If you are a smoker, that’s fine. Just be careful with your fabric. My hubby smokes outside, so our inside stuff isn’t covered with smoke. Use care like using fresh fabrics (washed or freshly bought) and don’t smoke where you are sewing your blocks or HSTs. This helps a great deal. Maybe put them away in a container each time you are done with a dryer sheet, until you are ready to ship.

SHIPPING
Send them in a Tyvex (strong envelopes) and have your HSTs in a plastic bag inside. Tape your shipping envelope carefully. We were lucky and didn’t lose that many in the beginning. Very lucky.

Send an extra Tyvex envelope with a METERED Prepaid stamp. Makes the postman very happy! Have it already labeled and ready to go.

PERSONAL
Relax, you will be tested on the boundaries that you’ve established. Know what is important to you and stick to it.

Have as much fun as you can with the experience. You will get more out of it and so will everyone else.

Careful with bolds, all caps and large text. Write with a smile and your text will show it. All caps is interpreted as screaming, so scream when your excited. But you don't scream everyday right. Think of it that way. Bold can help you break up the text and organize it for searching easier in the forum. Use that.

Hope this helps. Clara aka the Sorting Queen

thank you debbie

after spending all of last night - from about 6 pm until 1 am - sorting through my fabulous - fabulous - fabulous HSTs
i am soooooo totally HAPPY and can't wait to get home and iron them open to have a better look (so far i just sorted them into origin/contributor and separated out the doubles so that i know what i would be very very unwilling to give away - but yes - if anyone is missing something important - i can share ) - so i just had to have a quick peek inside to see - and WOW

this quilt is going to be SOOOOOOOOOO fabulous and i have one each from you, clara and barb - youppppieeeeee - of course they went straight into the golden ticket baggie - along with the three from australia, scotland and canada...
thank YOU and CLARA and all who have spent so much time and effort and given your soul to make this happen
THANK YOU - YOU ARE ALL VERY VERY WONDERFUL and I am so happy to be part of this exchange

ENJOY what we have received - ENJOY and SAVOUR the many SMILES, the LOVE, the HOPE, the BLESSINGS that went into these little BEAUTIES
so what if we don't have and HST from everywhere we have hoped or from everyone we have come to "know" - what we HAVE RECEIVED is so ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS and I love each and everyone of my little buddies who are now sharing my home

YEAH YEAH YEAH and a HIPP HIPP HURRAH to all those that made it possible

The suggestions that Ritzy, Barb and I compose will only be guidelines. If anyone decides to start another exchange, it will be strictly up to them how they make and implement their own rules. This exchange was definitely a 'lesson's learned' adventure.

As far as smoker's fabrics, I bet not one person who received those HSTs have any idea that they were even in their package. Being a non-smoker, it wasn't pleasant dealing with them, but it wasn't fair that someone couldn't participate just because they or someone in their home smoked. Hopefully the next time they submit to an exchange, those members will be more aware of all the extra work that had to be done by other's on their behalf. It would have been really easy to immediately turn around send those and all the other HSTs that were submitted 'according to the guidlines' (not the right values, pressed open, papers removed, not cut, not in increments of 28, etc.), but the feeling was that if someone received those and didn't appreciate them, they could put them aside and not use them.

Originally 615 members signed up and each person had their own unique interpretation of what fabrics should be used...that's the fun of it and that's what makes it 'scrappy' and unique. The triangles are so small, it will be hard to distinguish novelty fabrics from other prints once they're in a project.

There was a very successful batiks exchange already, and I'm sure there are a number of other exchanges ideas out there justing waiting to be developed and hosted.

I agree with Roine about the fabrics that have a smoky smell. If I was in charge, I would have sent them back and asked them to resubmit non-smoky smelling fabrics. I don't mean to be harsh, but we need to respect the sorters and their rules. In regard to the Americana and Halloween fabrics (which I also received), maybe the next exchange could state that no novelty fabrics be sent. I know the rules are many and must be read more than once, so here's my suggestion for the rules: Instead of stating rules in paragraph style, put them in bullet style/1. 2. 3. listing/check list. I agree with Debbie's suggestions (& her husband's) to limit numbers. Not sure there is a "perfect" way to do this monumental task, so we are grateful to everyone who volunteered and did their best. I am not even a tiny bit disappointed. GREAT JOB!!!

NaneeWolf wrote:
Good morning! I have just 2 comments to add. First would be the smokers issue. All the extra work is caused Debbie seems unfair to me. NO SMOKING is everywhere. Why not for us too? If you're a smoker (I'm and ex-smoker and enjoyed every cigarette I ever had) please used freshly washed fabrics. I got at LOT of Americana fabric. Though I do love it, it doesn't really go with everything else I got. I also got some Halloween fabric. Again, I love it but only for my Halloween projects. Could we have a specific theme? Batiks? Reproduction? Solids? Black & white? Pink and brown? Something like that?
I don't mean for this to sound like I'm unhappy in any way about my precious hst's. I'm not. I'm going to use every one of them in my quilt because they came from the BEST EXCHANGE EVER!
Roine

PosyP wrote:

Good morning, Rosemary. I have been writing down my do's and don't's for anyone wanting to do similar exchanges in the future as the process evolved. Barb, Ritzy and I each have suggestions on what we've learned & what we wish we had done and we're planning on combining those into one document to post on each of the Forums as soon as we can get it all together.

My first comment would be that you definitely need to set a maximum number of participants and make sure you and your helpers can deal with the reality of that number.

Next, definitely set a limit on the maximum number of HSTs members can send...and I think it would be very important to insist that everyone send in the same number. Sorting will be a lot less complicated.

Stick to the rules...if you want increments of 28, then you should probably create a multiplication table and post it. You can't believe the strange numbers that were sent in that were no where close to being divisible by 28 ...and how many times did we keep posting the words 'increments of 28'...

Last for now, is my DH's suggestion that no one can send in more than 28 (or whatever number you choose) of the same fabrics. It was amazing how many people sent in 700 with all the same fabric. When that happens, you obviously have a less scrappy exchange and the changes of receiving duplicates of that fabric multiplies many times over. When he was counting and stacking, he kept saying 'I keep seeing the same fabrics over & over again'. Same went for all our other helpers who were counting and stacking, too.