Thursday 10 April 2008

A word or two on what you are sending

Hi ladies (and gent) - we are nearly full now at 37 players as of this morning, just a few more spaces to go, so I thought I'd pop a note on here about what you will be sending to your partner. Obviously, I have already specified the details of the quilt you will be making - size, shape, label - but I know in these swaps people sometimes like to put a little extra gift in with the quilt, such as tea, chocolate, maybe something local from their country or region. If you would like to do that - and it is totally NOT required, so please don't think you have to - please try to keep what you send to a small token, with a relatively low value - say under $10US or AUS/£5/7euros - that kind of region.

Also, please bear in mind if you are sending internationally, which many of you will be, that some countries are quite strict about what they allow in and out and about the value of what people are allowed to receive before paying a customs charge - I will write more about that later, when we are closer to the sending deadline.

As for quality, I know that I don't have to say to you (but I'm going to anyway!) that the quilt you send to your partner should be good work, which you have taken your time with, and is of a quality that you would be happy to receive. We have a variety of players here, with different skill levels, areas of expertise and experience and styles, and that's fine - that's part of the fun. I'm sure that some people will produce quilts that are more technically difficult than other people and that's perfectly ok.

But I hope that everyone will do their best work, be careful, be thoughtful about their partner's preferences (I have seen all the preferences and no one has asked for anything unreasonable or even difficult, so it shouldn't be a problem to bear in mind what they like or dislike), and produce a piece of work that the recipient will be happy to own. I can't tell you how long you should spend working on your piece, as that's up to how you work and what you will be making, but please bear in mind that no one likes to get a piece of work which looks like the maker threw it together any-old-how in an hour.

I hope that you will all produce a lovely piece of work just because you know it's the right thing to do, but you should also bear in mind that the world of blog swaps is not a huge one and word does get around about people who don't fulfill their responsibilities. Sorry to be negative, but it's better to say all that out in front, I think.

If you haven't swapped before or are a relative newcomer to quilting, please don't panic - no one minds receiving a simple quilt which has been lovingly made and into which much thought has gone - what people mind is when it's clear from what they get that the maker really didn't care about what they were making and just threw something together to meet the deadline. I'm sure no one here will do that.

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