Europe RCTQ box swap 2007 (no sewing involved!!)

Announcing the 2007 Europe box swap, open now for participants to register their interest.

Here's what I'm planning. After sorting through my stash of fabric, I will fill a shoebox sized box with bits and pieces I no longer want. I will then mail it to the first person on the list. They will take what they would like, replace with stuff they no longer want, then mail it to the next person and so on until it gets back to where it started.

I am currently writing a set of rules for participants (nothing scary!) so if you would like to take part please email me and I will send you the rules before you commit to anything.

All you are committing to is receiving a box, selecting fabric and replacing with some other fabric, then mailing to to someone else. No sewing involved.

Have to keep this EU only to keep down postage costs. Please let me know by Friday 18 May if you're interested, I will be away on holiday from 12 - 19 May and will finalise all the arrangements on the Sunday when I get back. Depending on numbers, swap should all be over in a couple of months.

Morag

Reply to
Morag in Scotland
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I loved the last one I was in, and so did James. Count me in, please! :) 'Bout time I planned something quilty again. So far I have not got beyond gathering my chocolate fabrics for the chocolate quilt, as the paid-for sewing is filling all my sewing hours...

Reply to
Kate XXXXXX

Ooooh Is anybody in US interested in having one of these types of swap on our side of the water? I'd be game for that.

Sunny (I've got shoeboxes)

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Reply to
Sunny

I hosted and organised one of these in 2001, which went all over Europe, and I just have two little words to encapsulate my experience: "Never again". Hope you have better luck with it than I did!

-- Jo in Scotland

Reply to
Johanna Gibson

any swap can go badly or terribly wrong. what went wrong with yours? this could be good for those new to the experience to hear about to fully appreciate the required commitment. taking a break from clean'n curtains, walls, ceilings, etc, jeanne

Reply to
nzlstar*

We do these kinds of swaps on my soapmaking list. We call it a round robiun swap. Anyhow, after a few difficulties, one of the rules that sorted out the most problematic stuff was you must post what you took and what you added, plus the day recieved and the day sent. People are a bit more accountable that way. I hosted a couple long ago this way, and I participated in a few and all seemed to go well. It was Canadan only, so similar to the Euro only idea as well. I know a couple of people recently hosted one, so if you like I could get a copy of their rules for you if it would be helpul. Aside from packaging rules on essential oils it should be similar lol.

Carissa

Reply to
Carissa

Of course things can go wrong with every sort of swap but it would be a shame to stop doing them just in case. The people who have contacted me so far about being involved are all people I know well from posting on here or from other swaps and I think they can all be trusted!! I took part in a very similar swap with cross stitch materials and it was great - when the box arrived you had no idea what was going to be in it and sorting through it was fun. I also received a box from something on RCTQ once, I think it was one of the US posters trying to reduce her stash a little!

Morag

Reply to
Morag in Scotland

On Sun, 6 May 2007 13:02:55 +1200, "nzlstar*" wrote:

I collected a list of people who I knew from swaps and RCTQ. I invited them each personally to participate, and drew up a list of people's names, in the order the box would travel around Europe. Each was to take whatever they wanted from the box and replace it with equal value of fabric, notions, etc. The box first traveled around the UK, and I received regular email updates when someone posted it on to someone else. The trouble seemed to start in Europe - don't know why and am not pointing any fingers here. It seems that the quality of what was put back into the box deteriorated rapidly. Therefore, people were paying a lot of money to send (even surface post) fabric which was badly printed, printed off-grain, etc... and they were not happy about it. Several said during the box swap that they were never going to participate in a box swap again, that they had been burned in the past, but were participating in this one because they knew & trusted me... I finally received the box about 3 months after it set off. I had put in quilt-shop quality fabric - stuff like Debbie Mumm and other name brands. I received flimsy fabric I could see my hand through. Other fabric had mis-matching prints on it, the sort you wouldn't use for anything except foundation piecing (as the foundation) at a stretch... or perhaps cleaning the windows before discarding. There was a lack of responsibility. Though each participant was known to me, they were not known to each other. First problem. The second problem was that no one knew what was in the box, so it was easy for the quality to deteriorate due to lack of accountability. Second problem. Your list of "what was in" to be updated when the box was sent on might fix this. I didn't lose much materially. I sent on, in good faith, fabric I no longer needed or loved. But I sent good quality stuff that I no longer needed or loved. I received, in return, rags. So I lost faith in that method of swapping. Now I only participate in moderated swaps, where everything is sent to a central location and then swapped out to various participants (been burned in one-on-one exchanges). This is just a paraphrase of my personal experience. You can do what you want with it. Go ahead and have a swap, and I hope it is successful and that everyone enjoys the experience.

-- Jo in Scotland

Reply to
Johanna Gibson

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