Stash Bustin' Fabric Swap!!!!

Right listen up peops, I have something to announce. For one week starting Monday 22nd February I will be hosting a fabric swap here on this blog. This event has been inspired by a couple of comments on my Stash Bustin’ post on the Colette Patterns blog this week. Unless this is your first visit to my blog (oh, hi!), you will no doubt be aware that I am encouraging fellow sewers to join me in the Stash Bustin’ challenge to make the most of the fabrics they already have, rather than purchasing new pieces for their forthcoming sewing projects. However, there are probably a multitude of reasons why these pieces have laid untouched in your stash for so long, maybe some of the pieces in there just don’t ignite your creativity. They are perfectly good which is probably why you have kept hold of them, but the inspiration that you hoped would present itself just refuses to avail itself. Well, why don’t you take this opportunity to choose one such piece to off-load to a grateful seam-ster in return for a new (to you) piece?!

Ok, the small print:

• To be in the running for a free piece of fabric you have to have a piece you in turn are prepared to send to someone.
• Pieces of stash fabric offered must be a minimum of 90 cms/1 yard in length.
• This swap is open to anyone in the world with postal and email addresses (sorry carbon-footprint, at least we are hopefully helping to alleviate the production of new fabric!). Equally, you must be prepared to send your piece of fabric anywhere in the world.
• This is a swap, no money will be exchanged.
• To function properly it will rely on the honesty of those who participate. This blog is hosting this swap but takes no responsibility for a piece of fabric not reaching its intended destination, either because of dishonesty, the postal system or any other reason.
• All communications and imparted details will be handled discretely by myself, and only passed on to the necessary persons (i.e. the sender needs to know the name and address of the recipient, plus their email addresses will be swapped for communication regarding the ‘transaction’).

Here’s how it’ll work:

• On the first day I will kick off proceedings by offering up a piece from my stash by posting a picture and short description of it at about 11am in the morning, Spanish mainland time.
• If you decide you would like to be in the running for it, you can enter by emailing me at sozoblog@gmail.com with your name, email address, postal address, a picture of the piece of stash fabric you are offering up and a short description of that fabric (width and length of fabric and fibre content if known will suffice). Mark the subject of your email with the day’s date.
• At midnight (Spanish mainland time) that same day I will pick a recipient using a random number generator.
• At 11am the next morning I will notify that person that they have been picked and I then post the photo of the piece of fabric they are offering up with description. I will then head off to the post office and send them my piece of stash fabric.
• If you fancy that second piece of fabric, to enter repeat as before by emailing me at sozoblog@gmail.com with your name, email address, postal address, a picture of the piece of stash fabric you are offering up and a short description of that fabric. (Don’t forget to include the day’s date as the subject of your email to avoid being in the running for the wrong piece of fabric). At midnight I will pick the next recipient using a random generator.
• The following morning at 11am I will notify the next recipient, and forward the name and address to the first person so they can send the fabric. I will THEN post the picture and description of the third piece of fabric owned by the second recipient etc etc etc. Get it?
• On the last day, Sunday 28th, the final recipient will be chosen at midnight and they will send their piece of fabric to me to make a complete circle. Fair?
• Please send only one email per piece of fabric you want, but feel free to enter as many days as you. However, entries that are sent BEFORE the fabric has been posted will be deemed an invalid entry.

I apologise for any difficulties the timing may present you if you live in an opposing time zone, and if this seems overly confusing.

If this goes well, or a version of this looks like it may go well, I will make hosting a fabric giveaway more frequent. Let’s think of this as a beta! If you have a better idea of how it could work, then either please let me know so I can make a future model more efficient, or try starting your own swap!

Ok, lovely stash busters, may I suggest you go and locate a piece of unwanted stash fabric in preparation for the onset of this exciting fabric swapping event?!