Yes! There will be a PSQ Charm Swap in October 2016

Hello all you Postage Stamp Charm Quilt Lovers out there!

There will be a charm swap coming up with signup October 6-10, 2016.  Start cutting charms, if you do not already have your stacks ready!

Check out the complete rules HERE and note there are some real changes this year, particularly with guild and household swappers.

The last swap almost did me in, it has taken a year to get my fortitude up to take on another one. Of course there have been several other things going on in my life as well this year, more on that in another post.

©2012-2016, The Curious Quilter, thecuriousquilter.net, maryeoriginals.com.

Domain frustrations, finally FIXED

Oh, my restless and patient or impatient swappers. I have been in a black hole online lately. My apologies, but I feel like I fell down the rabbit hole and am struggling to come back!

I spent 48 hours getting the matches done, and a few more emailing them out. That was a while ago. But no one got them!

The company that I had my domain registered with closed out and moved us all to a new company. It was supposed to be seamless, and it looked like it. I had a couple hundred emails in my SENT folder. But no one replied, no one had questions. Had I finally managed to pull off a swap without messing up someone’s swap partners? Unlikely.

I watched, and then I got coupe of notes in Instagram, and hey, you guys didn’t get the emails! So I went through and RESENT everything from my SENT folder.

Again no replies. Now my domain is tied to my blog so I wasn’t seeing the dozens of comments either, sorry.

Last week I finally got a live person on the phone at the new domain place. They at first said I was wrong, but several phone calls and a lot of persuasion, and they realized it was a mess. This charming customer service rep said they could recover my sent mail and push it out.

YEAH!

But did it happen? Nope. The emails have now disappeared from my SENT folder as well, and gone nowhere. Poof. vanished. I spent a night being furiously pissed.

Tonight after work I will begin replacing them all. Since I have a busy work week, it will take me a couple of nights at least to get about 200 emails out.

You have my sincere apologies. But thanks for hanging in there too!

After the emails are out I need to figure out what other things got lost in the switch as well.

Also, yes the people with questions all answered me eventually. Turns out we had several guilds and multi-quilter households this round. That messes the ease of the swap up, a they usually share stash, You can guess, if 6 people from a guild all join the swap, they can’t swap with each other. But that means I really have to treat them collectively like ONE person, so their swap partners can’t repeat. 6 people, 16 sets each, that’s 96 partners needed. MESSY. Watch for some rule adjustments next round.
© 2015 by The Curious Quilter, maryeoriginals.com. All rights reserved.

Help please – missing swap answers!

The finalizing of matches and mailing of partner lists is being held up while waiting for some clarification. I would guess, but over 180 charm sets are affected, which could make for a significant mess if I mailed without hearing back from a few people.

If your initials are K.L., L.M., L.P. R.M., S.M., Y.M., or Y.P. please check your email and spam for “a question from the Curious Quilter” and get back to me via email reply as soon as possible! © 2015 by The Curious Quilter, maryeoriginals.com. All rights reserved.

Apologies, but life got in the way

I had planned my whole weekend for matching, then work called and ate up the weekend! Since it takes some concentration time to match with few mistakes, I had to hold it off and am nearly done, so Tuesday and Wed evening things will be coming out! Thanks for your patience! Hey, a girl’s gotta make a living, right?
© 2015 by The Curious Quilter, maryeoriginals.com. All rights reserved.

Swap Signup Closed!

Signup for the September swap has closed. Thank you all for joining the fun! A smaller group than usual this time, only 146 people signed up. But that still means lots of little fabric squares will be in the mail soon.

I will be getting the swap matches out over the weekend. When you receive yours, remember that they trickle out and your partner may not have heard yet. But email them anyway!

In the meantime, enjoy these shots of PSQ’s made by long-time swapper Laurie M.! If you are on Instagram you can find her at laurie3.14 and she really has a nice eye for color arrangement.

And add your own pics to our Flickr pages! It is so inspiring to see what others are making.
© 2015 by The Curious Quilter, maryeoriginals.com. All rights reserved.

September 2015 PSQ Charm Swap Signup Begins!

It is time to signup for the September 2015 Postage Stamp Quilt Charm Swap! Please review these simple rule reminders:

Newbies

1. You can only be a NEWBIE once. After that, start gathering for the next swap.
2. You can request which size charms you are interested in. Every attempt will be made to get that size to you.
3. You must agree to send a Thank You email to your donor/s once the charms are received.
4. You understand that your signup information will be shared, but only with your swap donor/s.
5. You agree to not share your swap partner/donor contact or other info with anyone else and to respect their confidentiality.

Swappers

1. You may swap sets of 100 DIFFERENT charms in these sizes: 1.5 inch, 2 inch , or 2.5 inches. Charms must be cut from quilt-quality cotton fabric, not flannel or homespuns. ALL SETS MUST BE CUT and ready before you signup to swap.
2. You may swap up to 8 sets in each size.
3. You are asked to share sets of 50 charms for Newbies, which is a gift, not a swap.
4. Over half our swappers are not in the United States, which makes for a terrific variety of fabrics. Everyone is expected to accept at least some International swappers (remember, our swappers who live in Malaysia or Australia always have to ship internationally, so it is fair to return the favor.) If you are swapping more than 8 sets, I suggest you accept at least half international swappers. If you package your charms in a legal size letter envelope, postage rates are often just the “oversize first class rate” Bubble mailers run the cost up significantly. If you are not certain which to do, talk to your swap partner about their mail service before you mail your packet.
5. You understand that your signup information will be shared, but only with your swap partners and Newbies.
6. You agree to not share your swap/newbie partner contact or other info with anyone else and to respect their confidentiality.
7. Angels needed! Please leave a note in the comment section at the end of the signup form (not on this post) if you have some extra sets in case I need “angels” to help round out a swapper’s sets, or replace a lost one.

Everyone
I am serious about the confidentiality factor, so no sharing info about one swap partner with another. People are banned from future swaps if they do so.

Likewise, failure to get your packets delivered to your partners in a reasonably timely fashion can get you blocked from future swaps. If you have a problem, please let me know, or your partners.

And FINALLY: The point of the swap is to have fun and build the variety of your stash on your way to creating a postage stamp quilt. Everyone has different tastes, budgets, and cutting skills. Please accept your charms with a quilter’s grace, and leave the quilt police out of it. HAVE FUN!

Now, SIGNUP!
This has changed this round. DO NOT signup in the comment/reply section below, just share your excitement over the swap there!

To signup you MUST use this button and complete the form. That’s all there is to it.
SIGNUP IS CLOSED!
© 2015 by The Curious Quilter, maryeoriginals.com. All rights reserved.