Rainbows

All photos are of fabric from swap 1

                                 

The rainbow swaps one and two are done!

This is what I have learned from my first swap.

Do not let people be in both swaps.

I thought I was so smart I was going to keep track of everyone through my Gmail contacts.

I listed everyone by their email, what color they wanted, who had emailed me back etc.

then things got crazy. I spent the day checking comments, putting the email into my contacts, sending emails only to have Mr Gmail tell me I was a failure and it didn't go through. Then reread the comment check every letter recontact them, only to see I failed again. There were a few ladies that I had to track down through face book just to make sure it was all right.

In the end it all got confusing, and the ladies I said could be in both swaps, and assigned colors to were lost in the shuffle and were lost in the second swap. Now I have ladies sending me fabric for both swaps and only have space for them in one swap.

So my lesson learned was, only one color allowed per person.

I think that I should have been more clear about postage.

Some ladies I knew by first name only, some by first and last, some only by their email.

For some reason when they sent their self addressed stamped envelope they put down just their last name or a name I didn't even know them by. It may seen silly to you but it was kind of frustrating try to figure out who Jones was, when I didn't have a Jones listed.

Next time let me know who you are, I promise I am not going to stalk you, I just want to check you off my list and make sure you get what I was trying to send you.

Some swaps like you to separate your fabrics into twenty different piles.

I have done this for swaps and it bugs me. I don't know why, maybe I just want to get it in the mail, or maybe I think it looks cuter to have it all in stacks. I don't know, but from now on I am doing it.

Lesson learned, ask ladies to separate into twenty piles, because after separating 4000 squares of fabric twice I don't want to do that again, Just for the record fostermama wins, not only did she separate her fabrics she then hand wrote all her info and taped them to her fabrics.

What does she win you may ask...

The knowledge that she is totally awesome in my mind.

Speaking of separating fabrics...

I have learned that when separating 4000 squares of fabric don't get distracted.

This is my sad tale of woe, My friend DJ brought over all her fabrics for the second swap, we worked together separating the colors making our cute rainbows, something happened when we got to pink.

I can't remember if I was saying goodbye to a friend that was over, or if I was called away to be the mom, but at some point I put down a stack of pink fabric. I pointed it out to DJ when she was leaving, but it was late, and when I went down the next morning I totally forgot about this stack of pink fabric.

I finished my all my separating, put all the piles in their happy little bags, started filling up SASE, put all the SASE  into a big shopping bag to take them to the post office. Got baby sister ready to go to the post office, ran back down stairs to get my paper that said who was who, and that is when I saw it...

The small stack of pink fabric.

Now what to do I could just forget it and not worry about.

I mean were ladies really going to go through their stack of fabric to make sure that they got 200 squares and then were they really going to be upset that they only got 199. There might be the one who sent in the pink fabric and wonder what happened to the one with the pink leaves and gold sparkles. After saying a few choice words at my self and then asking myself could I screw this up anymore. I decided to put one lone pink square into one Ziploc bag and tape it to the outside of every SASE.

So if you are in the second group feel free to pull out the razor blade and free that poor neglected pink square out of it's Ziploc prison and let it rejoin it's friends in the world of the rainbow squares. 

Lesson learned, don't get distracted when surrounded by 4000 little pieces of fabric.

Canadians are nice eh.

Shipping to Canada a whole other story.

Just so you know it costs, $11.95 to ship a small priority box over the boarder, $10 Canadian equals

$10.06 US. You have to fill out a customs slip to send fabric over the boarder. I was asked what was the monetary value of my contents, I told the man it's about 2 1/2 yards total of fabric and he said, oh so like five dollars. Whatever obviously he does not buy fabric.



All in all it has been an adventure.

I have learned a lot.

One of the best things I learned, was that crafty people are really nice.

With every mistake I made everyone was kind and understanding, and although I am seriously rethinking my decision to host this craziness again, it has been fun.

It was fun to watch Lala run to the mailbox everyday. I really liked seeing everyone's fabric choices, and super fun to see all the different colorways of Joann's fat quarters.

I really hope that you had fun. Sorry that the fabrics are going out late, and for those few that I messed up I am so very sorry about it still.

Now that it is done I am hoping to get some sleep.

With all lessons learned, I am going to attempt this again in the fall, with fall colors so wish me luck.

Because if you have learned anything about me today, you know I am going to need it.