It all started with a old quilt, a newsletter and related article on my blog, and a few questions.
The old quilt is this one. It’s a Ribbon Star Quilt I made several years ago. I was part of an organized block swap. I agreed to some simple terms, made a bunch of blocks each month, sent them to one central location, the blocks were swapped for a variety of different blocks, then sent back to me. Once I had enough for a quilt, I sewed them together, made a few more for a border, and ta-done!
The quilt is a ragged, faded form of its previous beautiful self. It was made from batiks with a consistent background fabric forming 
the secondary flowing ribbon pattern from block to block.
In the blog post, I mentioned that I had a replacement quilt and another project in the wings. To my surprise several people weren’t so interested in the other projects, but instead asked about this old quilt. And an idea was born. Why not organize a new swap featuring the latest ScrapTherapy Little Scrap Grid interfacing?
Then one thing led to another . . . and you know how these things go . . .
Here are the ‘swap rules’ in a nutshell:
- Quilt Shop quality fabric, only, please! And only Batik fabrics.
- Blocks must use the Little Scrap Grid Interfacing (included in the Swap Kits)
- Blocks must use a consistent background fabric (also included in the Swap Kits)
- Blocks must be made following the pattern instructions. Regarding the seam pressing direction, blocks that do not have two opposite sets of seams pressed toward each other and two opposite sets of seams pressed away from each other at the outside edge of the block will be returned.
- Sets of eleven blocks are swapped each month. You’ll make twelve blocks the same, keep one for yourself, and send 11 blocks to swap. After the blocks are swapped, you’ll receive 11 blocks different from your own.
- Each block must contain at least 5 different batik fabrics, plus the background fabric from the kit.
- You can join the swap at any time and leave the swap at any time.
- Swap kits are available from the Hummingbird Highway shopping cart or from a participating independent quilt shop.
- The blocks for swapping must be received by the 10th of the month. Blocks will be returned by the 15th of the month
The downloadable pattern, a complete step-by-step tutorial, and some Frequently Asked Questions are all here for your review.
