WMUTeach

Yes, shameful of me to misspell a name when I know it so well. Fingers were faster than my brain. When I do the next post, I will make the correction to the spelling of SBG's screen name.

Janice McC

SBG, I’m one of the fence sitters! I don’t need any more candy squares but the fun is tough to sit out. I’ll look at my stash. I’m afraid I just don’t have enough new right now but we’ll see!

WMUTeach

Janice and other fence sitters, if you are concerned about not having enough "new" fabrics to choose from don't forget those odd leftover jelly roll strips, layer cake squares and other scraps. Each package does not need to be the same. If you are part of a guild or quilting group, check out the give-away tables for fabric.

This is the first year that I have not cut and packaged all my envelopes in the beginning, but I do have one for the February birthday mailing. Yes, just one birthday and as of now no March birthday, so .... there is time to collect and cut for the rest of the year. O-O-O-O, I just had and idea. I have a computer paper box of wild fabrics that was given to me that I have not opened for about two years. There may be some exciting finds there for my birthday envelopes. Guess you might say I am thinking "inside of the box"! Tee-Hee-Hee. Would love to have any and all fence sitters join so as not to miss out on the birthday fun.

WMUTeach

Corrections update:

1.Gaijin
2.Patrick's Mom
3.Crispy_Frog
4.Have4boys
5.Quossum
6.Travelinggrammma
7.WMUTeach
8.JENNR8R
9.happylab
10.Rebaquilts
11.Logcbin82
12.Brenda W
13.SusieQOH
14.ibex94
15.Heathermom2opmc
16. terriamn
17. Macybaby
18. sewbizgirl

Macybaby

I wouldn't worry about "new fabric". Members switch around, and I for one am perfectly fine getting something I've gotten before - because I'm not going to notice ! I also have so many duplicates in my candy stash of my own fabric I've cut up too.

Since I only wanted to cut one WOF of any fabric, I pulled 65 fabrics out of my stash. I'm sure there are a few that I've used for candies before, as my favorites are still my favorites and I gravitate to some of them without conscious effort. I've been surprised at some that I've pulled that I've never cut into yet, as I really like them. I think too often I look at them and think I need to save them for something special. But then it's possible they'll outlast me, and what fun is that? So I'm trying to be better about using my special fabric and not fretting about it.

I like to bulk cut - I'll press and lay my strips out in stacks of five, then carefully line four rows on my cutting board. Then I lay out my large stripology cutter and cut away! It's easy enough then to put together 10 different stacks of 5 to get what I need.

I've got about half my wof cut, so am taking a break. Yesterday I cut out all the squares for the I Spy swap, that was a bit of a pain as I pulled 35 fabrics, and only about 7 didn't need to be fussy cut. Looking forward to getting back to actually sewing!

Rebaquilts

Looks like we may get snowed in this weekend, if the weather forecast is accurate, so I may be cutting candies as well. It’s good to know that there is only one birthday in February as I will be gone the first week of February. I also don’t care if I get duplicates and don’t need any i-spies although I do enjoy getting them. I also echo the sentiment of using up some saved stash. If not now, when? Hugs all!

sewbizgirl

I've cut about half of what I need. I am working through my scraps and small cuts. Initially I thought these would all be new to the swap, but now I'm not sure. I am TRYING to cut all new stuff, so if you get one you remember from last time, it wasn't intentional.

sewbizgirl

Reba, hope you have got enough supplies for your snowed in time. Take pictures of the pretty snow! We are supposed to get colder weather here in Mississippi, with record lows on Tues and Wed of next week. We need to get out and cut firewood but hubby is sitting with a friend who is hospitalized. Hope we can get that firewood cut by the weekend!

Janice, hope you get to swap again!

Macybaby

Think of me when you are getting your colder weather. We've got -20 in the forecast for Sunday night, with high winds so the wind chill will be a lot lower. When it gets that cold, the garage heater sometimes shuts off so we have to monitor that. My sewing area is right above it and don't want any frozen pipes. The bright spot is that we get temps that cold most year, so the infrastructure is made for it. Get a kick watching building shows that are down south, and they talk about the water line being 12"-18" deep. Here, 4 feet is considered minimum and most go closer to 6' down.

I'm so hopping this is our last winter in the cold north - I'm not going to miss it.

WMUTeach

I am enjoying this conversation about cutting and sending our 2.5's and how congenial you all are about what you are sending and receiving.

"Candy squares must be 2.5", 100% cotton fabric squares that you would be happy to put in your own quilt. Use your stash, but please do not resend squares from a previous birthday swap." What I meant was do not send what you received from last year's swap. If you cut and send from your own fabric and you sent it last year or the year before or the year before that, don't worry, we likely won't remember and with some newbies each year, your candies will be new to them no matter what. I was wondering the same thing as I cut along on Monday and Tuesday. Did I send that a couple of years ago? If I can't remember, I hope you all won't either.

Please don't stress or worry about if you sent a fabric before, just not duplicates within the 50. Reba, Macybaby and I will be making igloos together this weekend. First snow and then cold. Bur-r-r-r-r!

I am getting close to assembling my first Candy Quilt for 2024. I just need two more 6x6 blocks and sashing. Perhaps a good task to complete while working in my igloo this weekend.

Anyone else building igloo's? I am serving raspberry hot chocolate in mine if you want to park your dog sled near the side yard snow pile.