So, I’ve apparently gotten a bit of a reputation for myself. I’ve never met a swap I didn’t like. (Well, actually I have… but that’s a different story.) I’m a bit of a joiner. At Stash Bash they were calling me “The Swap Queen”. I love to swap. It is fun to take one print and turn it into many. I’ve also met many wonderful people and made friends through swapping.
While I participate in many swaps, I also host my own monthly swap on flickr. We pick a theme/designer/line each month and swap fat 8ths. This month is Joel Dewberry, and I still have a couple spots open. Please join us if you are interested! I just sent off our May swap, which was I spy fabrics. We got a nice selection and I’ve already cut squares out of most of mine for my econoblock quilt.
I’ve been thinking about hosting a linkup to show off your swaps for a while. I finally am making it happen! If you would like to join in the linkup, please write a post about a recent swap you participated in. This can be a fabric swap, a block/bee/round robin swap, a mini quilt swap, you get the idea – any fabric or hand made item which has been swapped. You can tell about the item(s) you sent and received. You may also link up an advertisement for a swap you are hosting. (No! Please don’t! Because then I would have to join! LOL)
So, write your post, grab a button, and join the linky!
Here are the link up rules:
1. Link up a post about a recent fabric, block or hand made item swap. You may share both what you sent and received. You may also post about an upcoming swap you are hosting.
2. In the post, link up back here to my blog. Let others know about our new linkup!
3. (Assuming there are multiple linkups, as this is the first one) Comment on a few other links!
This is my first linkup, so hopefully things will go off without a hitch, but if there are technical difficulties, please be patient and try again next time! Thanks for joining me in my swap obsession!
Drowning in Fabric 
Great linky idea!!
I just added a link but just an idea with the linky back requirement: I don’t think I’ve ever seen another linkup require a specific link back in the post before. I understand why you want it included but my preference on my own posts/blog is to keep all my linky buttons in my sidebar so they are still accessible and don’t ‘clutter’ my post full of ads etc. I’d have to constantly edit my posts every time I found a new linky which is kind of annoying, so it might prevent people from linking up.
Have you posted about your linky in the hop group? I’m sure some of them would have things to link up, especially with the round robins and bees forming out of the group 😀
Love the idea! You are my inspiration for I hope to be soon F8 Europe group. And as far as Joanna, all of the linky parties I am in ask that you link back to them, it is very common, she must not link up to many things.
Hi Mara, I don’t appreciate the snarkiness you’ve intended towards me in your comment, as I was just trying to offer a suggestion to help this linky party grow and appeal to more people based on the other link ups I’ve participated in. I wasn’t trying to be rude, so I really don’t appreciate that you are.
Yes, they all suggest you link back to the original site, but they don’t force you to have a specific link in your post . By “force”, when I added my link here, the linky ran a check to find a specific link back to the blog/post and as I didn’t have one in my post my linkup is now in ‘moderation’ — which is why the linky says there is a link added but when you check the page, there isn’t anything showing. I have not seen any other linky party run this check before posting to the linky (see the bigger ones like Sunday Stash or WIP Wednesday — they ‘take your word for it’ that you’ve linked up and offer the suggestion of having a button on your sidebar, which is what I do. I also have numerous linky party buttons on my sidebar, so please check it out before being assumptive…)
What I was merely suggesting, was to remove that check so that posts can appear automatically. As I mentioned above in another comment, I don’t add links to linkups within my posts, because then my post would be cluttered with ads when I link up to multiple linkys, and I would constantly be having to edit my posts to add new ones everytime I came across a new linky to add a post to. Other people do add links to their posts, and that’s fine, but not everyone does.
When I linked up here, I added the button for Saturday Swap amongst my sidebar buttons, and posted about it on my most recent post which is nearing 100 views to help spread the word about it. I too love the idea of this linky as I participate in bees and robins, have recently sent some fabric for a charm swap and I’ve done an item swap that I’m still waiting to receive from my partner. So I have plenty to link up, which I want to do and I just think to help get it off the ground that removing the link-specific check would help.
OK Ladies. This is supposed to be fun! Let’s please keep it friendly. It’s not that big a deal. I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and I am taking your opinions under advisement.
Here are my thoughts at the moment –
-First of all, I did not realize that your link was stuck in moderation, Joanna, and I am fixing that. This is my first time doing a link, and as I said in my post, I wasn’t sure how it was all going to work technically speaking. I appreciate you mentioning my new link up in your post and I will also be aiming to join yours as well (If I ever get anything finished! I am stuck in WIP land it seems.) This was sort of a trial run for me.
-I have participated in linkups that require the link back. While WIP wednesday doesn’t require it, she does ask in her rules that you link back, and to me that means in the post. Molli is a little more ambiguous about his requirements. I, personally, feel it is the proper thing to do as they are giving us an arena to “advertise”, as you say, our blogs, for us to “advertise” the link up. That’s my personal take on it. You see it differently. With WIP Weds, she gets hundreds of linkups – people know about it – it’s not a big deal if someone skips the link. But I am trying to get this one off the ground, and a mention or two can make a big difference. Viewers may not always show the sidebar, or people who come to a blog another way may not realize a post is related to a specific linkup.
-I tend to write my posts with the linkup in mind, so if I am scheduling ahead, I just automatically add the link or button at the bottom of my post and make sure I link up on the day it goes live. But I also don’t find it a big deal to edit. ( I tend to edit a lot).
– I’ve seen people who are linking to several skip the buttons and just state at the bottom, “Linking up with blogA, blogB and blogC.” Which is just a sentence and not really clutter and fine too.
Those are my thoughts at the moment. But it is a work in progress (LOL!). Now that I know about the moderation issue, I will be sure to check on that. I tried to just keep this very straight forward, but keep in mind my three year old has suddenly decided he doesn’t need to sleep. Ever. And I haven’t had more than a couple hours sleep in three nights. So, if I got verbose or put emotion into it, I am sorry. I am going to think it over and also try to advertise more prior to next week. I appreciate you all participating, and, honestly, caring enough to share your ideas and support! Night.
Like I had said, I understand why you want the link back in the post to spread the word. Quilting bloggers seem pretty good when it comes to advertising and supporting linkies, so honestly, I don’t think you have anything to worry about with people linking up and not supporting it in some way. Because why bother linking up if you know other people aren’t looking at to find your links?! So of course people want to support them 🙂
I just find it restrictive because, like I said, I’d have to constantly edit my posts every time to add new ones I find — not everyone does make posts specific to link ups; I might have 3 WIP posts in a week but only use one to link up with… I’m not going to write in every single post saying I’m linking it up when 2 of them won’t be (because I don’t know that until I get around to linking up). Even writing links at the bottom rather than buttons fills up a substantial amount of the post when people use the one post to link up with multiple link parties (and to be honest I skip that part of a post when I see someone write it and don’t look through them).
I don’t know if you’ve been reading our hop group at all, but a lot of people actually use their phone to read blogs; which I have done on occasion. Sometimes I’ve come across a linky and added it while using my phone because grabbing links is easy enough — I wouldn’t be able to do this easily if I had to edit my post to make a direct link back (I’d be terrified I’d do something wrong in my post and delete the whole thing LOL. I don’t know how people can write whole blog posts on a phone!!).
I certainly wasn’t intending to come across as rude in my comment about it, and was honestly a little miffed at Mara’s comment, but was just making a suggestion because I can see that link check and the moderation turning people away from linking up (people may not want to bother linking if their posts aren’t showing right away and surely you have better things to do than spend your time constantly trying to access the link queue to moderate submissions often enough for them to be posted… I know I’d prefer to be sewing!! 😉 ).
I look forward to the next link up! I have a package to pick up from the PO I suspect is from an item swap and I’ve been working on some bee blocks and i should be receiving a round robin top to add another border onto 😀
Sounds great! I’ll look forwards to next Saturday!