Kokka Layer Cake Swap

Kokka Layer Cake Swap: Fresh Lemons Quilts

Thank you all for your well wishes from my last post. The family is feeling much better and hopefully that is the last of the winter illnesses around here. We had a 3 day weekend due to Presidents Day and it was nice to just relax around the house.

I thought it'd be fun today to share a little about a fabric swap I hosted over the last couple of months. I really love Kokka style fabrics. They are fun to fussy cut for little projects, always so cool and quirky. The problem is, they are quite pricey. Occasionally I'll splurge on a print or designer that I absolutely love, but I thought it would be great to have a little fabric swap to expand the stash a bit.

After talking it over with some people at Quilt Camp, I decided to host a swap with 26 people. Each person bought 2 yards of a Kokka style fabric and then cut it into 10" squares and mailed me 26 of them. 2 yards will actually get you 28 squares, but I thought it'd be nice to have a little extra in case of cutting errors. Which of course I had when I cut mine!

Everyone in the group sent me their fabrics and I spent the weekend sorting and repackaging. Looking at my photos, I'm pretty sure there is a March of the Penguins joke in there somewhere?

Kokka Layer Cake Swap: Fresh Lemons Quilts

We ended up with a great variety of squares and I can't wait to work them into little patchwork projects. I really want to get Ayumi's upcoming book Patchwork, Please! I think these fabrics would be perfect for it.

Kokka Layer Cake Swap: Fresh Lemons Quilts

Hosting a swap is a bit of work, but I think the key is to keep it a manageable size. I also limited this swap to people I knew (or were referred to me by people I knew) and that made me confident that we would have a successful outcome. A swap like this would be great for a quilt guild too - no mailing required!