Hashtag Awesome!

This might be the summer of Instagram for me. I've had an Instagram account for a few years, but didn't do much with it for a long time. I friended a few folks, looked at some nice pictures, and that was pretty much it. This year, however, I discovered the vibrant quilting community that exists on the social media site, and it is now a much bigger part of my social media life.

My big turning point was participating in Amy Ellis's Instagram Quiltfest (#IGquiltfest) earlier this year. The daily prompts were so much fun and encouraged me to post more and seek out other quilters. From there, I quickly found a plethora of quilt-alongs, fabric swaps, mini-quilt exchanges, and contests.

It wasn't long before I was deep in the world of swapping. There are ample opportunities to swap both fabric (charm squares are a popular size) and finished items, such as mini quilts. I just received three fun packages this week (#happymail, in Instagram parlance), each a different type of swap.

The first was text print charm squares (#textycharmswap), in which I sent a set number of identical charm squares of a given text print and received the same number back of different text prints—so much fun! The variety was amazing!

 

One of my blocks for the Sweetwater Swap

I love the fun fabric the ladies of Sweetwater design and was excited to participate in a Sweetwater block swap (#swjulystarswap). For this one, each participant made blocks following the same pattern and using only Sweetwater fabric. We sent the blocks to our generous and patient hostess and received back different blocks. I loved seeing fabric from older, out of print lines I hadn't seen in person. I made a few different blocks, and made an extra of each style for myself, so I now have enough blocks for a pretty sweet quilt! Not only is it fun to work on my own project, but I love seeing the other quilts from the swap come together. There were so many different blocks, I think each swapper received a unique package!

The third package was a finished item, a mini-quilt, that was exchanged through a paper piecing themed swap (#fortheloveoffppswap). So much fun! I truly had as much fun making a quilt to swap as I did receiving a surprise package. Quilters are such a generous lot, and my swap buddy included some fun little extras. What a treat to get a fun package in the mail!

Instagram has a truly vibrant quilting community. It is such a joy to be a part of such warmth and creativity. If you are not already on the site, check it out!