Terms of Service

NiftyFifty ("we," "us," or "our") is a platform for quilters to discover blocks and patterns, organize swaps, join guilds, chat with other members, and share their work. By creating an account or using NiftyFifty, you agree to these Terms of Service.

These terms are written to be clear and fair. If you have questions, email us at [email protected].

You must be 13 years or older to use NiftyFifty. You're responsible for keeping your account secure. Do not share your account or create accounts on behalf of others without their permission.

Provide accurate information when you sign up. We may suspend accounts with false information, including fake identities used to impersonate other quilters.

When you upload quilt blocks, photos, patterns, or any other content to NiftyFifty, you keep full copyright ownership of that content.

By uploading, you grant NiftyFifty a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, display, reproduce, modify, distribute, and create derivative works of your content for any purpose related to operating, promoting, and marketing NiftyFifty — including but not limited to display on the platform, social media posts, newsletters, press materials, advertisements, printed materials, and promotional campaigns. This license continues even if you later delete your account or remove the content, with respect to copies already in use.

We will never sell your uploaded content as a standalone product or license it to unrelated third parties for their own commercial purposes.

By posting, you confirm that you have the right to share what you upload — that patterns are your original work, in the public domain, or shared with permission from the rights holder. Do not upload content you don't have rights to share.

Quilt block swaps depend on every participant fulfilling their commitment. When you join a swap, you are agreeing to make and mail your blocks by the deadline. Dropping out without notice affects the entire group.

By participating in a swap, bee, quilt-along, or any other community activity on NiftyFifty, you agree that your participation — including your username, display name, profile photo, submitted blocks, quilt photos, and any content you share in connection with the activity — may be used by NiftyFifty for promotion, marketing, social media, press, newsletters, and any other purpose related to showcasing and growing the community. This includes featuring your work on the NiftyFifty website, social media accounts, printed materials, and in communications with press or partners.

Habitual no-shows may be restricted from future swaps. We protect the experience for members who do show up.

Content that you post with "public" visibility on NiftyFifty — including quilt designs, block photos, and patterns — may be freely shared on the web by anyone. This means other members, visitors, or quilters on social media may share links to your public content, embed previews, or pin your designs to platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook.

NiftyFifty may also use any public content for promotional and marketing purposes, including social media posts, newsletters, press materials, advertisements, and printed publications. Your username or display name may appear alongside your work when featured.

If you do not want your content shared externally, set it to private before publishing. You retain copyright ownership of your original work regardless of how it is shared.

The NiftyFifty Quilt Designer and Pattern Designer generate original quilt designs entirely in your browser. You own the designs you create.

Personal and commercial use. You may use your original designs for any purpose — sewing quilts to sell, publishing or selling the pattern, teaching classes, or releasing it under an open license. We don't take a cut and we don't need credit (though we love it when you mention us).

One important exception — fabric photography. Real fabric images shown in the designers (manufacturer and retailer swatches) are licensed to NiftyFifty for on-platform preview and shopping links only. Exports that include fabric photography are for your personal planning use — do not include those images in patterns or products you sell or redistribute. The same design rendered in solid colors, or with fabrics listed by name with links, carries no such restriction.

Public designs and forking. When you save a design with public visibility, you grant NiftyFifty and other members a license to view it, favorite it, and build on it ("fork" it) within the platform, with attribution to you preserved. A fork's creator owns their additions; your underlying design remains yours. If you don't want a design forked or shared, keep it private.

Traditional blocks. Many quilt blocks are traditional designs in the public domain. Owning your design means owning your original expression of it — it does not give you or anyone else exclusive rights to a traditional block itself.

The Porch is our discussion space — topics and replies in guilds and across the community. What you write is yours, and by posting you grant NiftyFifty the same license described in "Content You Upload" so we can display and share it as part of operating the community.

Discussions are moderated by guild owners and moderators and by NiftyFifty. We garden rather than police: posts that break our Community Guidelines may be removed, and removed posts show a removal notice in the thread. If your post is removed, we'll tell you why.

Helpful answers may be marked as "the reply that helped" by the person who asked, and may be featured elsewhere on NiftyFifty with attribution.

• Harassment, bullying, or targeted abuse of other members
• Spam, unsolicited advertising, or pyramid schemes
• Uploading malware or attempting to compromise platform security
• Sharing patterns or content you don't have the right to distribute
• Impersonating other quilters or creating fake accounts
• Scraping or mass-downloading content without permission

If you believe your copyrighted work has been posted on NiftyFifty without permission, send a DMCA takedown notice to [email protected] with: your contact information, identification of the copyrighted work, the URL of the infringing content, and a statement of good faith belief and accuracy under penalty of perjury.

We respond to valid DMCA notices within 5 business days.

You may delete your account at any time from Account Settings. We may suspend or terminate accounts that repeatedly violate these terms, with or without notice depending on severity.

Upon termination, your public content (blocks, swap photos) may remain in the archive unless you delete it before closing your account.

NiftyFifty is provided "as is." We make no warranties about uptime, accuracy, or fitness for a particular purpose. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim (or $100, whichever is greater).

We may update these terms as the platform evolves. If we make material changes, we'll notify you by email at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use after that date constitutes acceptance.