In my Mailbox and More

I’m working hard to catch up on all of the mail.  I know it will be fleeting and that’s okay but I did want to make an effort to catch up.

The first letter I got anonymously.  It contained a sweet note along with a little cash to help out the postage fund for charity quilts.  I’m guessing the reader who sent it is from the San Diego way according to the stamp.  THANKS!!

Lisa in Indiana also sent a lovely card and a check that I am depositing into the postage fund.  This was so sweet.
Thanks a million.  I so appreciate it.  We’ve had in a little extra in the postage fund so I took the liberty of buying a small roll of batting for one of the people who regularly finish quilts.  She’s on a fixed income and getting the batting was a blessing for her and is allowing her to finish and donate more quilts.  I so appreciate the support and vote of confidence you all give to me get the items, being quilt tops, fabric, or batting to the people who need it.

If you’d like to finish tops but need help to provide batting or backing fabric, please don’t let that stop you from volunteering.  I will do what I can to get you what you need.

I got a nice card and note from Jazz, one of the longarm quilters.  That was so kind.  She’s a sweetheart.

A friend stopped by and had a bag of sheets that she wanted to donate.  I’ll be passing these along to quilt finishers.  Many quilt finishers are not afraid to use sheets that are 100% cotton and in good condition.

She stopped by a few days later and brought monster cookie bars…YUM!!  Thanks so much, Barb!!  You are so sweet.

I had a few boxes come too.

This was from Ila.  I just love the pears that she sends.  She’s the sweetest to me and I so appreciate her thoughtfulness.  She has been so kind to our entire family.

More boxes…goodies from an anonymous blog reader.

I had to laugh when I read this note that greeted me when I opened the box.  “Block Exchange Gone BAD!”

I think we all can relate to that, right??

There were other goodies in the box too.

Here are the “gone bad” blocks.  There is enough for a quilt top there.

This would make a nice pillow if finished.

There were lots of blocks.  I had a reader comment that they would like to work with blocks so I put some in the pile for one reader and some in a pile for a local group.

There was a piece big enough for backing along with some calicos.  I took the calicos.  I have enough to get a quilt or two made but I’ve not found the focus for it yet.  Right now I’m on a roll to tackle the UFO projects and a few other things that have worked their way into my life…so the calicos wait.  After all, they’ve waited all these years, I’m sure another year more won’t be devastating for them to wait.

This fun strippy top was also in the mix.

I got a note from a blog reader that had sent four packages.  One is still “in the wind” and we don’t know where it is.  I’ll be watching for to arrive, hopefully, this week.  It’s so weird as the four boxes were sent at the same time.  Two arrived first, then a couple of days later another and the last is yet to arrive.  I’ve checked the outside of the house.  I didn’t expect it to be there as the mail deliverers are always the same here and they always put my packages inside.

I also had a big delivery of quilts and quilt tops from the Cresco ladies.  Many were finished already.
I took pictures of them and then Kalissa helped me package them up and deliver some of them to the needy in the Cedar Rapids area.  The small ones that were around 40″ x 40″ I packaged up and sent to Celesta for the Tanzania project.

I’m so sorry the pictures ended up a little blurry.  Rosie was jumping around trying to pose on the quilts and I was trying to get her to stay away so I’d quickly snap a photo…and apparently a few were blurry.

I feel so bad as this was a really cute quilt.  It was Irish and St. Patrick’s Day themed.

This was a cute panel style quilt.

Darn.  Another blurry one.  This was so cute made with sampler blocks.

The colors on this were so pleasing.

Donna does the quilting for them and does a nice job.

I think this design makes a great donation quilt.

How fun was this one.  I love the colors!

This was ocean themed.

This is a four patch with alternate blocks.

This was a panel quilt…

I loved the prints of this Raggedy Ann and Andy.

This was also a panel quilt.  I love the light-colored binding for this.

The ladies also brought bags of quilt tops.  I decided that I would try to shoot a video with all the quilt tops.  I set up the camera.  I had it all going great and shot the video.  I packaged up all of the quilts and got them ready to mail out.

A couple of days later I came to the computer to write this blog post only to find that the program that I write the blog posts with won’t let me upload a video that was that big.  UGH.  I had no idea….and the quilt tops are already making their way to quilt top finishers.  OH, MY WORD.  I feel really bad that I don’t have pictures of all of the tops…but, I tried.  I really did.

I’ve been working to find a different way to show you all what the ladies bring as taking pictures, loading them, and then editing the photos really takes a long time and I don’t think it’s the best use of my time.  Seriously, it will take me two hours to write one blog post.  Editing pictures just stinks.  Anyway…I thought doing the video was the perfect option, but, it didn’t work.  I’ll keep thinking about this.  Maybe Kalissa or Kayla will have an idea…or maybe one of you will.

The quilts are shown as they are finished…so, they are still seen.  Hmm.  I’ll keep thinking about it but for now, all I can do is apologize and I didn’t get pictures of any of the quilt tops.

All I can say is stay tuned.  They were sent to finishers and the way they’ve been finishing quilts lately, you’ll see the quilts soon.