Surprise!

My mail this morning contained this wonderful hand-made postcard, sent to me by Julie Post in Titonka, Iowa, who's the author of the Joe Tulips blog. She sent it after I'd left a question on her blog asking if she puts the gorgeous postcards she makes in the mailbox, or if she seals them up in envelops first. I guess I got my answer (no envelope).

I'm going to hang this up in my sewing room and smile every time I see it. It's made my day.

36-patch blocks

I've just begun another project using an idea I got from a blog called Crazy Mom Quilts written by a quilter named AmandaJean. I love her ideas and patterns---they're usually simple, but they are clean and beautiful too.

Anyway, the idea here is to make 12-inch blocks, each out of two fabrics that are of different values. She suggested going through your stash to find fabrics that had small prints on them, and then dividing them into piles of darks, mediums and lights before selecting pairs that you thought would work well together.

I jumped at the idea because I'd recently been going through my stash for another project, and had found a number of great fabrics in there that I hadn't looked at for months or years. As I'd come upon a piece I loved I'd wonder why I hadn't make anything from it yet, and feel sorta bad that it was just sitting in a cabinet for so long. Once you've collected a lot of fabric, it really IShad to figure out how to use it and it's easy to neglect pieces that you really love, or that you purchased at a terrific little shop you found on a vacation or were given as a gift.

So this project seems to me like the perfect one for getting some of those treasures to into the light of day. And it's a project without any deadline, which makes it pretty appealing too. AmadaJean encouraged the quilters who follow her blog to try to finish a specific number of blocks a week---lets say 2 or 3 or 4---since this type of project is so easy to pick up and put away. I'm on a roll, having made 6 blocks already, but even if I run out of steam I can pick this up anytime.

I am trying to use a little green in each block so they will tie together when I've finished, at least enough to make a quilt out of them that hangs together. I imagine I'll make a queen-sized quilt, so I can use it on my bed so I'll have a chance to admire the fabrics I've loved for so long now that they're "out!"

Wonky checkerboard blocks

I make these 8 checkerboard blocks for the July round of Block Lotto. Again, it's not the kind of block I'd ever have thought I'd want to make, but I had fun putting them together and I am pleased with how they came out. Wonky quilting is starting to grow on me.

It's an easy block to make, so I'm glad to have it in my arsenal of quick-and-happy blocks that could be used to make a baby quilt or get-well gift. This would be a very good month to win the lotto challenge, as the winners will receive enough blocks to make a lap-sized quilt. I've got my fingers crossed!