What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Over the last couple of months, I’ve created a snail mail friendship with a blog reader Annie.  I love getting letters from her.  She is a kind soul and a kindred spirit.

She is often writing about the antics of her goats.  I grew up with goats and just love them.  Outside of a dog, I am sure they are my favorite animal.  She is so sweet and often sends me pictures and stories about them.

Annie lives on an island in Washington state and I completely romanticize what life would be like there.

We regularly exchange notes…mine ...

I got more things in the mail and I’m sharing them with you today.

Backing fabric came from Linda J.  I put this in a box with the community quilts in the garage.  If a finisher needs backing fabric, I will send this along with tops.  It’s wonderful to get backing fabric in.

In fact, before I got the fabric to the garage, a quilt finisher contacted me saying she needed backing fabric and some went straight to her.

So many of the finishers provide backing fabric from their own stash or use their own money to provide ...

I’ve had a busy mailbox throughout the month of January.  I’m finally just now getting to writing about it.

I was super surprised to get this box.  In it were two different types of dried fruit that I have not seen, pineapple and strawberry/banana.  That was fun to try something new.  You can see there were other goodies too.

This box came from Kim.  Her card said for TN…but there was a Minnesota cookbook that was sent to me in Iowa.  FUN!!

The little dolls in the box are so cute.  Kim suggested the childcare kiddos ...

As I was writing this post I was reminded of how often I used to write mail posts…OFTEN.  I had this wild idea that once I got to the point that mail wasn’t coming in as often that I would have the mail under control.  HA!  Not true.  Now I have the opposite problem.

Mail comes in so seldom that it isn’t enough to write about to make a whole post.  Then it sits and notes still get mixed up or some comes to “help” me and sets things aside.

This is really about my first mail ...

Mail is still coming in.  Thankfully it’s not all coming to my house.  More is going directly to the people that are using it.  Direct mail is really how I need things to happen so this is great.

By direct mailing, I mean, mail the fabric/batting scraps/UFOs and orphan blocks directly to someone on the Donation Page.  Find that page HERE.

I am planning a complete overhaul on that page in a couple of weeks.  Right now there is too much going on around here (I don’t always tell you about everything happening here) and I ...

Two mail posts in one day!!  Can you believe it?  I got flooded with boxes at the end of last week.  I didn’t expect that but it all has been processed and portioned out.

All I have left to do is write the blog post so here goes…

The first box of the bunch came from Florida.  There were orphan blocks, a UFO, and a project bag filled with stickers.  How fun.  The project bag was really neat and I’ll likely use it for cross-stitching. So cute!!

Joyce sent a striped flannel quilt top.

Carolyn sent two boxes ...

I am changing up how I do mail.  If you missed my update on mail and quilt donations, PLEASE follow the link and read THIS BLOG POST.

I spent the entire weekend and much of the week working through the mail that was here.

With the new way I’m doing the mail, I won’t be taking pictures of everything that is sent.  I’m asking that people try to send donations directly to someone on the donation list and bypass me.   Click THIS LINK to go to the donation page.  If I do get mail, I will only ...

I have a very fun post to share with you today.  Ray was blessed with a lots of tops from a blog reader, Judy.  He took pictures of them all and is sharing them with us today.

Ray writes:
“Judy in Ohio emailed me that she reads your blog, sees the quilts I have finished and had 15 quilts that she wanted to know if I would like to have to finish and donate. That is a lot of tops! Well, last week UPS delivered three boxes from Judy. I just got finished going through them all and wanted to ...

I’ve had a few emails come in.  I’m working on getting through my email but it got piled up over the last few weeks after I had that super crazy week and alas, I’m behind again.  I spent much of Sunday trying to get through some but even after five hours at it…I’m not done.  That’s the sad news…but the happy news is this!!  I have some fun email to share with you.  Blog readers had been sending some great things and I thought you’d all love to know about them too ...

WOW.  I have been overwhelmed with an incoming delivery.  A week or two ago I got an email from a blog reader, Jan.  She wrote:

“Dear Jo,
My friend and I have cleaned our sewing rooms. And we have lots of tops and fabric. You name it, we have it. 

We are planning to be in Iowa this week, Thursday and Friday. Would it work for you if we drop it off. We can leave it on your porch. There is too much to ship.”

I said sure.  I’m always up for a porch drop.  Sadly they came on ...

Oh my word…I had a busy mail day.  Can you believe all of this came on the same mail day??  It’s hard to believe, right??

This was the first box I grabbed.  Darn.  It said “box 2 of 2”.  Do I proceed with this box or go find box “1 of 2”??  I decided stick with this box first.

It was filled with the heavier-weight decorator fabric.

This is box #1.  Both came from Jackie.  She was so sweet and said she’d love to include postage money but just sending this was expensive.  Please never feel like ...

It used to be that the "where where you when..." question was about Kennedy's assassination or, for our parents, Pearl Harbor. Now our "where were you..." prompt is twenty years old. On September 11, 2001, I was in the conference room at the North Suburban Library System headquarters.  Lynn S., Sandra N., and Carol L. and I were there for the initial meeting  of a fellowship/support group for women library directors. The big-screen TV was turned on to the news--the first tower had been hit. We thought we were seeing a clip from a disaster movie as we ...

I published all the mail in one post and the same day, the mail lady delivered five more boxes.  WOW.  It’s a busy place here!!

Let’s get right into it.

The first box came from Susan.  She wrote a very sweet note to go with her box.

Susan was so sweet and include a bit of postage fund money.  It’s always appreciated.  Check out the goodies!!

There were things for the childcare kids.  I had a little one in care go through and break many of the crayons so they are appreciated.  I think we all know ...

It’s a mail day here!!  Let me rephrase.  It’s a BUSY mail day here.

First up and I can’t remember if I told you about this package.  It came from New York State.

Check out the fun Mayo’s.  I’m a mayo fan for sure so these have been fun!!

There were other goodies too.

This was package together with a note on it for Kayla.  I gave this to her and she was happy to have it.

You can’t tell from the photo but the piece below is beaded.  It’s so pretty.

Sally ...

I have had a few people come by and drop things off recently.

The first batch of things come for a group of New Hampton ladies.  They were busy making dignity bids for the local nursing home.  They are like this…

From my understanding, a shirt is taken.  Sleeves and backs are taken off.  Then the sides are hemmed to make an adult bib that doesn’t look like a bib.  If you are interested in these just google “dignity bib” and you can see more about them.

Anyway, they talked to the local thrift store and asked them to ...

I’m not the only one getting lots of mail, Ray is too!

Ray writes:
“I got an email last week from Linda F. in Tucson, AZ. She said she had more quilt tops than she knew what to do with. Could I use them? Who am I to refuse a quilt top or two or????? She said she sent me two boxes. USPS delivered box 1 of 2 today. Looks like Friday for the second box. OMG!! It was a BIG box and was packed full. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So here are the ...

It’s a mail day here.  There is a lot of mail so grab a drink and read along.

The first package came from Ellen.

I opened the box and it said 2 of 2 on it.  In the #2 box were all sorts of great quilting books.  I’m so excited to look through them and see if anything sparks my interest.

Then I went hunting through the pile of boxes to find the package that was the 1 of 2 box.  The best way to do that was to look for the same return address.  I found it ...

The mail has been rolling in.  I shared a post with you last Monday and am sharing another with you this Monday.

Many of the boxes in this post came anonymously.

Those birds at the top of the box grabbed my attention.

They were orphan blocks…

There were other goodies in the box too.

Isn’t the top with the squirrel so cute?  I ended up sending these to the Cresco Ladies thinking they could add some borders on them to get them to be a little bigger.

Louise in SC sent the next box.

OH, AWESOME.  there were goodies ...

I met a blog reader Jane recently when she dropped of goodies.  When I say goodies, I mean lots and lots of goodies.  Check it out!

I could likely make one blog post out of what Jane sent.  Oh my!

Check out this vintage quilt top.  This will be on an upcoming auction.  Keep a watch out for that!

This was an unusual setting for a Dresden plate.  I love it.  Here is a close-up picture.

Jane sent a lot of orphan blocks.  I package them up for the Cresco ladies so I’m sure we’ll see these in ...

OH, MY WORD…Mail has been flooding in.  I have much to share and this isn’t all of it.  More came in as I was prepping this post.  I think that will wait for the next post.

The first bunch of goodies came from Nelle in OK.  It was a big box and there were goodies galore.

Just look at all of this…

There was a mixture of everything from super cute quilt tops…

to fabrics.  I tried to keep the similar fabric with the tops so the fabric could be used for binding. 

When I saw these tops ...