Back in February I signed up to participate in a block swap with the participants over at Patchwork Possee. Our assignment was to make twelve blocks using the courthouse square pattern. All twelve blocks were to be mailed to the coordinator. Returned to you would be one of your own blocks along with eleven other blocks from the participants.

To make my blocks I searched and searched through my fabric scraps and stash to find colors of fabric to meet the swap’s criteria. The assigned color pallet were fabrics in the jewel tone color theme. After exhausting my available options I decided to take a trip to a local quilt shop. I came home with a great group of fabrics.

With very little effort I had my required 12 Courthouse Steps blocks stitched together and ready to mail. After dropping off my package I went home to write a post about my experience.

The center stage of the post was supposed to be the photos I had taken of the squares before I mailed them. Before sitting down to write I searched through my computer, camera, iPad, and iPhone looking for those photos. My search came up empty handed.

I was so disappointed. How could I have forgotten to document my finished project? Well, since I had no photos to share I decided to postpone the post until my share of the group’s collection arrived.

The day I had been anxiously awaiting finally arrived. I had made it a point to walk out to our mailbox as I saw our letter carrier heading to our home. She’s a very sweet lady that goes above and beyond her duties to make our mail delivery a pleasant experience. Often she walks our mail up to our door rather than placing it in the box and the curb. Our letter carrier is retiring soon so I thought it would be nice to take advantage of the opportunity to talk for what might be our last chance.

As she handed the mail out of her car window I noticed there was a Priority Mail envelope included in the stack. There’s only one thing that could possibly be coming via that method and that was my swap blocks. I quickly flipped through the stack to find out if I was right and I was.

My husband and I were supposed to be leaving for lunch, in fact he was waiting in the car, but I just couldn’t wait to find our what was inside. With my package in hand I headed inside the house to tear open the package.

As I reached in my fingers met with the plastic bag containing my blocks. I pulled out the bag, unzipped the closure and slid out the folded blocks. One by one I thumbed through and laid them out. How very interesting were their combined color combinations, as well as sizes.

While all blocks were to be 9 1/2″ square, not all of them were. I wasn’t at all surprised because of my experience making the four Hurricane Sandy Quilts. The blocks for those quilts came from all over the world. They too were not consistent in size. The majority of the blocks I received had an attached label identifying who made the block and where they were from. Among the states or countries contributing to my package were

• Ottawa, Ontario Canada
• Richland, Michigan
• Texas
• Sidney, Nebraska
• Vinemont, Alabama
• Rockmart, Georgia
• Austin, Minnesota
• York, South Carolina
• Chinook, Montana
• Newport, North Carolina
• Southern California

I carefully pressed each block to remove any wrinkles resulting from their journey then spread them out to take photos. Here’s what I received.

My job now is to take the 12 blocks and turn them into something pleasing to my eyes. As I make progress on this project I will bring you updates.

Cindy Anderson of In A Stitch Quilting