COMPLETELY GOBSMACKED!!

(with a subtitle of....Things that Come in the MAIL!)

Yesterday Sue P wrote:

You could always put a holler out for your followers to find certain colors you have a hard time finding.

I'm up north in Finger Lakes, NY.

Sue P.

I've had boxes show up with no return address before....just a UPS or Fedex or Priority Mail label...so it's no joke, even though it gets lots of laughs at my lectures! So I had to laugh when Sue said..put out a holler for dark brown shirts, because I can just imagine that I'll be drowning in them in no time!

But imagine my surprise when I opened up THIS box Monday. You know, I feel kinda bad because it sat in my front hall all day yesterday. (Guilty guilty guilty!) I got home from a trip on Saturday night, pulling into my driveway around midnight. I went straight to bed.

(After looking at my new carpet that was installed while I was gone...I asked for carpet the color of DIRT..and I am happy to say this pleases me! I think Buddy and Sadie approve too, and it's a good thing, since they are the reason I need dirt-colored-carpet!)

I slept til nearly 10am, and DH and I spent Saturday morning running errands. You know the usual? Sam's Club, Target, Dicks Sporting Goods (his choice, not mine..I sat there and poked through my mail on my phone just nodding and going "Uhhuh, oh really, yes that's nice..." while he shopped for a new baseball mit. What do I know about mits? About as much as he knows about thimbles...and I did make him stop at Joanns where the notions wall was 50% off, so I could inflict the same kind of pain on HIM that the sporting goods store does to me!

By the time we had lunch (I'm a sucker for Chili's bottomless soup and salad, it comes with chips and salsa and I like the Enchilda soup)and made it home..I was still so knackered from this trip that I took a long afternoon nap. Which brought us to late afternoon!

And you already know from yesterday's post that I was off cutting and kitting to the wee small hours Sunday night BECAUSE I NAPPED! :cD

Today I hit the ground running...no cutting has been done even though I plan on it later. I had to work on the website calendar, tackle more email, arrange future travel plans, finalize everything for my trip tomorrow, do the mail order, start packing for tomorrow.....

When I came back into the house after the post office run, I decided it was time to open the box and see what goodies were in it! Ummmmm...there is a letter....and it says...

As someone who obviously appreciates quilts, I hope you can recycle these for donating or just repair, rennovate, etc for your own or other use.

Thanks.

Wait. No name? Just Thanks? OH. MY.

The box had everything wrapped in black trash bags. I mean, it could be ANYTHING in there?

But look what I found!!!


antiques in the mail!
The first couple were wonderful utility quilts made out of simple panels of whole feedsacks sewn together. Made quickly for warmth and tied or machine quilted...they don't look like they have been used hard. I'm sure lots of quilts like these wore out with the using through hard times. The fabric in them is so good, I'm thinking I might be able to repurpose it somehow, but for now, I'm just folding these and admiring their colors and textures!

The next black trash bag contained a lavender 30's railroad crossing quilt..I saw the hand quilting stitches and nearly cried! In fact...I think I did...cuz Jeff came running down from his room to find out what was going on!

And it just got better the farther I went into this big box! The one that really made my heart sing is the Sunflower quilt from the late 1800's....There just aren't words to describe how it felt to hold this quilter's work in my hands, knowing she is long gone, yet her stitches remain.

I have no idea if these were collected quilts? Or if they had been passed down through one family? I just don't KNOW!! But I do know that I will cherish them and love them and fondle them and dream over them, and love their fabrics, their colors, their quirkyness...

I left comments on each picture in webshots...so you might need to click the link to get over there and look at them in the album instead of just watch the slide show..but..man...I'm just humbled, and tickled, and awed, and....I don't have words to thank the person (whoever you are in Annapolis!) for gifting me with these wonderful quilts. THANK YOU!