Happy Blocks

 I was surprised to find these while sorting and cleaning.

I guess by sorting, I really mean digging things out of random bins and boxes. I did a monthly swap of these "happy blocks" for quite a few years back when we had Yahoo quilting groups. This group was called Stash Builders, and you got a list of people to swap with. You sent each person around six 4" squares, they sewed 2.5" strips around the outside of each, kept one, and returned five bordered blocks back to you. It was fun and low stress, and the concept was easy enough most people couldn't mess it up.

I ended up with tons of these. I made quite a few baby quilts and charity quilts. We even have one on the back of the couch. Last year, when all the wildfires happened in Australia, a group of quilters in Australia was asking for orphan blocks to make quilts from. I sent a big box of these. I was glad to get them gone even though it cost around $65 to mail them all. I really thought I had gotten rid of all of them, hence the surprise when I opened a box a found these stragglers.

I have a few groups I can put together and make some tops from.

There's also some un-bordered 4" squares that I can finish up and add to the pile. I am actually looking forward to doing something with them. I really thought I was over all these, and I actually left the group because of a comment that was made by a member. We also did a swap of log cabin blocks. The swap instructions said scrappy darks and lights. Well, no doubt, I like scrappy, and I like a lot of bright colors so I happily signed up for several sets. I was a little disappointed as the ones I got back weren't really very scrappy and had lots of pastel colors. One of the ladies who was a pretty fast quilter and who had also signed up for several sets, posted a picture of her finished top and I didn't see any of my blocks in it. Later, she posted another top and said she had made it with all the "ugly" blocks she received. Well you guessed it. It was mostly the ones I had made. I actually went back and re-read the instructions to make sure I hadn't misunderstood what I was supposed to send. I don't know if her remark was careless or passive-aggressive or what, but it hurt my feelings enough that I couldn't stay in the group. It also taught me a good lesson, and I try to find something nice to say about every quilt that gets posted on blogs, facebook, wherever. Not everything is my taste, but that doesn't make it "ugly". 

I'm glad I'm finally over it enough to be excited about doing something with these.