... Or How I Learned to Love the Embassy Mail Pouch System

My quilting buds from South Jersey (rules!) and I did a block exchange this Summer. Center pieces were prepared, distributed and we all used the same pattern to complete the block. (Good choice Zehdreh!)

These are my centers, made using paper piecing and mostly shwee shwee fabric from a local store. Baskets are a big deal in Botswana so that is why I choose the pattern. I pieced the block rather than use a single fabric because I was a gazillion miles from my exchange partners and didn't know any better! These are everybody else's completed blocks which I (eventually) got mailed back to them.What a great color exercise that was! I only had the fabrics I brought with me (can't really use the local stuff as isn't 100% cotton except for the shwee shwee) and it was important to take the color preferences and personalities of the recipients into account. I hope I was close. It will be interesting to see what everyone's completed quilt tops will look like.

Mailing back the blocks and the subsequent signature labels (don't ask) was really tricky because we are greatly limited in the size and weight that can be shipped via the embassy back to the United States of America. So to explain the delay I included the following list.

1. I couldn't find stamps - this really was a factor as you can't buy them here!

2. I missed the embassy "mail plane" as it only comes on Tuesdays.

3. I couldn't find the blocks/signature labels.

4. I got distra... Look! Butterflies!

5. I was in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and/or Ethiopia.

6. The dog ate my homework ... make that "envelope"

7. Dry Mouth = couldn't seal the envelope.

8. Dingoes stole my pens = couldn't address the envelope.

9. I knew there was something I needed to Finnish but thought it referred to the language.

10. I was working on a time machine so I could go into the past and mail it to you before you even mailed them to me, thus creating a paradox and possibly a tear in the time-space continuum because, as you now see, I am actually and evil scientist out to rule the world. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!

The best laid planes of mice, men, and quilters in Africa often get waylaid. This is after they go awry but before they go out the window. All the blocks arrived in Jersey (still rules!) safely.