Intermission - Gina's Quilt

Front of quilt - above

Back of quilt - below

 We are having a little intermission today - between the 2 weeks of my wedding mailings.

This spectacular quilt was done by Gina. It is a response to the pandemic. I asked her if I could post it and gave her the option of writing the commentary - she sent this:

I enjoy both calligraphy and sewing, so during April 2020's lockdown I designed and stitched a quilt with phrases I use to calm myself down during times of stress. I titled my font-filled piece "Whatever You Do..."  (...Don't Panic....PRAY...Bee Brave...Fear not) putting the title in the border using Morse Code. The phrase on the backside ('kwitchurbeliakin') is one my daddy said whenever we kids complained too much. My piece is one of 27 quilts currently in the exhibit "Quarantine Quilts: Creativity in the Midst of Chaos" at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. In the fall the exhibit goes to the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts. Those 27 plus many others will be featured in the book Quarantine Quilts: Creativity in the Midst of Chaos by Sandra Sider and is available at Amazon with a release date of September 2021. 

---Gina Gililland McCasland

I'm also sharing something she said in the first email to me about the improv nature of the quilt - I have a stack of fabrics that need to be turned into something. Scraps from things my mom made back in the 50s and 60s - plus things I made over the years. This quilt has me reeeeally interested in adding some words to my projects.

Gina wrote:
You used a Gee's Bend quilt postage stamp on one of the envelopes I received from you --maybe a year ago? -- and I especially love the Improv look of perfect imperfection. For this quilt I drew out the hands/fonts as I went along and didn't measure. But all the various word or phrase blocks came together at the end in a way that pleased me. So I guess it IS an Improv quilt.

The book:
https://www.amazon.com/Quarantine-Quilts-Creativity-Midst-Chaos/dp/0764362011

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Gina. I know there are quite a few quilters who read this blog.

Back to the wedding tomorrow.

Patty Feb - The Quilt Index

The new love stamp provided inspiration for Patty. I met Patty when she signed up for one of my classes - and we've stayed in touch. She had a background in teaching so we connected on that level, too. Not that I majored in art ed - but, there is something about art that can transcend formal education. Something I learned from getting the BFA was the interconnectedness of e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.  I'm not sure if there is any fool-proof way to make sure students learn about that. But, many teachers connect by virtue of being teachers. And now I have lost my train of thought. I think there is a connection with Patty's work... maybe it will come back to me.

 ***

Whew. I'm not going to talk about domes today. Here is a website for the quilters. If you are not a quilter - you might want to check out the second link that has the really long list of every possible thing you could document if you were going to document a quilt.

This site - The Quilt Index - is just that.

I have not figured out if the index is open to the public -- I was just blown away by the number of things there are to consider about a quilt. I wonder how many details one could come up with if they were indexing envelopes. The Quilt Index has more than 50,000 quilts. I only have 5,000 envelopes on the blog. Maybe I should start indexing them. And maybe I should learn how to fly.

The first link will take you to the page where their quilts are organized by pattern. I'd love it if someone would count how many categories they have - and let me know.

https://quiltindex.org/quilts/pattern-names/

The second link takes you to an example quilt and along the right you can see the remarkable number of details that one might have for a particular quilt.

https://quiltindex.org/view/?type=fullrec&kid=25-21-20

Oh -- here it is -- the main page - that tells all about the index.

https://quiltindex.org

May to Kristine - Last quilt comment

 

This one is towards the end - when I was getting looser and I rather like it. I was tempted to fill the name in with the same pattern that is on the envelope - but did not have a good way to practice - and was running out of time - so this is the final.

***

Additional thoughts - for the quilters - the rest of you should just get on with your day - and skip this part.

One last comment about the quilt project. We have two shops that sell quilting fabrics and I visited both with the quilts to look for replacement fabrics. There are some companies that sell reproductions of 1930s fabrics. The owners of those quilt shops were thrilled to see the quilts and they were in agreement with me that doing a repair that would make the quilts usable rather than doing a museum quality restoration that would make them only show pieces was perfectly acceptable. 

We also noted that the *art of quilting* has changed a lot. There are machines to cut the blocks or hexes and then there are machines that will do all the quilting. So the only *handwork* is stitching the blocks together - which is seldom done by hand. The quilts I repaired were pieced by hand. The binding around the edge, which required two steps had the first step done by machine and the second by hand. 

I suppose there are still a few people who quilt by hand. It's not like it's a lost art. Anyone can see *how* to do it. The question is how even can you make those tiny stitches. And then the ultimate question: how long does it take. It occurred to me that the readers who are quilters might be pondering - how much time did Jean put into this project. 

And there might be people with more ideas on how to source the perfect fabrics -- but I've already mentioned that my least favorite part of the project was looking for fabrics that would be good enough. *Perfect* fabric would have been cotton lawn - but I had no idea where to find that, much less find it the right colors and prints.

I have no idea how much time I spent on actual stitching. I got faster as I went along - but it was easily 50 hours and maybe closer to 100. I spent a significant amount of time futzing around considering options ....and then with the solid colors that I replaced... there was some washing and bleaching and distressing....aaakkkk...and I changed my mind on the border and ripped out the first repairs and redid them.....I'm happy and Caroline and Tracy are beside themselves...so....I can put this project in the category of: Yes, that is something that I have done and boy did I learn a lot. I'll probably do some more repair on these two - but, if anyone asks me to repair a quilt, I'll be able to decline without feeling guilty or selfish. I'm happy to have rescued the quilts and given them some more years.

DEC from Rachael - Susan McCord quilt

I am being vigilant about filling the posts in the order that they appear in the folders to see if I can do this without missing any. I have the add-ons pre-written - so there is no rhyme or reason to how they are paired. I was delighted that Rachael get's to be with this add on.

I don't know if Rachael quilts - but she has the design sense and attention to detail that would be very helpful if she decided to try quilting. Rachael knows that I have a thing for copying her work. If I copy this one it will have to be for people who have only 6 letters and one of them needs to be an I. 

Yup - I just checked the list and the only one who has 6 letters and an I is Juliana Quiroz. Sorry, Juliana - I don't think I'm going to attempt this with your Q. Maybe Rachael want's to give it a try. Not to mention that part where she'll have to figure out how to spell  The Quirozs - or Quirozes - or Quirozi.  Pluralizing names that end in s or z is so tricky. 

 

***

The sub-zero blog posts. I think this is No. 3. I'm posting random stuff and I know there are a few quilters who read the blog. This is my all-time favorite quilt. I saved an article about it and then I found out that it is at the Henry Ford Museum (in Detroit) which is on my list of things that I'd like to do with my grandkids. I know they are very interested in seeing the actual bus that was found and restored - that Rosa Parks was riding when she made history. That bus in also at the museum and the museum is only one state away from them.  

Here's a link - not the best photos. It appeals to me because she was a kindred spirit to anyone who has a hard time parting with very small scraps of paper (or fabric). Her design was genius - for using up random bits of fabric that come in both square-ish as well as triangular-ish. 

LINK to McCord quilt at Ford museum

A tight shot of the. itty-bitty pieces

A mid-range shot of the vine pattern.

The coolness of the whole quilt.

The pink and green pulls all the random bits together beautifully.

***

This is the blurb at the link - I need to steal that phrase - "rendered to perfection* - to use on envelopes. It will be the opposite of *deeply regret.*

Indiana farmwife Susan McCord made this stunningly beautiful quilt -- indisputably her masterpiece. This trailing vine design is a McCord original. McCord pieced together printed and solid cotton fabric scraps to create the over 300 leaves on each of the thirteen vine panels. McCord used variations of this vine in the borders of several quilts. But McCord's vine design is rendered to perfection in this work of genius.

p.p.r.

procrastination progress report

i felt so guilty about posting something that wasn't an envelope that i went ahead an made an envelope. it is to our envelope representative from texas who sent me a snail address. i am really excited to have the name timothy to work with. it has a lot of fine letters. (my two newest reps, cathy and candy - in addition to kathy- had me a little scared that the state reps would be dominated by 5-letters-ending-in-y names)

anyhow, this is what came of the inspiration quilt below. i used jan's faber castell markers for the main name and a couple of the accent colors. then i used a navy zig writer for the outlining and fill in. one of these days, when i set up a web cam, i will have very detailed lessons on the sequence of detailing on these kinds of letters.

there were darker spaces where the faber-castell overlapped, so i added some details with a matching zig. i included some Xs after i found the amish quilt stamp. i did not find any of the gees bend quilt stamps.

the gees bend quilt below would have been my choice for a stamp. but it was not one that was offered on the page.

ok, back to work. [ha]

Nov-Dec monsters to Smash - tie-dye sheep

Shout out (and thank you) to Lindy - a reader who emailed yesterday to tell me that there was a typo in the announcement about postal rates going up. It was a cute graphic - but not from the USPS. Next time I see the IG account with the cute graphics I'll post something - I can't remember the name.

Here is the correction - the rates go up on Jan 21 ---

Since I've been appropriating Smash's idea so often, I figured I would send her a thank you for the idea. This envelope was in the stack of envelopes that were started and then set aside. That stack seems to be resolved. 

Some of my favorite envelopes have been cartoonish - with *characters* making comments. It's a very fun way to send mail when you are not in the mood to do something more traditional. And speaking of non-traditional - I saw this quilt on Pinterest - along with lots more that have very non-traditional approaches to quilting. Seems like I forgot about quilting for a while - but now it's back.

Here is a link to buy the pattern for the quilt.

I think it would be more fun to make it without using a pattern - but that's just me.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/620948874/tie-dyed-sheep-a-scrap-quilt-pattern

If you are a quilter - check out the rest of her quilt patterns - some of them lean in a nicely contemporary direction.

 

Pencil Quilt > Envelope

Limner has been talking about pencils on her blog. This jumped out at me on Pinterest and it's a great idea for an envelope.

Hopefully, I will get my version posted promptly.

This is a bonus post. Scroll down for today's regular post.

That quilt is from here:
quilt

right brain / left brain - quilt

ok, fourth try and i like this one. i even like that the stamp is a quilt because i think quilts are a good example of a right brain activity for left brain people. i could not discipline myself to sew a quilt and make all the intersections exact. well, maybe i could if someone was going to pay me a million dollars or something. but, it is not something i care to do.

i frequently have students who want to learn calligraphy and it takes a certain amount of discipline. when they discover that it is not a pure right brain activity ,they are so disappointed. i wonder if there are any activities that are purely right brain.

anyhow, this envelope is a bit of a mess, but, i'm ok with it. it would take a lot of time to produce a really spectacular right brain left brain envelope. there will not be time until the wedding season is over. but maybe someone who reads the blog will take the idea and run with it.

i put the tulips on before i even looked for a stamp. they need to be removed.

a fun site:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/london/galleries/9287812/The-Post-Office-in-Pictures-from-the-1930s-to-1980s.html?image=5

May to Kate - Quilt project 3

As previously mentioned, I often start with Kate's name - it doesn't have any of the problem letters - and it's a good one to noodle around with when I am pondering ideas. I had not done a *Jordan* style for Kate and had some larger envelopes - so figured her full name would work out. I was pretty happy with the black and then not sure I could make that stamp work. It was a lot of steps - and for a while it did not look promising at all - so it was super fun when it all came together. Kate has gotten a lot of duds - due to me doing hers while I am in my warm up phase --- it was fun to finally get a pleasing one for her.

***

Here are the finished quilts. It's fine - the goal was to do repairs that would blend in and I think I accomplished that. I also learned a lot - and it could have been better if we had spent more time finding more perfect replacement fabrics. But, I find that I am no longer excited about searching for things that I don't even know if they exist. There are ways to print images on any kind of fabric you like through Spoonflower and I could have created art to do that - but the expense of ordering fabric and not really knowing how the colors would look made that an unattractive option. All totaled - I spent less than $12 on replacement fabrics.

There's also the matter of quilts that have been aging for 90 years - it's hard to find fabrics that feel the same - worn to a softness. While it's not museum quality restoration - they can be used on a bed - and washed carefully - and I think that's better than having something that can only be admired rather than used.

Here they are, back home - in Caroline's guest room. They still need a few more repairs - but, I'll save that for next fall or winter when I won't have the weeds tormenting me.

Yes - that one red flower is jarring. I would have changed it - but Tracy wanted to keep it. I'm aware that a lot of quilters like to put one jarring element into a quilt - and so I was fine with maintaining the integrity of the original quilter's decision. 

If you are curious about whether the two quilts are exactly the same - they are. Or rather they were - oddly,  all the fabrics that shredded were the same on both quilts - except for one. But, I don't think it is noticeable.

A couple more photos I took at my house before I returned them

Above is the second quilt before I started the repairs.

Below is the first one, finished.

 

March from Kristin in Winterset

 This is from a new exchanger, Kristin, who lives close enough to Des Moines that her mail gets postmarked here. If you recall the envelope I posted that I sent to her - it said Winterset. I've been there to visit the Iowa Quilt Museum. Winterset is the home of Fons&Porter - which you recognize if you are a quilter. It is also in the heart of Madison County and most of us are familiar with the book and movie, The Bridges of Madison County. 

It is a picturesque town and if any of my pen pals who are also quilters find themselves in Des Moines I'll be happy to schedule a field trip to Winterset. The quilt museum is worth the trip. I needed to fact check myself since Iowa is dotted with soooo many little towns that I often get them confused. Wikipedia was my source for fact checking.  Wikipedia confirmed that my info is correct and added a tidbit that I will be giggling about all day. I might even remember this for more than a day.

Winterset was platted during a cool spell in the summer of 1849. The name was originally to be "Summerset", but the unseasonable coldness made the commissioners reverse this to "Winterset".

It's a silly little tidbit - but I seem to thrive on such things. Kristin: feel. free to send any additional info about your town and I'll add it here. I'm aware that Winterset is the birthplace of a cowboy movie star - but it's not Gary Cooper or Slim Pickens - so he will not get his name into my blog.

***

This was viral yesterday - so maybe everyone has already seen it - but if not - Yikes!

https://www.fastcompany.com/91324550/kerning-on-pope-francis-tomb-is-a-travesty

And then there are the people who say that it is an intentional mistake - which is often done to show that humans are not *perfect* - in which case - a better mistake would have been to carve FRANK - with nice spacing. Bad spacing is not a worthy mistake.

And if you don't want to read the articles - and wonder about the V instead of a U - that's not a mistake - that's just using a *vintage* alphabet. 

Or Comic Sans - that would have been wonderful - a very proper mistake.

Could it be even worse. Why yes it could.

FEB to Nanski - art quilts

Here is the one version inspired by Morgan's second envelope that had a script that went edge to edge. It's fine - but the colors in that stamp are tricky. They have some very dark tones as well as softer tones - but the overall effect is consistent. Maybe I'll buy more of them and keep trying. As much as I love doing a script from edge to edge, I might have to make myself move on. Or do I? What if I got stuck in a rut? Would any of you say anything? One person has noted that my style is very different these days - compared to ten years ago when the exchange was born. More on this later.

 

***

I know some of the readers are also quilters. Here's a look at some quilts that are on the contemporary end of the spectrum. There's a fair amount of talking at the beginning where they explain the origin of this exhibit after the more contemporary quilters were not being included in mainstream quilt exhibits.

I'll make a bold statement here. I loved a couple of the quilts - and really did not care for quite a few. It parallels contemporary art. I love a few select pieces - but there's a lot that just doesn't resonate with me.

I can see why they had to start their own venue to show contemporary work.

Quilt National 25 exhibit  a video

Also - a link to the organization - which includes info on where the exhibit will be in the coming months.

LINK to more info

From Grace to Peggy - Raphael Boguslav

The little dots along the name are raised. Maybe Grace will tell us what she used. It's very pretty. Peggy liked the colors on this and the quilt stamp. She makes non-traditional quilts out of a huge stash of fabrics that she has collected. We have so much fun pondering quilts and backings and bindings. My own first attempt at a quilt is stuck because I had it all figured out and then I changed my mind on whether to make it square or rectangle. Grrrr.

About a month ago I was exchanging emails with someone who had expressed an interest in flourishing. I can always remember Jean Larche as a master - a true master - because it's hard for me to forget his first name - and I met him in real life at a conference. But there is another guy -- I had not thought of him in years and it was driving me crazy. Luckily, there is a group of calligraphers -CyberScribes- that was the first *list serve* for calligraphers - back in the dark ages.

I posted - asking if anyone could remember that guy who - - - and I listed all the random details I could remember. I was soooooo happy that someone knew who I was talking about. Raphael Boguslav. So, I'll label this post with his name and then next time I can't remember it - maybe I will remember that I filed it in the label section on my blog.

If you are interested is some beautiful design work as well as calligraphy - there is a ton of it on his website. Thankfully - someone is keeping it up. 

http://www.boguslav.com/default.html

Don't be misled by the home page -- it looks very commercial. There is plenty of hand lettering under the WORK tab. 

This is the intro on the home page:

Raphael Boguslav (1929-2010) 
This site is being maintained (largely in tact) as a tribute to a talented and accomplished designer. May it serve as a resource and an oasis for all who appreciate well-considered graphic design and exquisite hand lettering.

 

Gold Experiment - Kate's quilt

That stamp seemed like fun and the stitching details seemed like a good idea. Then it was hard to find another stamp. With the bit of red on the quilt stamp, I thought it would be OK to write the street/city/state in red and blue ink in a square. But it didn't look right. So I tried covering it up with a navy square with white writing. That didn't work, so I added a bit of red. It could have been a success if I had not adhered the stamps and been able to move the address and the two stamps around to find a pleasing placement. I also pondered more navy squares.

The amount of time I spent on this one was ridiculous. But better than doing chores.

You can see the shimmer a lot more on the photo below.

From SMASH in July - Mary & Patch IG

Super fun layout. Stealworthy. One of those stamps I wish I had more of. 

There is a Netflix documentary about the disastrous attempt to have another Woodstock - in 1999. I was only so-so interested in it - and I had no recollection of the event. Disaster is putting it mildly. I only recommend it if you are too tired to do anything - but it is too early to go to bed - and you need something mindless.

And for the collage people and the quilt people - here is an IG account which feature stamps in the collages. It is a spin off from another account by the same woman - which is more about quilting. She lives in Switzerland - so there are some nice scenes, too.

Maryline's quilt IG. and below is the link to the collages with stamps.

https://www.instagram.com/100stampsandstitches/ 

Viola - Happy 101st Birthday (word space)

Thank you to everyone who sent cards for Viola, my sister-in-law's mother.

This one is from Patty. I love the 101 candles on the cake.

Alyce went with balloons - a popular birthday theme.

Mine is boring.

RachaelT found a very nice font. That combination of letters works very well.

And here is the birthday girl.

Keep in mind Viola beat both covid and pneumonia since her 100th birthday.

And she's pretty determined to get her strength back so she can walk around.

That's not gonna happen, but you gotta admire someone who maintains their can-do spirit.

*****

Unrelated - but I couldn't resist adding this. One of my broken record comments when people ask me to critique their work is --- too much space between words. I think this might have broken the record for the amount of space between words.

The words on the three sheets of paper are Just-be-Kind. I try to be kind when I suggest that words need to have only the width of the letter i between them. The photo is from a real estate listing. I've been spending way too much time looking at real estate listings. It's one of my favorite time-wasters.

I am curious about this room in general. The quilt is a keepsake quilt made out of t-shirts. All black and gold which usually means U of Iowa - but I do not see the Hawkeye logo. If I taught English, I would assign this photo to the class and have people write a story about it. If any of the readers like to write stories - feel free to submit one. I would definitely post them.

 

April to Nicky and Janet

 

Here are two more variations of Christi's versals. I used a big chunky paint pen on Nicky's and resisted the temptation to outline the whole thing. I'm not wild about it - but I think it looked better in person.

I think Janet's was better. I outlined with a gel pen and then filled in with patterns using paint pens. I liked how the style went with the quilt stamps. I love-love-love the quilt stamps - but I think the JANET should have been larger. I had to make the strokes slowly or the gel pen would skip - so that limited the size. 

***

I'm not sure what this person has in mind.

At the top of her IG account she has this:

Artist and illustrator, sharing daily art and experiments in art #calicobrush
Do not copy!

Then she has pages and pages and pages of fun watercolor illustrations that include step-by-step instructions. Not all of them - but a lot of them. If she doesn't want people to *copy* why is she providing instructions. 

Maybe she doesn't want the images copied?

I'll just type out the name and if you are interested in simple watercolor illustration - you can check it out.

instagram(dot)com(forward slash)calico(dot)brush(forward slash)

May to JeanR and Liz - layers upon layers

This one needed something else - but I couldn't figure out what and looking at it a couple weeks after it was mailed, I still have no idea what it needs. Maybe a circle? I need to complete my series of round stamps for JeanR all at once. It's too hard to switch gears to circular stamps after doing 20 rectangulars.

I'm very curious what Liz thinks when she sees this version of her May envelope. I was so tempted to send it along like this because I loved it just the way it was. Liz's envelopes are very bold and she fills up the space so I thought this might be too radical for her. I mailed all the other envelopes and let this one sit on my desk and stare at me. Eventually I decided to add some squares on the left. 

The biggest problem was that the envelope is pale pink and even though there is a little pink in the stamp - the big pink name was not right with the stamps. I found some stamps in my stash that went with pink as well as the brighter colors in the stamp. But it was still very disjointed.

I squared off the corners on her name.

I set it aside - and happened to set it on the backing sheet from all the quilt stamps was on my desk.

I saw a black border and realized that more black might tie things together. - but I didn't have enough to layer a black border on the envelope.

So, I bordered the stamps and added a few random bars.

At this point, it was getting close but needed one more thing.

Of course, I thought of dots.

But they had to be square dots.

So, I cut squares from the edging of the selvedge from the backing of the quilt stamps.

Considering how much time I spent trying to figure out how to resolve all the issues, I am pretty happy with how it worked out. It's still a dud - but it is a happy dud.

 

May to Jessica - Quilt project - 1

 

This style of lettering is in my wanna-try folder. I used a marker and did this a few months ago - but it

has been lost in a stack. If I try again, I need to use nibs and ink. It was inspired by someone who only exchanged a couple times. It's medieval-ish. The madonna stamps looked better than any of the contemporary Forever's in my stash. It probably would have looked better with just pears. 

***

I know there are some quilters who read the blog so I'll share one of my side projects. Remember the envelopes to my friend Caroline? She has a pair of quilts that were made by a relative. They were made in the 30s and had two seriously tattered sections in the solid green border. Various bits of flowered fabric were threadbare. Repairing it looked like something I could do - until I looked more closely and I realized that they needed to be cleaned first and I was not comfortable washing them because I had no idea how the fabric would respond. 

Luckily we found an experienced quilt restorer who was willing to wash them and give me tips on the repair work. She was willing to take on the job of restoring the quilts as well - but the estimate on having a museum quality restoration was going to be very high and her process makes the quilts *look* identical to the original, but they are no longer washable - which means they are only for display. Caroline and her daughter, Tracy, and I thought it would be fine to do some *patching* and just cover the worn spots with fabrics that would blend in - and restore them to actually *useful* rather than just display pieces. 

It was fun pondering what the original quilter would have preferred. Maybe she would agree with us to go the useful route. Then we needed to find fabrics that fit in. Luckily Tracy and I have a friend who had a box of scraps from the 1930s and we found almost enough scraps to do all the repairs. 

The pattern is called *Grandmother's Flower Garden* and on these two quilts, the person did what's called *fussy-cutting* where the hexagons in the ring of 12 - has a flower positioned in the middle of each hex. We did not have any scraps that went with this one - and it was only the very center of each flower that was shredded. So I did some long basting stitches (almost like darning) to hold the flower together and then stitched a tiny flower on top - which you can see in the photo below.

If you look at the one below - once again, we did not have any scraps with the right sized daisies so I did another *Jeanerized* patch - where I just covered up the inner portion of the hexagon. The yellow flower doesn't make sense - stacked on the daisy - but our goal was to make the mending blend in from a distance. On the one below - the purple one - again, I only found one useable purple flower which had too much purple - so I only replace the portion of the hex that was inside the hand quilting.

schmutz

last week i had a job addressing these purple shimmer envelopes using a silver gel pen. the old pens were nice the new ones are too fat. luckily, i found an old one that got me through the entire job and it ran out on the very last envelope. so, that was lucky. this envelope had a big blobby defect in the paper. i covered it up with a scribble blob. then proceeded to write kathy's name under it and then doodles. then it sat around for a day or two. then i went to the stamp store and bought some vintage stamps. this one seemed to go. but after i put it on, it really bothered me, because the amish people who made that quilt would not like the shimmer paper. so then, i had to figure out something to do with it and decided to show how you can make an envelope with a cut-off section if you have to add some cents, but you do not have time to color-coordinate. so...all in all, it gets a D- in design. it's just awful. to make up for the ugliness...i returned one of my most favorite envelopes that i have done for kathy. she returned all her mail from me so i could scan it and i had the nutty idea to return all her mail, one at a time. i sincerely hope that i am inspired to make envelopes that are prettier than this one.

and now that i look at it on the screen, maybe i should have scribbled a square, on the diagonal, over the round scribbles, to reinforce the center pattern in the quilt.