A barter?

About a year ago I got an email from Mary at Quilt Hollow with a rather mysterious subject line. “Barter” was all it said. I had no idea what to expect when I opened the email but was really intrigued after I read it. She wanted to know if I’d like to do a “trade”. She’d quilt one of my quilts if I would make her a set of the Tisket a Tasket blocks in wool. After thinking it over, I thought it was a great idea!

So, each month as I posted my finished block we would “wink” at each other.

(I created a cute collage of these blocks but can’t get it to load to my blog. Hmmm, bummer!)

I had a medium sized quilt ready to go and she told me to send it to her right away so we could talk about how I wanted it quilted. We have such similar tastes that I knew it was in good hands. Little did I know that I sent her into a tailspin because she usually just did “all over” designs and she knew that this was going to have to be a custom job.

I felt really bad that she was so stressed about it so I told her to send it back and I’d send her another one. She refused and took it to her long arm gatherings for advice. I hadn’t heard from her in awhile (lots going on with my Mom) and then all of a sudden a couple of weeks ago, there it was on her blog. OMG…I thought I was going to hyperventilate! It was so gorgeous. Funny thing was…I had just finished putting the borders on Tisket and was getting ready to ship it off to her. Great minds….right Mary?

When mine arrived here, I quickly made and attached the binding so I could stitch it down in the car on another trip to Calif last week. Finished it by the time we got home and Wa-La, here it is.

Check out the quilting…

Isn’t it wonderful? (Somehow I think I got the better end of this barter…LOL)

Have you ever thought of offering up your talents to someone who does something you can’t or don’t want to do or don’t even have time to do? If you haven’t, it’s something you might want to consider. After all, isn’t that the way business used to be done in the “olden” days?

I’m so grateful to Mary for suggesting this trade and in my opinion, it was a win win for both of us.

Thanks Mary. I love it!

(My quilt is a pattern by Jo Morton called “Jo’s Whig Rose” and is in her book “Traditions”.)

Where in the world is….

Mystery location. Where are we?

Seattle? No…..

Alaska? No….

Believe it or not…it’s Florida. We spent New Year’s with some of our bestest friends in the Ft Myers/Naples area and needless to say, I think it was warmer in Oregon. That idiot cute guy in the shorts would be none other than Mr CnW. He refused to admit that it was cold. We were all lucky to even have coats with us. The only reason we did was because when we left home it was snowing.

Oh well, at least we were in good company. The guys all started working together right out of college and we’ve all remained great friends thru the birth of our children, grandchildren and now, retirement.

And today is Karen’s birthday so head on over to My Red Farmhouse and wish Karen a very Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Karen, and here’s to many many more.

I’m trying to get back my quilting Mo Jo and have been tackling some UFO’s. Hopefully, I’ll have a couple of things to show you at the end of the week.