Questions, Answers and Things Learned Along the Way

Isn't it interesting what we learn from quilting discussions?

These Liberated Checkboard blocks are the choice for the July block lotto.  I created them by first cutting the fabrics into a slanty 16-patch--my directions are here.

Krista ASKED why I didn't cut and assemble these in the same way as the Tic-Tac-Toe blocks we made last year.  And then Sara posted some in-progress photos of that approach.  Doh!  I'm not sure why I couldn't see it that way.  It's so much easier/faster . . .  though certainly there are skills to be learned with both liberated approaches.

Yesterday, after I posted my winter themed Liberated Round Robin piece, June ASKED if I have everything stitched together or was I keeping the components separate, to be arranged and put together later.  The simple answer is that yes, everything is sewn together, but the question prompted me to remember that I considered not sewing the "icicles" row onto the quilt in round one and how I initially had thought it would work better near the top of the quilt, but didn't want it against the top of my center block.  Guess who ripped out that seam this morning (and wished she'd remembered to lengthen her stitches after she shorted them to stitch the foundation pieced log cabin blocks?) Here's the before and after.

Moving that row resolves a design issue for the next "round" for me. I am so glad that June ASKED.

Over the weekend, when the mailing information was sent out to the fifty-some quilters who made lotto blocks in June,  Karen, in Australia, brought up a potential issue of sending cotton (and silk) to one of the nine winners, who lives in the Sultanate of Oman. I confess that when I am mailing quilt blocks to another quilter, I never before considered import/export/shipping restrictions and prohibited items.  I couldn't find anything on the USPS web site; I found a list on the FedEx site that lists items that cannot be sent to Oman (but no cotton or silk); I felt stuck.  I wondered if the prohibition was specific to some countries and not others, so I ASKED Kate, in the UK, if she could check for any prohibitions for sending cotton to Oman from England or Europe.  She found a most excellent site - The Universal Postal Union, where the mystery of the prohibited cotton was solved.  In the list of prohibited items to send to Oman was this line (emphasis mine):

Cotton or silk cloth as well as other cloth with designs representing coins, bank notes, securities of the Oman government or of other governments. 

 Isn't it interesting the things we can learn in a discussion about quilting? The questions and answers are interesting . . .  and the places that the discussion can take us are wild.