Ritzy,
I received my HST's on Thursday. What a surprise and what a treat to read all the names and places. SInce I live about 500 feet from the Pacific Ocean we have been so wrapped up in tsunami madness I forgot they were coming. Can you be ready to run for your life in 15 minutes or less carrying enough water to last for 3 days, medications, food, personal needs, kids, pets ...Oh and by the way you must walk and preferably up hill?! It is a lot to think about. Then my package arrived and I could finally turn the page and think about something else for awhile. Thank goodness I shook the bag and Ricky came tumbling out! Thank you for all your hard work. Since I'm one who wasn't paying attention and sent you 256 HST's, I do appreciate getting all my extras back. Maybe I'll find another exchange or maybe we will do this again in a year.
Quilton

Mine are here. I have to be honest they are still in the envelope. Wait, hold the shocks. I know the air got sucked in all over the planet. Take a breathe and I will tell you why. First imagine who I am. I am looking down the road to another HST sorting event. And my head is starting to swim with details of that occasion. Yes, I smile at my envelope knowing it is safe in it's special spot, waiting to be joined up with it's cousins from the Sisterhood exchange. Until then I am trying to keep the brain in a peaceful state to stay as efficient as possible while I contemplate a process of sorting approximately 200,000 to 250,000 HSTs. Ooof. But we are going to have fun in the process!!!

Thank you very much Ritzy. If there is anyone that can empathize, appreciate and truly respect this lovely envelope waiting for me. It is I. Clara

Hi Ritzy,
As a follow-up to my personal email another big, big thank you fot this enormous job you so willingly undertook for all of us. Thanks also to all the ladies w2ho participated. I was stunned by all the exquisite batiks you used. I found the package in the mailbox when I got home on Thursday and barely put my purse down before I opened it and looked at all the names and fabrics. It was so nice to recognize some of the names from the forum.
Have a great weekend playing with your HSTs.
Love,
Barbara

THANK YOU THANK YOU to Ritzy and her gang of sorters!!! I received my beautiful triangles today and WOW!! It was so much fun to look at each one and read where they came from and open them up to see how lovely they each were!! Many were from Australia, England and Canada plus of course all over the USA. So cool! Thank you to everyone who participated!

Here's a little side note: I found Alex's easily in my batch, but didn't see one from Ricky. I had looked last week and saw that my name was not on the first batch, so I wondered where it could be. I decided to double check Ritzy's info about that, and scrolled back through the pages here. Voila! I found a post I had missed reading, saying Ricky's triangle would be loose in my envelope and to shake it to make sure it came out. Lo and Behold!! I got my envelope out of the trash, and shook Ricky right outta there!! LOL Good thing it wasn't trash day or he would have been lost forever in a Georgia landfill.

Well, I did it. Bought a new sewing machine today. A Janome Memory Craft 6600. Right now i'm trying to figure out using the start stop button rather than a foot pedal and I spent the afternoon sewing together a charm pack just to get used to it. Hopefully by the time I get ready to put the hst's together I'll have a little more confidence with it. I am making a lis tof everyones name and will put the list and an explanation of the exchange on the quilt.

No HST in my mailbox today yet. Maybe Monday. This is just so much fun!

What fine job Ritzy did. I've been looking over the names and locations of all the half squares that I received. Amazing!! Maybe I'll scan all the papers and print them on fabric sheets for the backing.
I did shake my envelope and out fell Ricky's block
I've been busy watching some eagles hatching. This is from a location not too far from where I am in Iowa.
Check this one out http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

JanieSue

I couldn't wait - it took 6 pics to get them all so they can be read and the last has the hst's from outside the US and Ricky's

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Thanks again, Ritzy!!

The wagon arrived out west today, too!! Must have been the smoke signal I'd sent. It's a good thing they didn't mistake it for a radioactive cloud. We're still under "safe" levels here. Hah! Anyway, enough of the sarcastic humor........the triangles are BEAUTIFUL!!! I have them all laid out on the counter. Such fun going through them. I'll have to concede that it was worth the wait. THANK YOU to Ritzy and gang!

Woo-Hoo!!!

Got my hst's today - they are all wonderful
Thanks to everyone for participating

I am going to take a photo of all of the name labels, transfer it to fabric and include it with my label.

Special thanks to Ricky

Yeah, mine came today too. DD had just arrived for a surprise visit from Austria. Dh then came in with my envelope of HSTs. AS I got all excited and explained what these were, they all looked at me as if to say 'and' as if they couldn't understand what my excitment was all about. (they are very supportive of my quilting normally) Like so many others I have sat this evening and gone through them all and am amazed at all the different fabrics. What a rainbow of colour this quilt will be! Thank you everyone for your HST and thank you so much Ritzy and all your helpers for organising this for us.

BTW, for all of you on the wagon train trail, this envelope took 4 days to get from Ritzy's in Indiana to England.

Yippee, my HST's arrived yesterday. I had to go through each one to see who sent it and then look at fabric combinations. They are great and what a variety of batiks - I thought I had a good collection but hadn't seen lots of these before. Thanks especially to Alex and Ricky for participating with their signed HST's and a big thank you to Ritzy and her helpers for doing this exchange. Now I have to decide which quilt I want to make from Edyta's "Friendship Triangles" book. Thanks again to everyone who participated. This was great fun.

Elizabeth (hulagirl)

This week I sat down in my favorite chair to open my Batik’s R Us envelope of treasures. For me it was not Christmas I was feeling. I was whisked back to my grade school days when we had Valentine’s Day exchanges. Each triangle was a Valentine from one of my classmates. I looked to see who sent me one and where did they live. I was thrilled each time I recognized a name or location. It was just like being in fourth grade again. Then I opened each one to reveal the messages sent in an explosion of color combinations. After sitting there for more than an hour sorting and making piles I was filled with giddy glee. Next week I will start the excitement again, as I cut the corners off and iron each triangle open for another look inside. When I was younger I would tape and pin my Valentines up in my room to enjoy for the month. I will do this again with my HSTs. Thank you to everyone for all of the love you have shared. And thank you to Ritzy and crew for playing Cupid.

I received an email today that extra HSTs were not returned. If you are wondering where your extras went--they probably we put in the bag for Queensland and New Zealand. I had very enthusiastic helpers. So, if you wanted yours back and did not get them, please let me know and I will try to find them.