A Surprise From Rachel

I received the most amazing surprise in my mailbox last week. As most of you know, I have been leading the Hope Circle of the do. Good Stitches Bee on Flickr for well over a year now. If you haven't heard about do. Good Stitches, it's a charity Bee started by Rachel of Stitched in Color. She started the group back in June of 2010 and since then the bee has grown to 13 circles filled with 5 Quilters and 5 Stitchers. Each circle works together to make one quilt each month to benefit a different children's charity. Well, Rachel decided that she wanted to tank each of the hosts for all we do to facilitate our circles and she surprised each of us by making us these amazing journals.

She individualized each journal to reflect the style of each intended recipient. She stalked me and discovered that my favorite color is green, I love playing with fabric through creating texture and that hand stitching makes me *swoon*. Boy, did she nail my style right on the head!

I mean, seriously, how gorgeous is it? I am totally in love!

She inscribed the front page with a sweet dedication and included some of the newly designed Bee labels so we can use them on future quilts.

Since I am one of the longest-running circle Hosts (Alecia and I started the Faith and Hope circles in September of 2010) Rachel also sent along some yardage of this terrific blue fabric that I am planning to use in a future do. Good Stitches quilt. I don't think it's the right backing for the soon to be completed Red Stripe Quilt but I think I might be able to use it in the next one I design. I mean how incredibly generous is she? Rachel is truly amazing and I am so blessed to be a part of such an amazing group.

If you would like to join in our endeavor you can join the waiting list over on the Flickr group. There are new circles starting up all the time. It's a wonderful group of quilters and a great way to give back to the children in need out there in the world. Thank you Rachel. You're an amazing and talented woman and I am proud to "know" you.