What I gave; what I got

Last month I had my first swap through a quilt block swap blog (one on which I am just a passenger weeeeeeeeeee!!!!) & what I got was so much better than what I gave, I feel kinda bad.  In my defense, I joined the group in the very month the swap leader position was being handed to a new person & there was some scrambling as I got lost in the shuffle.  The short version is I got all the information I would need to continue with the group (current month swap partner), but none of the info I needed to start (dimensions, deadlines, etc.).  As a person who organizes swaps, I can see how this could easily happen & I think I am mostly caught up now.

First what I sent: she expressed a preference for color combos that I do not have the confidence to use & the preference was abstract.   I realize she was being flexible - good thing-, but if she had said "I love chatreuse & black-watch-plaid" I could have managed.  Lucky for me, she also included a by-the-by reference to Amy Butler & I am the proud possessor of some lets-call-it-vintage Amy Butler fabric.  It may be the only medium-scale, only loosely-repetitive fabric she ever designed.  In retrospect it is a very un-Amy Butler Amy Butler fabric, but I paired it with white-on-white pin-dot (very prairie & thus Amy Butler), & killed a second bird by checking off a Friday Block Party block -from September but hey checked off is checked off.

In same envelope, I included the scraps & leftovers of same; the 1/2 square triangles I had made extras of, the remains of the wide strip of pussy willow fabric.  I figured she could use it to make a matching block more along her color preferences & sort of migrate this country cousin into her finished product.

I thought I was doing pretty good until I opened what she had sent.  Two blocks.  TWO, not one.  I still feel like a cheapskate.  My color preference was blue & yellow or anything blended really & my block preference leaned to baskets.  Yes, I am a fool for basket blocks of almost any variety, but I especially like those that are pieced & on-point.  & she sent a basket block made from antique-y-yellow & faded blue (thus also blendy).

& she included a second block in the same fabrics, also gorgeous.  I feel so inadequate.