Postcrossing Blog

We love projects that involve mail in some way, and when BorjaBoroda recently brought to our attention Laridian's world quilt, our jaws dropped… a gorgeous quilt, made with fabrics sent to them by postcrossers — what a thing of beauty! 😍

Laridian tells us that the whole thing started when the first fabric arrived back in September 2017, and was only recently finished — so a project 3 years and 7 months in the making, slowly accumulating pieces and stories from all over the world. The final work turned out unexpectedly big, measuring 1.27×2.2m (50×87in)… but they say this was actually a good thing, as many smaller countries wouldn’t show up otherwise.

Making the fabrics in the quilt match the sender’s origin would have been an impossible task (as Postcrossing doesn’t have many members in a lot of countries). In the end, there were 120 fabrics from 25 countries, and these were matched to the country based on the size of the piece, the patterns or colors. There are a couple of neat details, like the cow that fits India’s size perfectly! :)

We were curious to know more, so we asked Laridian a few questions about it:

What inspired you to do this map quilt?

I’ve always loved maps and fabric art. I’d previously made a cross stitch map of the world, I enjoyed making a cross stitch map of the world, and I wanted to do something similar for my love of Postcrossing. I’m a fabric artist and making a map seemed like a good way to show my love for both.

Did members share stories about these fabrics with you, when they sent it?

Yes they did! It was a great part of the project, hearing their stories. Such as how the fabric came from their wedding dress – I have more than one of those! – or clothes made by the postcrosser’s grandparent, or for the postcrosser’s grandchildren. Some of the fabrics have national symbols and designs, and others are mass market. More than one said they were glad to see the fabric go on to a new life in this project.

While most of these were received with postcards, a handful of fabrics were sent without postcards by Postcrossers who had heard about the project and wanted to contribute.

Did you have a few favourite fabrics?

It’s so hard to choose! Some that stand out for me, however:

Angola has a little surfing dog. By the time I received the fabric, I was working on Africa, and searching for “surfing in Africa” brought back the result of Angola. And also the moose (elk) of Finland! That fabric did come from Finland.

It’s just a tiny piece, but the orange mushroom fabric used for French Guiana in South America.

How do you feel about it, having completed this nice endeavour?

I’m so proud of it! :D And I loved getting fabrics and the stories behind them from postcrossers. It was a wonderful surprise to receive them in the mail along with the postcards.

I still have fabrics left, and I’ve received more, so I’ve started my next “Postcrossing Quilt”. It won’t be a map this time, though! I’m looking at a more traditional quilting pattern to use the new fabrics. I don’t have room to hang another huge map! :)

Congratulations Laridian, and good luck for your next crafty project. We can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with!

PS – For even more inspiration, check out Annett’s quilt and Marina’s scarf of friendship, featured previously on the blog.

Are advent calendars a thing where you live? They’re not very popular in Portugal, but when we lived in Germany they were everywhere this time of the year! The daily surprise is always exciting, whether it’s chocolate, toys or something else. Our favorites though, are the ones that are lovingly prepared by family or friends.

Around this time of the year, Carina (aka Caradeangel) from Germany is busy preparing an advent calendar for her son. Nicholas is 7 years old, and he used to get sad that he didn’t get much mail… so Carina decided to fix that, making him 24 days of special mail. Here she is to tell the story:

“Two years ago I decided to make an Advent Calendar out of postcards for my son. I chose 24 postcards that I thought he might like, decorated them and wrote something on them. To keep him in suspense, I put the postcards in envelopes which I decorated as well. I put them all on a string and hung that string on the door to his bedroom. And so from December 1st to the 24th, he got to open one envelope every day. Needless to say he loved it!”

We were intrigued and delighted by the idea, so we asked Carina what she usually wrote on the postcards. Writing 24 postcards to the same person isn’t easy to do!

“Some postcards held personal messages of love or encouragement, such as how proud we are of him for making good progress in school and how he will soon be able to actually read the postcards himself. On some postcards, I shared memories. For example, I used a postcard with the Berlin TV tower which we had visited earlier that year and on the postcard I wrote about that visit. On some animal postcards, I just wrote some information about the animal pictured. On other postcards, I gave a kind of outlook on things to come such as the next big vacation. Also, he LOVES the Minions so of course I had to have a Minions postcard and wrote in ”Minionish" (with a German translation) on it. With one postcard I included a little poem that fit the theme of the postcard."

Thank you for sharing, Carina!

This is a such a sweet idea to do for a loved one, and not that hard to put together… maybe something to do these coming weekends? 😊 Gather your stationery supplies and put them to good use!

Remember Marina’s Scarf of Friendship that we mentioned here on the blog last year? Marina (aka 167marina) from Russia had been collecting bits of yarn from all over the world to knit a super scarf that embodied the unity and friendship between different nations.

It took a whole year, but she finally finished this project late last year and took some photos with her friend Dasha, to show you the result. We thought the photos looked so lovely, we had to make another post about it! Have a look:

Isn’t that amazing? 😍 The colourful creation ended up being over 10 meters long and including all kinds of yarn, from wool to mohair, angora, cashmere, acrylic and even bamboo…

As well as postcrossers, she asked for help from all her friends and ended up with bits of yarn from 60 countries and 6 continents! Marina says:

“Each thread that I added to the scarf, was associated with a different country. I imagined the hot Bahamas, rainy London, night in Hong Kong, ancient palaces of Osaka, vivid festivals of India, the rock art of Egypt… Knitting is like traveling the planet! This scarf is a string of the Brazilian jungle, African desert, from the cold of the North Pole (Spitsbergen archipelago) and South distant Antarctica. They did the long and hard way: they were taken by snowmobile, helicopter and boat, by ship, by plane, by rail and finally by road.”

That sounds really inspiring — bravo Marina!

What about you? Planning any cool postal projects in 2018? Do share in the comments!

Have we mentioned how much we enjoy seeing postcrossers getting creative with their hobbies? A few years ago, we wrote about a Postcrossing-sourced quilt and also showed some beautiful knitted and stitched postcards on our Instagram. Today we have another Postcrossing-inspired project to share!

Marina (aka 167marina) is a postcrosser and a knitter from the Tombov region in Russia. She tells us that her small town of Rasskazovo is often described as the “capital of knitting”, because most people like knitting there. It seemed natural to combine the two hobbies somehow… so one day, Marina decided to create a special scarf with yarn sent to her by other postcrossers from all over the world. She called it the “Scarf of Friendship” and posted the request on her profile. Soon enough, colourful bits of yarn started arriving through the mail, along with her postcards…

And voilà! Right now, the scarf has the very impressive length of 2 meters, and features yarn from 23 countries! It’s still a work in progress though, as Marina will keep knitting it till the end of the year — so if you’d like to participate, send her a message. :)

Here is her dad, modelling this awe-inspiring project:

Isn’t it wonderful how random strings of yarn from all over the world can be connected into a beautiful scarf? Come to think of it, this sentence sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it? I guess we’re just fans of connecting things, be it through postcards or yarn! 😊

Well done, Marina — we look forward to seeing the end result!

Annett (aka knetty) from Germany joined Postcrossing about a year ago. A fan of crafts, she had the idea to invite members to send her pieces of fabric with their postcards, so that one day she could make a quilt with all the fabrics. Slowly, she started receiving colorful pieces of cloth from other sewing enthusiasts all over the world and putting them together on a single quilt.

Fifteen fabrics from 11 countries (and a lot of work) later and she is done… oh, it is a beauty!

The patchwork resembles postcards laid out on a blanket — and on the border, Annett stitched the names and countries of the postcrossers who contributed to her project!

When the quilt was finished, she went out to photograph it in the sun and met her postman, who agreed to let her photograph it on the bike used to bring the pieces to her!

We’re in awe of Annett’s skills and this lovely idea, which she carefully documented on her blog. And she’s already planning a second one… :)

Do you know of any other crafty projects using postcards or Postcrossing? Do share!