Postcrossing Blog

Postcrosser Laridian is at it again! After the world map quilt from some years ago, they continued collecting bits of fabric, which were put together on a new quilt this year! It’s a gorgeous piece shaped like a heart, which Laridian wrote about on their blog:

My second Postcrossing quilt project is complete: The Heart of Postcrossing!

This has taken since 2021 to complete, as it relies entirely on fabrics generously sent to me by other postcrossers. More than 150 postcrossers sent fabric for me to use!

I started working on the Heart of Postcrossing as soon as I completed the World Map. But this time, I decided to go for something a little smaller scale. (The World Map is more than 2m / 7' wide!) I’d also hoped it would be completed faster than the World Map, which took about 3 years. As you can see, it took about the same amount of time for this one to complete!

All the colored fabrics were sent to me by postcrossers, most of them included with their postcards, but a few were sent from Postcrossing forum members who had heard about the project. Some of the white fabrics were also sent by postcrossers, but the majority of the white “outside” pieces are from my own collection. People don’t often send white fabric.

Getting a random piece of fabric this way was such a lovely surprise each time it happened. Often, the senders had stories to tell about the fabric: if it was local to their region, or a heritage textile; if it was leftover from some other project they’d worked on; if it was from a childhood dress or a husband’s work shirt. The histories and information about the pieces was inspiring, and I loved every piece of fabric sent to me.

Each square measures 2" / 5cm. The finished wall hanging is 42" / 1.06m square. The binding is in pink, red and yellow to match the colors of the fabrics. Due to the cutting and piecing process, each fabric may be found up to 4 times throughout the finished work.

Postcrossers from North and South America, Asia, Oceania, and Europe all contributed to this project. The country that “sent” the most fabrics was the United States, with 27 different fabrics coming from postcrossers there. Second was Germany with 21, and Russia was third, with 17 different fabrics.

Postcrossing has been such a wonderful and loved hobby for me, and I have “met” so many wonderful people through it. This quilt represents the diverse and and colorful people of Postcrossing, and the little triangles are the “postcards” flying away around the world to their recipients.

Below is a detail of some of the blocks. If you’ve sent fabric to me, maybe you see your fabric in there?

February is a busy month in the mail calendar, and we can’t wait for it to start! Are you ready?

We love a good mail challenge around here, and since February is the Month of Letters, it is time to dust off all that special stationery and put pen to paper! It’s the perfect opportunity for reconnecting with family and friends, sending a Valentine card to your special someone, saying thank you to the helpful people in your life… or simply surprising strangers across the world with postcards! 😉

The rules of the Month of Letters challenge are simple:

• Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture or a cutting from a newspaper… anything goes!
• Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

That’s it! The challenge started back in 2012, after American writer Mary Robinette Kowal decided it was time for a break from the internet. She spent a month offline, and asked her friends to communicate with her through letters. The results were relaxing and intimate, so she decided to invite others to join, sparking a yearly flurry of correspondence.
If you’re planning to join this year, you’re welcome to share your progress with other participants on this forum topic.

Another happy mail-related event coming up is Mail Carrier Appreciation Day, which happens every year on February 4th. This is the day to celebrate our trusty mail carriers, who make it possible for this hobby to exist by delivering all our postcards!

The date falls on a Sunday this year, so be sure to prepare something nice for your mail carrier the day before — for instance, pour your gratitude into a thank you note that you’ll deliver (or affix to your mailbox) for them to discover on their rounds. I’m sure it’ll be the highlight of their day week!

If you can, take a photo of what you did to celebrate this special day, and share a link to it in the comments! 😊

February is a busy month in the mail calendar, and we can’t wait for it to start! Are you ready?

We love a good mail challenge around here, and since February is the Month of Letters, it is time to dust off all that special stationery and put pen to paper! It’s the perfect opportunity for reconnecting with family and friends in these socially-distanced times, sending a Valentine card to your special someone, saying thank you to the helpful people in your life… or simply surprising strangers across the world with postcards! 😉

The rules of the Month of Letters challenge are simple:

• Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture or a cutting from a newspaper… anything goes!
• Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

That’s it! The challenge started back in 2012, after American writer Mary Robinette Kowal decided it was time for a break from the internet. She spent a month offline, and asked her friends to communicate with her through letters. The results were relaxing and intimate, so she decided to invite others to join, sparking a yearly flurry of correspondence.
If you’re planning to join this year, you’re welcome to share your progress with us on this forum topic.

Another happy mail-related event coming up is Mail Carrier Appreciation Day, which happens every year on February 4th. This is the day to celebrate our trusty mail carriers, who make it possible for this hobby to exist by delivering all our postcards!

The date falls on a Saturday this year, so if you don’t have mail delivery on the weekends, make sure to prepare something nice for your mail carrier the day before — for instance, pour your gratitude into a thank you note that you’ll deliver (or affix to your mailbox) for them to discover on their rounds. I’m sure it’ll be the highlight of their day week!

If you can, take a photo of what you did to celebrate this special day, and share a link to it in the comments! 😊

February is a busy month in the mail calendar, and we can’t wait for it to start! Are you ready?

We love a good mail challenge around here, and since February is the Month of Letters, it is time to dust off all that special stationery and put pen to paper! It’s the perfect opportunity for reconnecting with family and friends in these socially-distanced times, sending a Valentine card to your special someone, saying thank you to the helpful people in your life… or simply surprising strangers across the world with postcards! 😉

The rules of the Month of Letters challenge are simple:

• Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture or a cutting from a newspaper… anything goes!
• Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

That’s it! The challenge started back in 2012, after American writer Mary Robinette Kowal decided it was time for a break from the internet. She spent a month offline, and asked her friends to communicate with her through letters. The results were relaxing and intimate, so she decided to invite others to join, sparking a yearly flurry of correspondence.
If you’re planning to join this year, you’re welcome to share your progress with us on this forum topic.

Another happy mail-related event coming up is Mail Carrier Appreciation Day, which happens every year on February 4th. This is the day to celebrate our trusty mail carriers, who make it possible for this hobby to exist by delivering all our postcards!

The date falls on a Friday this year, so make sure to prepare something nice for your mail carrier and give them a smile before the weekend — for instance, pour your gratitude into a thank you note that you’ll deliver (or affix to your mailbox) for them to discover on their rounds. I’m sure it’ll be the highlight of their day week!

If you can, take a photo of what you did to celebrate this special day, and share a link to it in the comments! 😊

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.