gifts for the new year.

above is a lovely package i received today from jia in singapore. although it is supposed to be an envelope contribution, jia also included a whole bunch of other gifts including note cards, a beautiful piece of arrow print fabric and an elastic belt! i have actually been on the hunt for elastic belts for a while but there is no way she could have known that. thank you very much, jia.



but back to business - here are the new patterns found in her envelope contribution. subtle differences, but i love these wavy plaids.



this collection come to me via leah in australia. the two on the right are going into my solids collection and text collection (respectively). i though it was worth mentioning that the one with writing says 'secretive lines'. i may have to use that term in this project somehow.



these one here come from cindy in illinois. it may be hard to see in the photograph, but the red one has the most amazing and subtle pattern. i'm really excited to see it in button form.



and, finally, there is this envelope from rose ann in ohio. as you can see, there is very little envelope to be turned into buttons so these ones will be very rare.

and, with that, i have cleared my entire mountain of envelope contributions. today's new patterns brings me to a grand total of 293. who knows, there may be more packages in the mail yet but i can't imagine there are too many. i guess i am going to have to work hard in the coming days to get collection phase two rolling. i know i was spending all my rent on postage, but i already miss the heaps of mail and the little points of contact with likeminded strangers the world over. my pattern greed is also reemerging, as i know there are more patterns lurking out there, hiding out in post office garbage cans and recycling bins. but for the moment, i feel happy that i managed to complete one thing by the end of the year. all of your reward packs will be going out in the coming days, contributors.

happy new year!