Question: What could be more wonderful than finding a happy surprise in your mailbox?
Answer: Finding two happy surprises.

Last week a package arrived from my friend Deborah, a fellow member of our small quilt group the Quisters (Quilt Sisters). Look what was inside:

It’s Bertie!!

If you are a fan of wool appliqué and the designs of Bonnie Sullivan of All Through the Night, you will surely recognize this as a block from Bertie’s Year, introduced in 2014. Bertie’s Year is made up of a dozen 13″ x 17″ wool applique projects, one for each month of the year.

The Bertie Deborah made me is the May block. Here’s the entire year:

In the past few years Deborah has made me two other blocks in Bertie’s Year, January . . .

. . . and September:

They never fail to make me smile.

I had never done wool appliqué before but I was so charmed by Bertie that I bought the pattern for July . . .

. . . and wrote this post about it. That was back in 2014.

This is how far I’ve gotten:

I can’t believe it’s been five years since I started this project. I need to bring Bertie out of the closet (so to speak) and get back to work on him. He will definitely be in good company. Thank you, dear Deborah, for the lovely Happy Mail!

Oh yes, I did mention a second surprise in my mailbox. I’ll tell you all about Happy Mail #2 in my next post.