50 States Quilt Block Swap-Received some blocks!

I have been participating in the 50 State Quilt Block swap over on Craftster. There are six people in the swap and we each make six squares for eight different states. I have already made Colorado, Montana, Florida, Washington, North Carolina and Alabama. I have a couple more in progress that I should be sharing with you this week.

The exciting news is that I received my first set of squares! Woohoot! These are from Pertelot.
Here is Massachusetts, Deleware, South Dakota, and Conneticut (top left to right; clockwise)
She included the following descriptions:

Massachusetts-Pirates such as Kidd, Blackbeard, Bellamy and Quelch spent their summers off the coast of Boston, which was known as the Gold Coast. Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard were said to have been good hiding spots for pirate treasure. I couldn't pass up the chance to get some pirate fabric! Massachusetts is also known for cranberries, and cranberry colored fabric happened to match the pirate print rather nicely!

Delaware- Since Delaware was the first state, I used some flag fabric for the center focal fabric. Their state bird is the blue hen chicken, so of course when I found fabric with blue chickens I knew what to use it for.

South Dakota-The famous and the infamous have called Deadwood, South Dakota home over the last several centuries. Lewis and Clark, Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp, George Armstrong Custer, Poker Alice, the Sundance Kid, Calamity Jane, Mark Twain and many others have passed through here in search of fortune and adventure. South Dakota is also known for their Corn Palace, a building that is annually covered in murals made of corn.

Conneticut-One thing Connecticut is known for is its maritime. I liked the blue fabric paired with the white not only because the white brought out the colors, but also because it reminded me of the ocean.


Pennsylvania, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Illinois (clockwise from top left)

Pennsylvania-I decided to go a bit different with this block. Inspired by Pennsylvania Amish quilts, I went with solid colors in some of the traditional common colors they use.

Louisiana- After seeing I was assigned Louisiana, I knew I had to go with a New Orleans/Mardi Gras theme. Each of the blocks has a different fussy cut center, but all are nice and bright!

New Jersey-My home state! I live about a mile up from the beach, so the first thing I think of about New Jersey is the Jersey shore. The shells, of course, represent the beach and the flowers are for New Jersey's nickname, the Garden State.

Illinois-Chicago, Illinois was the site of the first skyscraper, so after much searching I found the cityscape fabric which I love. I looked up someone's suggestion that sock monkeys originated in Illinois, which was true. So sock monkeys on pogo sticks? Awesome.

I love her descriptions, and the blocks are great! I am excited about seeing how this quilt top will come together.