Swaps and sewing

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd been doing some secret Christmas sewing, for the Santa Sack Swap.  Cheryll from Stitching Cubbyhole blog organises this every year.  My partner this year was Lyn in New Zealand and we had 6 months to get know each other and make 5 gifts plus a stocking, tote or sack.  Lyn and I both decided we wanted a tote.  We were both running late with our gifts - Lyn had lots of report writing to finish and I had dengue fever, so we agreed we'd give ourselves an extra week.  Today was the day we opened our gifts and I received these wonderful gifts.

Beautifully wrapped


Cute NZ card

Tote bag.  Already in use with my latest project! 

Little wall hanging

Christmas tree napkins.....such a clever idea and beautifully folded ...too pretty to wipe the gravy off my chin with.....and  a sewing purse, here it is open.  It has 4 pockets for keeping all my sewing needs together

Thread catcher...I need this, I end up with snipped threads all over the place, fabric with NZ birds...a pukeko I think...on it and the sewing purse closed.  A purple theme happening here.....it's my favourite colour, Lyn did a good job stalking my blog :)

Beautifully stitched Christmas cushion...oh and there were chocolates too..hmm wonder where they went?

For some reason, probably trying to get everything packed up to send, I didn't take photos of the gifts I made for Lyn, but I made some very nice things.  Hopefully Lyn will take photos and I can borrow them from her blog Stitches from the Mainland.
Thanks to Cheryll for organising this swap.  Swaps like this make blogging and the internet a fun and positive place, "meeting" new people far and near, people I might never meet but still connect with.  And the gifts are a special bonus, Lyn and I were commenting that we plan and organise, choose colours and projects we think, hope our partner will like, then stitch away making our gifts , forgetting that someone else is doing the same, so it's wonderful when that parcel arrives, with thoughtfully chosen presents.  Thanks Lyn for being my partner.

'til next time