Time for the 'unveiling' !

It was a very pleasant surprise to find out that 2 of the parcels for swaps that I sent on Monday got to their destinations yesterday. So now I can show photos showing the whole of those items and not just close up photos of corners! :-)

Firstly the gifts that I sent to Peg in the Colour Swap...

A red scarf, knitted in a 'shell stitch' design using a fine mohair yarn which was a delight to work with :-)

Some red soap (raspberry and marshmallow...yum? lol ), red wrapped chocolates  red/white fabric basket with some red haberdashery items inside.

And  then the little mini quilt that I made for  Illene in the Mothers' Day swap. The ladies who went to the 'Stitchers Inc' saw this when it was still unquilted and had no binding...

Thank you Jenny Elefantz for allowing me to use your lettering for the quotation that I had found on the internet ..

I had so much fun making items for these 2 swaps, I'm looking forward to whatever I can sign up for in the months to come!

The Colour Swap...Purple Passion...

Yesterday my parcel from Noela arrived with all my goodies. I was 'blown away' with all the lovely things that Noela sent me...

Look at all these beautifully wrapped parcels...

'Something personal'

I absolutely adore the personalised mug rug that Noela made me...beautiful stitching and look at that very pretty purple geranium fabric...heh heh and when next a friend comes over for coffee, we'll be living it up when I offer that coffee and finger biscuits! :-)

Something smelly...
Now as someone who loves the colour purple, I also love the lavender plant flowers...and I love these gifts!

little lavender soaps and a lavender bag

Something edible...

Some Cadbury's to share with the family and the chance to win some cash too by the looks of that wrapper...lol

Now the first parcel that I opened was the one with the lovely mug rug...and I instantly fell in love with that fabric...well look what I found when I opened the parcel ' For a room in your house' . I was absolutely thrilled!

The most beautiful table topper...

Oh that wonderful piecing...

 Blogger wants this photo on its side...this is the gorgeous label on the back of the topper.

I've been a very spoiled girl! Thank you to Noela for all these magnificent gifts!

Swaps...

Blog swaps are an excellent way to 'meet' other bloggers as well as encouraging people such as myself, to revisit old skills and use these to create items to send to our swap partners. I had been a very keen sewer in my younger years but gradually did less and less. I started signing up for blog swaps in late 2010 and had so much fun that I signed up for some last year. But this year, I've outdone myself...there are actually very few that I don't sign up for! That's why I have 4 swaps due for posting by the end of April!

So I've been working steadily on these swap items and yesterday 3 were posted away. Unfortunately I can only tease you with photos that only show a snippet of these items as the items are still on their way to their new homes...

First the colour swap...

Something for a room in the house...

Something personal...

Something 'smelly'...

Something to eat...

Next is the Mothers Day Mini Quilt Swap

It looks like a muddy mark on that corner...but it's not! lol  I rarely work with browns or browny pinks so it made a nice change to work with those colours...

I drew up the design for this project, including a quote that I had found, but thought that my lettering looked very ordinary. I ended up writing to Jenny Elefantz and asking if it would be a copyright problem if I used her alphabet published in her eZine.

Jenny replied that the lettering was indeed under copyright but that she was very happy for me to use the letters as long as I acknowledged it...which I did of course.

Another swap is the Mrs Martin's Celebrations swap and yesterday I posted the Mothers' Day parcel away for that! Again the photos are quite enigmatic! lol

I'm just finishing off the Table Runner Swap which uses a pack of charm squares. It will be in the post in the next day or so...last weekend it looked like this...

Now swaps are 2 way things...I'm getting parcels from other people who were given me as their swap buddy. Already one has arrived! A table runner from Sue at Quilted Hugs and what a lovely surprise! It's lovely thanks Sue!

A beautiful range of fabrics...

I think that my other 3 swap parcels may come when we have left for NZ so my neighbour will be on alert ready for the postman, and I'll have some lovely surprises when I get home.