Stitching Santa 2017

I took part in Stitching Santa, organised by Sheila at Sewchet, which was a new blog exchange to me.  We were given a recipient's details and our details were given to someone else, so it was a big surprise to all of us.  My sender was Nikki from SewingNikki and she was so incredibly generous.  I have been so lucky with all the swaps/exchanges I have taken part in and it is lovely to know that there are so many kind and generous people out there in Blogland.  My parcel arrived and I had to leave it alone until Christmas Day.

 On opening it, there was a beautifully decorated box, adorned with all kinds of pretty ornaments.

Inside was tissue paper, held together with sewing related stickers. 

 Inside that, was a beautifully made bag and under that...

 ...was all this!  What a treasure trove of sewing goodness! Stickers, decorations, wool, a pack of material to make a cushion, an embroidery hoop, a pattern to make bags, a tape measure, some flowery organza type material and a jar of trimmings.

 I love the sheep fabric for the cushion - just gorgeous.

 Definitely an embarrassment of riches.

Wasn't I lucky?

This was what was in the jar - an array of trimmings and haberdashery (I love that word!).  A HUGE THANK YOU to Nikki for her amazing gifts, her generosity and kindness.  I love it all and will enjoy using it over the next year(s).

My recipient was Kimberley from Creative Chaos, who lives in New Zealand.  I had been partnered with her before, so had an idea of the things she liked. I have already shown the fabric box I made for her.

 Here are the other things I included: a felt heart with a pearl charm, some hot chocolate, some red and orange patterned cotton material, some gingham ribbon, a spoon rest/tea bag rest, a reel of sewing thread, some notelets (as I knew she liked stationery) and a little notebook as I also knew she would be starting a teaching degree at University and thought it might come in handy.

Here are the parcels ready to go. They arrived safely and I received a lovely thank you card with two little gifts from her.
It was a lovely swap/exchange to be involved with and I really enjoyed taking part.  Thanks to Sheila for the expert organising.

Stitching Santa 2017 progress

I have been gathering suitable gifts, most with a sewing theme, but a couple of surprises too, for the Stitching Santa swap/exchange, hosted by Sewchet which I'm taking part in.  My parcel will be going abroad, so I need to get it sent off soon, so that it will arrive before Christmas.  Part of the fun is not knowing who is sending the gifts to you.

I have made a little fabric storage box, using a tutorial from SewforSoul, which can be found  here .  It was a great tutorial, easy to follow and I enlarged the pattern just a little to make a bigger version.  I used the fabric which I bought to make a doorstop back in 2015, which you can read about here.  So far, it has made a doorstop, a notebook cover and now a fabric box.  I used fusible wadding to give the material a bit of added strength and that was a first, but was easy to sew through and worked well.

It could have just a little bit of the inside material showing, as above,  but Chris thought it looked better with a bigger amount on show, so that's what I did.

I used some green cotton material for the inside which worked really well, picking up the green on the outer fabric.  I am really pleased with the result and hope that the recipient will like it too.

Stitching Santa blog swap

Over the years, I have taken part in a lot of blog swaps and exchanges and have really enjoyed them.  It's always lovely to make new friends and send presents.  Receiving presents is nice too, of course.  Recently, I haven't noticed so many to take part in and I have been missing them, so when I saw one which Jo from Through the keyhole is taking part in, I went off to investigate.
It is being run by Sheila at Sewchet and you can choose either knitting/crochet or sewing to take part in.  It is more like a Secret Santa, where someone sends you a present and you send someone else a present, so it isn't a straight swap.  You can spend up to £10.00 (always a good idea to have a limit) and I am looking forward to finding out who I will be sending to.  Some blog stalking (in a nice way), once we have the details will also help to tailor the gifts to the person.
If it sounds like something you'd like to join in with, go on over to Sewchet, where you'll find all the details.  Sign up is open until 31st October, so there's still time!