Christmas Swap and Gift photos!

You know what they say - "Better late than never!" And that sure fits today's post. You may remember that a few weeks before Christmas I posted a photo of all the tissue wrapped gifts that I received from Shelley (Australia) in Chookyblue's Secret Santa Swap. I let Shelley know right away that I had received her package. A couple of days after that I let her know that I had peeked in a couple and I was so thrilled. When I opened everything up and layed it all out on the floor on Christmas Day, my daughter was quite taken. We were all impressed with the personalized cookbook that Shelley made and it has my name on it!!! There were so many gifts, I was just amazed.......an apron and matching oven mitt and refrigerator magnets, too. I filled the pocket of the apron with the rick rack trims she sent and there were lace trims and buttons, too (they'll go into my crazy quilting projects ..............and more...............

..........there was a puffy pincushion and patterns and floss and four beautiful black and white fabrics that will go into my "Black and white challenge" quilt. I felt very pampered at receiving such a generous group of gifts. I e-mailed my thanks to Shelley but thank you again!!

My partner was Fiona (England) and I sent the wrapped packages you see above. To see what was in them you can visit Fiona's blog here. I am hoping to participate in Chookyblue's swap this next season and I will definitely up the number of gifts and goodies that I include in my package!!

There were other gifts that I received that I haven't mentioned and while the Christmas tree is still up and the lights are on, I'll tell you about them. The beautiful felted rose pin on the left was a gift from my friend, Deanna. She made two of them and one was for our ornament exchange at our Crazy Quilting Christmas party and the other was just for me. She included a little card that said "thanks for being the glue that holds us together". I am the instigator of our Crazy Quilt group and keep us stuck together by sending out postcard reminders, etc. so I am happy to be called the "glue" and take it as a high compliment. I have never had any success with felting or rughooking (or crocheting or knitting) and so I really appreciate this gift. Thanks, Deanna!!

From another one of my crazy quilting friends, came the little stocking with my name on it. My friend, Sue made it and sent it along in the mail as she lives a couple of hours south now so we don't get to see each other as often. She also made the awesome stocking on the right and I was lucky enough to choose the package with it inside at our Crazy Quilting party three years ago. Thanks, Sue!!

Sue and Deanna read my blog, but my Crazy Quilting friend, Carol, doesn't have a computer so she won't be able to see that I posted the gift she sent along to me. Six of us in our afternoon crazy quilting group did a name exchange and Carol got my name. She made this apron in this vintage Dutch print. The rick rack border is part of the fabric. Too cute, huh. She made the cup cozies and I find them very useful!

Nanette would probably love to have the apron Carol made. She really has a great collection of vintage fabrics. Many of you know Nanette because of the Cottage Block exchange and all the wonderful fabrics and tips she shares on her blog. We have come to "know" each other well the last few months and enjoy sharing e-mails. I sent off a "Joy" package to her at the end of November because she has provided me with much JOY since I began blogging last spring. A package from her arrived on Christmas Eve and inside was the little house ornament, that darling Mary E. teapot pincushion (now I need to finish the Mary E. quilt top to go with it) and a pattern and kit for her "Mixed Bag". Now that I have finally taken the picture of the kit, I can sew it up!! Thanks, Nanette!!

I participated in four ornament exchanges and I posted one of them but will do the other three on Friday. That's the day I'll be taking the tree down and all the ornaments will go away for another year.

The last swap I participated in was Cleary's Twelve Days of Christmas swap........an item a day for the Twelve Days of Christmas beginning on Christmas Day and ending on January 6th, Epiphany. Lots of goodies in tissue wrapped packages and my favorite were the four red and gold tree ornaments for Day #4.

For the first day of Christmas there was one pewter angel for my car visor, two rolls of Christmas ribbon, three cards for floss, four red and gold ornaments, five votive candles, six decks of cross stitch cards, seven pretty doilies, eight bags of tea, nine patterns and sewing notions, ten spools of metallic thread, eleven - well more than eleven - embroidery floss, and twelve cross stitch booklets!!! My thanks went out to her and I say "Thank You again!"

When Cleary's package arrived, I thought that would be the last package I would receive for quite a while. Then I got lucky and won the charm squares on Eileen's blog. The day the mailman delivered them was the day the driveway was the iciest. He perservered as any good mailman would and this is what I found when I opened the package..........

I can hardly wait to take these and stitch up a project that I have in my head. But first, though, I still have to finish that sewing room clean-up. I'm making headway and the path through my room is getting wider. Give me a few days and I'll get it finished and post those "after" pictures!!

Whew! that's all for this post.

Later........

Sandi