Thursday 29 December 2016

'Secret Santa Christmas Swap' & A FQ Swap

This year I again joined Chookyblue, for the annual 'Secret Santa Christmas Swap'.
My parcel arrived all the way from Michigan USA, lovely Denise at Denise's Day.

Thank you Denise... beautiful appliqued Partridge In A Pear Tree, plus the little Kansas Troubles charms & a fab calendar... wonderful items here to enjoy for the whole year to come... & lucky me, I have a new bloggy friend to boot.

The gifts I sent away made it all the way to snowy-chilly Norway, to Laila at Jacobs Quilt... another new-to-me blog, yay!
I decided to make Laila a large zipper pouch... I also sent a 50cm full-width piece of the main fabric I used & some (hopefully helpful) extras of little scissors & a fun red measure tape.
 I loved sewing this pouch & it was great to learn something new in the process. It was really hard to part with this one♥
 Happy New Year to both of my lovely new blogland friends & thanks again goes to Chookyblue for organising this genuinely world-famous Christmas Swap.
xoxox
*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

A few weeks ago, Cathy at Cathy's Sewing Room wondered if anyone would be interested in doing a little swap with her... either some fat quarters or a quilt block. We arranged to swap 2 fq's & I'm really chuffed with what Cathy sent me... fab black & whites. I sent Cathy the purple & the green fabrics.
I don't do a lot of swapping these days, but I do still love it.
*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

Lastly, here's a pic of my beloved 'Old Traffic Bridge' in town, which is soon to be replaced... this really is a much-loved & widely recognised landmark in our little city... sentimentality needs to be put aside so a new one can replace it. It was built many years ago to take horses & carts across the estuary... it's been repaired & fortified a zillion times... but is now clearly in need of total change.
This is the last year that she'll be our 'Old Bridge' at Christmas, so I thought I'd better get some pics while she had her Tinsel & Stars on... sadly it was cloudy when I was there, but hopefully I'll get some better pics before the deco's come down one final time.
(Can you tell I love where I live??!!)

19 comments:

kiwikid said...

Beautiful swap goodies, love the poppy bag!! Great fabric swap too. Is sad to see local icons go.

sunny said...

Lovely gifts, both coming and going. THe poppy bag is fantastic. And I really like your bridge. So sad that it will have to be replaced.

creations.1 said...

So sad when our faithful old icons are replaced - would be nice for the newer bridge to be built beside the old. Gorgeous swap pressies. A lovely idea to do a FQ swap.

Susan said...

I love that pouch - what a great idea - it would hold heaps.

Beautiful decorations on the bridge - as in the last comment - sad they cant just add a new bridge and keep the old one for walking on - progress.

Lin said...

What a great applique panel Anthea - I love the patchwork border too. Brilliant zippy pouch you sent off to Laila - what gorgeous fabric! xx

Ondrea said...

Some beautiful swap items and isn't it great when we make new bloggy friends! Old bridges are proving to be a real problem in Melbourne and other towns as they were never designed for trucks and the amount of traffic each day. Best to be safe than sorry but they could design it so it has similar ambience. Enjoy your bounty of goodies.

Janice said...

What lovely gifts going back and forwards. It really is greatswap to be a part of.

Fiona said...

lovely pressies... as you say fun getting the pressies and a new friend is a bonus!
Hugz

Jeanette said...

Lovely gifts. Love the black & white fabrics. Hugs,xx

Helen said...

Just lovely gifts both ways :)

Sharm said...

They are doing the same thing with the old bridge we have in Yarrawonga ...... they reckon the cost of upkeep prevents us being able to keep it as a walking bridge!! Nice to get new bloggie contacts too! Xo

Pamela said...

What great gifts coming and going. I love the pouch you made!

Jindi's Cottage said...

Gorgeous SSCS presents - in both directions! Happy 2017!!

Bev C said...

Hello Anthea,

What lovely presents you received and made for the Santa swap. Great idea to have a fat quarter swap with Cathy, there is so much fabric out there so you will surely end up with some you haven't seen before.
Lucky you getting a brand new bridge, one of ours is closed down for repair for at least 7 months. Living in the country we don't seem to get new things very often.

All the best to you and your family for 2017.

Happy days.
Bev.

Raewyn said...

I don't sign up for many swpas either but I do love Chooky's one. The bag you made is beautiful and you received such lovely gifts as well.

Renee said...

Such beautiful gifts both given and received! I do hope you have a wonderful New Year!

Kaylee said...

Gorgeous gifs sent and received in Chooky's Christmas Swap Anthea...

CathyC said...

just gorgeous! thank you for swapping with me :)

Leratdesfils said...

Beautiful presents !
Happy new year

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...