Swap Fun With Kaylee

My lovely blogging friend Kaylee & I do a little swap each year for our birthdays.
Kaylee was the recipient of the very first swap parcel I sent away (back in 2012) & we've been in touch regularly since then... so our fun tradition is something to cherish.

This year, we changed things up a bit... being that our birthdays are many months apart, we decided to 'meet in the middle' ... send our parcels in July, so we get to open our goodies at the same time as each other.
Being that we both needed a big pincushion, that's what we made for each other... in addition to our usual 3 fq's & a small extra or two.

Here's what I sent Kaylee... the embroidery on the pincushion is a sweet little free design from Gail Pan... I really loved making this & it was hard to part with!
I also included some quilting pins & a darling little brooch/pin featuring the swoon block made famous by Thimbleblossoms.

I love this way of putting together a pincushion... the binding is a lovely feature.

For those of you who read Kaylee's blog, you will know that she travelled in Japan a few months ago, on a long-planned trip.

Kaylee picked up a number of beautiful items for me along the way & wow it just blew me out to open all the gifts & see it all!

So many amazing fabric pieces... the ones on the left in the pic below, are classed as 'scraps', but are pretty much the size of a fat 8th... hardly a scrap, LOL.

The rolled black fabric with the dragonflies print, will be perfect for a clutch-style purse... it's a lovely velvety feel on top, but a firm tight weave on the back.

Even the card accompanying all this is just beautiful... It's going to be displayed in my sewing room as a feature for sure.

This is a piece of kimono fabric... so very smooth & glides through the hand... no idea what I'll do with it, but I'm sure an inspiration will come eventually. The desire to touch it is strong, but my hands are a bit dry & rough from our winter weather, so it's going to stay in a snaplock bag for safekeeping.

These are the 3 fat quarters...how beautiful are they?!

I've never sewn with Japanese fabrics or prints before, so deciding what to do with them will be no small consideration.

Kaylee sent me the biggest pincushion I've ever owned, & it's brilliant! Love it.

And clever girl, she's used a plastic plant pot saucer as the base, which provides fab stability, but not unnecessary weight.

With its 7inch diameter, it's not going to get lost easily on my sewing table.

Thank you again Kaylee for all of these amazing items... it's been another wonderful swap for this year & it seems we both are already turning our minds to 2019😉