Strawberry Swap

Way back when the sun was shining and the kids were still at school the lovely Pixiedust over at Faerie Nuff organized a super strawberry swap, my partner for this was Emma-Jayne (sorry when I tried to link to Emma-Jayne's blog it says it doesn't exist) and here are some pictures of the wonderful goodies I received. In the first package was a wonderful handmade and hand drawn card, some pretty fabric, 5 red buttons, strawberry red embroidery thread, and a sweet little strawberry cross stitch. In the next package were some strawberry socks and a strawberry face mask both of which ended up in my daughters hands as soon as she saw them....as well as pretty beaded necklace and a strawberries and cream bag charm. Everything was just, I was going to say peachy but as it's a strawberry themed swap I should say strawberrilous and I was want to say thank you to Emma-Jayne for being my swap partner and to Pixiedust for organizing the strawberry swap.

And now for the goodies that I sent, luckily for me I'd seen these strawberry shopping bags in a magazine and knew one of them would be ideal for the swap, they're fab as they scrunch up nice and small and look like a strawberry and can just hang from your bag or wrist. I ordered myself one too as they are so practical and pretty. There had also been some strawberry themed makes in a recent magazine so I made a strawberry pincushion and needle case and I also tried my hand a button making to and made 5 strawberry fabric covered buttons. They were a little fiddly at first but what really enjoyable to make so I might try some more. I knew from Emma-Jayne's blog that she is a keen cross stitcher so I added some brilliant white aida and some red, green and white embroidery threads tied together with an organza ribbon. I also knew that Emma-Jayne has a small son so not wanting him to feel left out when a package arrived I added some strawberry kids shampoo and a packet of strawberry yoghurt flakes which I have to say are delicious! I desperately wanted to find something that smelt of strawberries and after a long search managed to find this strawberry ice cream smoothie candle in a tin.

You know when you have an idea on how you want to present something well I knew that I wanted to make a basket to put all these strawberry themed goodies in and after searching on the net I found this gorgeous tutorial for a small patchwork basket, I had these pretty strawberry themed fabrics in my stash so I teamed them with some red gingham and green spotty cottons and hey presto this is the result. I think I need a little more practice using my overlocker for patchworking and I'm really looking forward to making some more of these. Finally I added a packet of strawberry Fruitella, (note to self: don't buy sweets for your swap too early on as you keep eating them and having to buy more!!! not good for the waistline or the purse.)

I couldn't find a strawberry themed card so this is my first attempt at applique card making I drew the design myself and am really pleased with the result I just hope that Emma-Jayne likes them as much as I enjoyed making them....

I haven't any swaps on the go at the moment so if there are any going on out there can you let me know thanks....