The much belated International Craft Swap Post

Fianlly now that Mad Men challenge and Sewing Meet Up madness is over, I am finally getting around to blogging the Craft Swap goodness.

So Rachel at House of Pinheiro paired up all the participants and I blogged about the fact that my swappee, Mrs M Makes, lives on a few miles away from me, so we decided to meet in person to swap our goodies!

We met in a local coffee shop (despite the fact that neither of us drinks tea or coffee - see, kindred spirits!  I don't know anyone else who doesn't drink tea or coffee) and swapped our gifts over a Diet Coke.

We had to follow a nautical theme/ colour scheme and make something, plus include a small purchased gift.  After reading up about Mrs M, I knew she loved travelling, so I decided to make her a Really Useful travelling washbag.

 I used my most useful sized washbag (from a Sanctuary gift set I think) as a template for size, and using mainly stash fabric, buttons and ribbons (as Rachel was hoping for) I replicated the size, lining it with waterproof lining fabric.  The only things I bought for this were the zip and the lining.

As I always find pencils and brushes fall to the bottom of a bag, I added a flap and a pocket with slots of hold these:

For my bought gift, I included a piece of Lush Karma soap.  It smells gorgeous and always makes me think of holidays so hopefully Mrs M will enjoy using it!

I was truly spoilt in return!

The first thing I opened was my bought gift.

Mrs M was in Malta on holiday (see I said she liked travelling!) when the swap was announced and picked this up.  It's an Eye of Osiris, traditionally found on Maltese fishing boats to ward off evil spirits.

See, nautical!  Very clever!

She also made this amazing leather notebook with an anchor button and anchor print paper inside for writing my sewing lists (she knows me well already - I love lists!)

She HAND SEWED this book!

And lastly (told you I was spoilt!) she made me this gorgeous jewellery to tie in with the colour theme:

How lucky am I?

Thanks for lovely presents Mrs M.  Check out her lovely blog Mrs M Makes to see all the other skills she has - she makes stained glass!  She's had a great idea for a Craft Circular, which would be lots of fun to get involved in if you love all kinds of crafting!  And thanks for organising the swap Rachel - you picked a great partner for me and we'll definitely be meeting up again since we are so close by!