My Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug "Parcel of Awesomeness" arrived

Back in February (before my world turned upside down), I posted about the Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap and showed you the parcel that I sent to my swap buddy - Louisa Watts.  Today it gives me great pleasure  to finally share with you the amazing parcel of awesomeness that I received from the super wonderful Karley from Canada @krrley back in February.

 

To refresh your memory - in this swap we were required to create a Woodland themed mug rug for our partner and to include a few extra goodies to the retail value of USD10.00  These were to follow the theme of the swap.

 

Firstly this is the inspiration mosaic that I posted for this swap.  I chose the squirrel as my preferred woodlands animal and advised my partner that although I knew that I would be receiving a mug rug in the swap, instead of using it to sit my tea or coffee on, I would be hanging it up in my sewing room, so they were welcome to make a miniature mini quilt of mug rug dimensions. 

 

 

 

Before I show you what was IN the parcel, these are the teasers that Karley had posted on Instagram.  (Instagram photos reproduced with Karley's permission)

 

 

 

And this is what arrived:

 

This blew me away when I saw it.  Karley's young daughter was given free reign to decorate the parcel with hedgehog stickers.  I managed to save most of them and have stuck them onto one of the display shelves in my sewing room.

 

My parcel of awesomeness!

 

The back of my mug rug/miniature mini quilt.

 

Another photo of my parcel of awesomeness.

 

Owl beads

 

Strawberry Sugar hand & body cream, - it smells divine!!!

 

A maple cream chocolate from Canada & it was yummy!

 

A cute little hand made squirrel plush toy.

 

A foxy gift card.

 

I absolutely love all of the goodies that Karley so kindly sent me, I'm just saddened that it has taken me so long to share it all with you. 

 

Other photographs of this swap can be viewed on Instagram by typing in the hashtag #whimsicalwoodlandmugrug

 

I have since completed and received a number of other swaps which I will endeavour to share with you over the coming weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap

 

I recently participated in the "Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap" which was hosted by So Charming.

 

We were asked to create a mug rug for our swap partner and to include a few extra little goodies.  Unlike other swaps this one had a spending cap of USD10 (approximately AUD12 - AUD15) retail on the extras and all extras had to follow the theme of the swap.  I loved this idea.  I loved that we had a limit to stick to which meant that we had to be creative! 

 

All photos on Instagram were posted with the hashtags #whimsicalwoodlandmugrug  & #jensstitches  There are some amazing photos in this feed so please check them out when you have time to do so. 

 

Our partners are secret so we do not know who is making for us - at least we won't know until our parcel arrives.  And who we make for may not be the same person who is making for us.  Our dispatch deadline was 25 January for international posting, or 2 February for domestic parcels.

 

My swap partner was Louisa Watts @loubeelou76 who lives in Western Australia.  I was told that Louisa likes pink, green, and autumn colours.  Her favourite woodland creatures are: fox, squirrel, hedgehog & owl. 

 

This is Louisa's inspiration mosaic

Louisa's parcel of awesomeness:

  

This is what I sent to Louisa.

 

Louisa's mug rug was 3 owls sitting on a branch, and there is a 4th owl who is about to land on the right hand side.  I also made her a zippered pouch and a key fob.  All of the fabrics used were from my stash.  I only had to purchase the ribbon, a zip and I buy the key fob hardware in bulk.

The back of the mug rug

This year I am printing labels for all my swaps.

I included some stickers

A lovely hedgehog card made by my friend Libby at Willow Fox Designs.

 

I didn't know if Louisa was a tea or coffee drinker so I included both.

I also included some washi tape and a rogue charm square that I found lurking in my fabric stash.

I used the left over ribbon from the key fob & the zipper bag to wrap part of her present.

 

Louisa's gifts were wrapped in woodland themed wrapping paper.

This has been one of my favourite swaps so far this year.  I really liked the idea of having a spending cap because it forced us to be creative.  Instead of just buying "stuff" to fluff up the parcel, how could we best invest our money and make something wonderful for our partner.  It's amazing what you can make with ribbon, zips and fabric!

I love stalking my partners - purely to find out enough about them to personalise their gifts, and of course to check if and when the parcels arrive.  It gave me so much pleasure to read Louisa's comments when she received her parcel:

At the time of writing this post I am yet to receive my own Whimsical Woodlands Mug Rug parcel but when I do I will write a separate post about it.  I have no idea who my partner is but there are so many gorgeous creations posted on Instagram under this swap's hashtags!

Utter Schmadness....!

You may have noticed that I was missing in action from my blog for the past 10-days whilst I have been busy with some secret squirrel sewing projects (many of which I cannot share with you yet).  There are a number of very special people whom I am madly trying to create special thank you presents for - some of which have already been sent & received so I will blog about those shortly - some are still in production and/or still in transit through the mail.

 

Recently I have also been doing some pattern testing for Juliet at The Tartan Kiwi and Kristy at Quiet Play (neither of which I am permitted to share with you yet), and I am currently assisting my friend Sharon with another sewing project.

Next Year's Swaps:
 

There are a number of swaps via Instagram set up for early next year and I seem to have gone slightly insane by joining "just a few" of them:

 

The "Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap (round 3)" is being hosted by Schnitzel & Boo and is due to be completed & dispatched by 23 January 2015.

 

The "Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap" is being hosted by SoooCharming and is due to be completed & dispatched by 02 February 2015.

 

The "Kitten Mini Quilt Swap" is being hosted by Marni at Frankenstein Fabrics and is due to be completed & dispatched by 31 March 2015.

 

The "Rainbow Mini Quilt Swap" is being hosted by Kate Basti and is due to be completed & dispatched by 06 April 2015.

 

The "IG Mini Oz" swap is being hosted by Michelle Rees and is due to be completed & dispatched by 10 April 2015.

 

There was also a "For the Love of Bonnie & Camille" swap which I *JUST* stopped myself from completing & sending off my application once I had realised how many swaps I had already committed to.

I have also been in discussion with a quilting friend in New Zealand about the possibility of starting up a Trans Tasman mini quilt swap, however we decided to put those plans on hold until at least mid next year due to the large number of swaps already set up for the start of the new year.  Meanwhile I have offered my services as a "Swap Mama" in one of the above swaps so that I can gain some more experience, however I am yet to hear if my offer has been accepted or required.

 

I have a lot of stalking and sewing ahead of me....

 

Existing Bees:

 

The current round of the Quilt Club Australia Bee 5 (QCA Bee#5) concludes this month and I have decided not to continue with this group next year.  Although it was good experience for me and helped to improve my sewing skills, I feel that I have enough commitments and something had to give.  Despite my queenly rule being back in August, I am yet to receive a quarter of my bee blocks from this group...

 

I have been promoted to assistant administrator in the Quilt Club Australia Paper Pieced Stars Bee (QCA Stars Bee).  We have a few of this year's members who are either retiring from our group at the end of this year, or are taking a sabbatical next year, so Carlie and I have been busy recruiting new members.  We now have 11 members for 2015 so we are taking a break in January and commencing the monthly bee in February 2015. I thoroughly enjoy this bee and we had a wonderful group of ladies this year.  I know many of the new recruits so I reckon next year should be just as much fun.

 

The Quilty Sisters Instabee continues and we have two new members joining us in January.  I have completed all of my blocks & gifts for this year and have already made a few bee blocks in advance for next year. 

 

So there you have it.  Utter Utter Schmadness!!!

 

If you need me I will be in the sewing room...