Sweet Pouch Swap Round 4 - Christmas Edition

It's time for another round of the Sweet Pouch Swap organised by the ever so lovely Ros of Sew Delicious. I really do love this swap and love seeing all the beautiful pouches sewn from lovely seamstresses all over the world. I have grand ideas and little time but I managed to pull this one out of my hat with a day to spare before the posting deadline.

I thought I had way more Christmas print fabric in my stash but it must have got tossed in my last cull. I did manage to find this cute animal print from last year. I made my daughter a Christmas top from it. The red gingham and red polka dot fabric was also just in my stash as was the brand new zip. The backing was some red pre-quilted fabric I used on a nappy bag I made so it's been around for a while. I knew it would come in handy for something. It was your standard zippered pouch, lined with the red polka dot fabric and I just quilted the red gingham piece to a piece of batting for the front.

I felt (pardon the pun) it needed something for the zipper pull and just stumbled across this cute little owl at my local dollar store. I cut up some red and white felt I had in my stash to make him a Santa hat.

I'm missing the photo of the whole package I sent off to my recipient, Christy in Western Australia but I promise you there were some nice chocolate bars, a packet of cashews, another felted owl, a postcard from my area and a few squares of cotton fabric I had in my stash that Christy might be able to use in future projects.

And here's a photo of the lovely pouch I got from Christy. She also threw in a beautiful fat quarter of fabric, two buttons, a Christmas themed coin purse, heaps of iron ore (she's from Port Hedland, the iron ore capital of Australia), an iron ore and freshwater pearl bracelet and heaps of lovely chocolates (which are long gone). It was a beautiful surprise, thank you Christy.

Thanks so much Ros for organising. If I keep this up, I might be able to join in on all the Sweet Pouch Swaps in the future without feeling like I'm never going to make it in time!

Previous swaps:

Sweet Pouch Swap Round 1

Sweet Pouch Swap # 2

Sweet Pouch Swap # 2

When the word went out that Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts was hosting the next Sweet Pouch Swap, I wanted to get in on it. I had such a great time when I joined in the last one. This time I was matched up with Bettepat from Texas and she let me know she received my pouch. I don't believe Bettepat is a blogger so I thought I'd share what I made her here.

I make drawstring bags all the time for all sorts of things like toy bags for the kids, to hold birthday presents, when going on holidays etc but I had marked in my favourites this easy lined drawstring bag by Jeni at In Color Order and thought it was a coincidence that Alyce had also made mention of it in her blog post. I've been wanting to try this method for ages and just didn't have the time to fiddle with zips this time around. I also have such a huge stash of fabric that I've started cutting into strips and I thought it would be a novel idea to select colours that represented the Australian landscape. The greens of the rainforest, the blues of the ocean, browns of the desert, orange of the sun and other colours from the Great Barrier Reef.

The lining was really easy to do and I think I'll do all of my drawstring bags like this from now on.

Bettepat let it slip that she wasn't big on candy so I picked up two 'healthier' type bars to pop in the bag. One was a 'Wallaby' brand superbar containing mango, passionfruit and quinoa and a typical treat from Queensland, a macadamia and honey bar. There was also a small Steve Parrish calendar for next year featuring heaps of Aussie animals, a small tube of Lucas Papaw ointment and some cute Aussie Christmas themed fat quarters.

I also included an Aussie quilting pattern book featuring patterns of koalas, Aussie birds etc, a postcard from where I live and a cute little koala attached to a pen. Bettepat said she's started using the pen and has received quite a few comments.

I love these swaps and hope to be involved in many more to come. Its a great way to meet people from all over the world and receive a little something from them. Thanks Alyce for hosting.

Sweet Pouch Swap # 2

When the word went out that Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts was hosting the next Sweet Pouch Swap, I wanted to get in on it. I had such a great time when I joined in the last one. This time I was matched up with Bettepat from Texas and she let me know she received my pouch. I don’t believe Bettepat is a blogger so I thought I’d share what I made her here.

I make drawstring bags all the time for all sorts of things like toy bags for the kids, to hold birthday presents, when going on holidays etc but I had marked in my favourites this easy lined drawstring bag by Jeni at In Color Order and thought it was a coincidence that Alyce had also made mention of it in her blog post. I’ve been wanting to try this method for ages and just didn’t have the time to fiddle with zips this time around. I also have such a huge stash of fabric that I’ve started cutting into strips and I thought it would be a novel idea to select colours that represented the Australian landscape. The greens of the rainforest, the blues of the ocean, browns of the desert, orange of the sun and other colours from the Great Barrier Reef.

The lining was really easy to do and I think I’ll do all of my drawstring bags like this from now on.

Bettepat let it slip that she wasn’t big on candy so I picked up two ‘healthier’ type bars to pop in the bag. One was a ‘Wallaby’ brand superbar containing mango, passionfruit and quinoa and a typical treat from Queensland, a macadamia and honey bar. There was also a small Steve Parrish calendar for next year featuring heaps of Aussie animals, a small tube of Lucas Papaw ointment and some cute Aussie Christmas themed fat quarters.

I also included an Aussie quilting pattern book featuring patterns of koalas, Aussie birds etc, a postcard from where I live and a cute little koala attached to a pen. Bettepat said she’s started using the pen and has received quite a few comments.

I love these swaps and hope to be involved in many more to come. Its a great way to meet people from all over the world and receive a little something from them. Thanks Alyce for hosting.

Sweet Pouch Swap # 2

I really am a glutton for punishment. I'm so desperately wanting to get back into more sewing and in an effort to do that, I join up to these Sweet Pouch Swaps. The first one was with the lovely Ros from Sew Delicious and now this second was so kindly hosted by Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts. I missed the deadline, again, to send off my 'pouch' but it has eventually gone. Its probably not even about the length of time it takes to sew the pouch. Its more about trying to buy suitable Australian (made in China) trinkets or things to put in the pouch. I guess it doesn't have to be Australian but when I found out my partner, Bettepat was from Texas, I had to put something Aussie in there. Anyway, I'll reveal what I sent Bettepat once she's received it and let you know what gorgeous things I received from Bettepat.

The sweet pouch Bettepat made me was a Bodobo Box Bag and she so kindly included the pattern for me to sew my own along with the fabric, zippers, wadding and a beautiful little charm. Check out the beautiful little gift card in the form of the wedding ring quilt design. Isn't it so sweet?

Bettepat also included these modern quilting magazines which are full of beauitful quilting inspiration.

As well as all of these wonderful things, Bettepat included heaps of candy (which is long gone and thoroughly enjoyed by the kids) plus a glass jar of pecans which I intend using in a pumpkin dessert of some kind.

I really can't believe my luck in being paired with someone so generous as Bettepat. Thank you Bettepat for your wonderful pouch and presents and thank you Alyce for organising. I can't wait to fill my pouch with lovely little things and promise, with all my heart, that I'll be more organised and on time for Sweet Pouch Swap # 3.

Sweet Pouch Swap # 2

I really am a glutton for punishment. I’m so desperately wanting to get back into more sewing and in an effort to do that, I join up to these Sweet Pouch Swaps. The first one was with the lovely Ros from Sew Delicious and now this second was so kindly hosted by Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts. I missed the deadline, again, to send off my ‘pouch’ but it has eventually gone. Its probably not even about the length of time it takes to sew the pouch. Its more about trying to buy suitable Australian (made in China) trinkets or things to put in the pouch. I guess it doesn’t have to be Australian but when I found out my partner, Bettepat was from Texas, I had to put something Aussie in there. Anyway, I’ll reveal what I sent Bettepat once she’s received it and let you know what gorgeous things I received from Bettepat.

The sweet pouch Bettepat made me was a Bodobo Box Bag and she so kindly included the pattern for me to sew my own along with the fabric, zippers, wadding and a beautiful little charm. Check out the beautiful little gift card in the form of the wedding ring quilt design. Isn’t it so sweet?

Bettepat also included these modern quilting magazines which are full of beauitful quilting inspiration.

As well as all of these wonderful things, Bettepat included heaps of candy (which is long gone and thoroughly enjoyed by the kids) plus a glass jar of pecans which I intend using in a pumpkin dessert of some kind.

I really can’t believe my luck in being paired with someone so generous as Bettepat. Thank you Bettepat for your wonderful pouch and presents and thank you Alyce for organising. I can’t wait to fill my pouch with lovely little things and promise, with all my heart, that I’ll be more organised and on time for Sweet Pouch Swap # 3.

Sweet Pouch Swap

Since I’ve been reading blogs, I’ve seen a lot of ‘swaps’ taking place. People making and ‘swapping’ aprons, knitted dish cloths, recipe exchanges, secret recipe swaps etc and I’ve taken part in a few of the cooking ones but never the craft or sewing ones. When the delightful Ros from Sew Delicious decided to host a “Sweet Pouch Swap” I wanted to be in it. I hadn’t sewed for over 12 months because my sewing machine was on the blink but I inherited my Mum’s machine and just never got around to plugging it in.

When Ros organised my partner, Jenni from All Things Fabulous, the ‘brief’ Jenni wrote about the things she liked was:

“I love pink, sparkly things, poodles, reading, Amy Butler Belle French Wallpaper, and stars. Gracious, this is harder than I thought. If it’s bright, cheerful, preppy, or neato, I’ll love it.”

By taking part in the swap also meant that I wanted to try and just use fabric from my huge stash. I didn’t have much pink or sparkly but when I saw the above pink tartan type patterned fabric, it looked kind of ‘preppy’ to me and I thought I’d try and make a pouch into a ‘preppy’ type skirt. The zip I used was a recycled zip my Nanna must’ve pulled out of some garment a long, long time ago as it was in her stash. My Nanna pulled out every zip, cut off every button and probably used the actual material from the garment for either cleaning rags or upcycled into another garment.

I haven’t got a tutorial because I was literally flying by the seat of my ‘pouch’. It’d been a while since I’d lined anything let alone put a zip in so I just kind of just went along with it. I had a bit of ribbon and a brad to ‘sparkle’ it up a bit but I wanted something more.

I found this little guy online and thought he’d just top it off and fitted with Jenni’s love of sparkly and poodles.

I just added some Australian ‘candy’ and popped it in the post.

And look what I got! The lovely Lucienne from Minnesota, USA made me two quilted pouches, which are just beautiful and are being put to good use in my handbag for all sorts of bits and pieces.

Lucienne also popped in these beautiful Godiva chocolate coated pretzels and Starbuck’s Hot Cocoa mixes (which didn’t last too long).

I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this swap and a huge big thanks to Ros for organising it all. You’re just the best. You can check out all the amazing pouches that were made here and follow Ros at Sew Delicious for another swap to come.