A Christmas Gift

I participated in Stephanie and Linda's Christmas in July swap. Even though I haven't received my package yet, I got a gift, a special gift of a new friend. Jenny, of Elefantz, was my partner and I had the pleasure of making a few little things for her. The greatest thing about doing swaps is meeting new people and sometimes there's even a connection. Jenny is one of those people.

We share the love of vintage things, fun fabric, and I'm sure we have more in common that we have yet to discover. If you don't know Jenny or her blog you should definitely check it out. She is a master stitcher and designs stitchery patterns. Who knows, she may even convince me to give hand stitching a go.

Here's what I made for Jenny. One of the requirements of the swap was to make a bag or a stocking....I chose a bag. I was a bit nervous about that because I've never made any kind of bag before. This one was an adaptation of a tutorial on JC Handmade. (she calls it a kidlet wall pocket...I made it into a bag.) I used linen and this wonderful Michael Miller fabric with retro Christmas ladies. It's the cutest fabric ever. It's lined with multi color pez which I think looks like Christmas lights.
Can you see the hearts? They're made from a vintage quilt, have pinked edges, are sewn together and have a simple grosgrain ribbon loop hanger. I made her a set of those. There are a couple of ornaments and some cute Japanese fabric.
I forgot to take a picture of the pillow. It has some cute Christmasy embroidery...done by machine, not by hand. Can you see it?
I used more of that fun fabric and made a couple of potholders with grommets of course.
Do you recognize this mod tree? Jenny was the guinea pig for my Christmas tree skirt tutorial on Sew Mama Sew. I added some free pieced letters and made her this mini quilt.
I also experimented with some decorative stitching. I do like to try new things for my swap partners!
Lastly, a tiny little raw edge applique quilt.

It was so much fun spying on Jenny and making things for her. Thanks so much to Stephanie and Linda for all their work organizing this swap. They are great swap mamas!

Some sad news in my week. I had another heartbreak with this quilt. You can read about it here.