get in my belly!

So, in addition to Bonnie's Love Day Swap I also participated in Ros' Sweet Pouch Swap last month!

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The premis behind this swap was very straight forward and right up my alley- make a little pouch for the new friend you get assigned, fill it with candy and mail it off to them! You, in turn, get a little pouch with goodies sent to you from someone else. Done and DONE. :)

I was assigned to make a gift for Louana from NZ Green Buttons which I was super excited about because she's from New Zealand, a place I know nothing about! Ros told me that Louana loves retro/vintage fabrics and the colors red and green; my most favorite prints from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy line immediately came to mind!

This may just be my most favorite line ever produced! I love that the prints are so timeless- they're obviously strongly influenced by vintage fabrics and feedsacks but they work so well in present day. I have a fat quarter bundle that I got at Sew to Speak a good year ago, if not more... still haven't been brave enough to cut into it. :)

Anywho, I took the fabric above and with the help of Jeni's Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern (you should totally buy it; best $8 you'll ever spend!) I made this for Louana-

And filled it with these typical American candies-

For the bag, the only alterations I ever make to the pattern are that I stitch around the top of the bag (where the accent fabric and lining fabric meet) as well as where the large exterior fabric meets with the top accent fabric. I do this for added stability as I tend to be a little rough on bags; it's an added bonus that the stitching makes it look cute! I also got the measuring tape twill tape from Little Red Cottage on Etsy; I love the charm that it adds. :)

I hope Louana liked her goodies! I really enjoyed making the bag for her and scouting some fun American treats to fill it with; you can read her post about receiving her swap package from me here.

The swap packages (yep- more than one!) that I got were from Irina at El Petit Taller! Irina lives in Ireland but is from Barcelona and her first language is Catalan. I LOVED this as I studied in Spain twice as a child, vacationed in Barcelona this past summer and my Spanish father is from Gerona, near Barcelona, and his first language is Catalan! Not only that, but the person she got paired with to make a swap item for her is Kimbo who is one of my besties. Freaking small world, I tell you. :)

Here's the lovely zipper pouch that Irina made for me-

Don't you love it?! Zippers scare the daylights out of me so I was SUPER (!!!) excited to get a zipper pouch! I also am in love with Summersville; it was a match made in heaven. :)

She filled it with so many good treats- including Cadbury hot chocolate mix- that I had to tear Michael away from them!

And, guess what, I got another package from Irina a week later!

Irina sent me a recipe along with two DELICIOUS chocolate bars with a note that said that she wanted to include these in the first package but the shop was out of them, so here they are now! How sweet is that?! :) You can read in Irina's words about the gifts she gave me here, along with what she mailed for Kimbo here.

I have had such a good time participating in swaps the past month.... and I'm finishing up another one this week! I think I'll take a break for a bit though and work on some selfish sewing... there's a fat quarter bundle of Flea Market Fancy calling my name, after all. :)