Yesterday my pincushion swap parcel arrived, and luckily the one I sent to Gemma arrived with her too so I can show you both!

I’m still on this craft neutral bent, so upcycling and recycling was the name of the game. The pincushion base is a (thoroughly cleaned!) little catfood tin which I covered with some giftwrap and coated in a layer of PVA glue. The cushion part is a pair of Nairn’s old jeans which had burst at the leg and which were destined for the bin until they were repurposed.

The pins were made by supergluing some tiny beads which came from a broken necklace of Erica’s. I made a matching needlebook which is actually the item I’m probably most proud of! I’ve had this binding for a while but been too scared to use it because it was so ridiculously gorgeous. I used some more of Nairn’s denims to create the needlebook, some felt for the inside pages and some felt scraps to appliqué the front. I made 12 little pins with the beaded tops and added in a few sewing needles and buttons for Gemma.

The outside, all folded up

The inside

For me, swaps are all about what I can make. I’m not sure why because every swap I’ve participated in has been really overwhelmingly gorgeous but I tend not to have great expectations of them, so when Gemma’s parcel arrived yesterday I nearly cried.

Look how cute this tortoise is! He’s filled with lavender too and smells absolutely gorgeous.

Look at his wee face!

As if that wasn’t cute enough, Gemma also spoiled me rotten with supplies:

A cute box filled with buttons:

And chocolate! This is quite the trompe-l’œil because there’s actually FOUR fingers of fudge and a large Dairy Milk caramel bar in this picture:

So needless to say I was absolutely thrilled with my swap, as were the kids with their fudge bars! Thanks ever so much to Gemma for being a fabulous swap partner and additional thanks to Claire for organising

Gemma has blogged the swap too – go, read!

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