Modern Swappers - Round 2

Another swap package that I was thrilled to receive was from my secret Modern Swappers partner.  As I may have mentioned before, this swap is a blind swap so we know who our partners are but they don't know who we are...hence the flickr "stalking."  Someone is out there checking out your favourites, photos and blog and you have no idea who it is until your package arrives.  I think this makes it extra fun because not only do you not know who is making what for you, you also have no idea when they are sending your package to you so if you are anything like me, you just end up stalking the mailbox for about a month!

With these larger swaps, I have found that it gives extra peace of mind to splurge on the tracking.  So far I have had partners in the US, so my shipping is only a few extra dollars to have tracking and a faster service.  Because of this, I knew exactly where my package was and when my partner received it.  As an aside, I just have to say that the longest part of shipping is the time it is stuck in customs!  Ugh!

For this round my partner was Julie A from Maryland, one of my favourite states! When I found out where she lived I was so excited because I just love the area where she lives...its Chesapeake Bay, how can you not love it!?  Julie is pretty clear on what she loves so it was really fun to put together her swap package.  I knew that she loved lime greens and oranges, and that she loved elephants.  So, with that information I started to plan everything.  For the smaller sewing room item, I make her an elephant pincushion from Heather Bailey's Effie & Ollie Elephant pattern which is super cute and this was a great excuse to buy it!

Sorry about the bad lighting, I rarely made it home before dark, so getting clear pictures was difficult.

Also in Julie's swap package were six fat quarters of various polka dot fabric.  In one of the discussions about fabric choices, Julie commented that she liked polka dot fabric so I immediately went online and ordered dots in colours that I thought she would like...greens, blues, and oranges.  So that covered the fabric requirement of the swap.  And from the comments left by other swappers, a lot of people would have been happy with polka dot fabric!

A little extra thing I tossed into the package was a turning tool.  This was an afterthought that I saw at the Creativ Festival back in the fall and thought Julie would be able to use.

Last but definitely not least, I made a pillow in Julie's favourite colours - lime and orange (with a few elephants tossed in!).  As I mentioned in a previous post, this pillow pattern gave me a bit of trouble.  After posting about my troubles I had several great suggestions and my second attempt was a great success (if I do say so myself)!  Here is everything together:

Since this is a longish post, I will share what I received (Yay!  Gifts!) tomorrow :)