I *heart* swaps!

My lovely man and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day so the gift I received today came from someone with a similar love to mine..... sewing!

I was paired up with Fiona and she sent me a fantastic bundle of goodies as part of the EB sewing haberdashery swap.

You know haberdashery - the cute stuff we all love to have in our stash; like ribbons, ric rac, cute buttons and motifs and the practical stuff; like pins, zips and elastic.

Fiona sent me the bunch of loveliness shown below;

Handmade magazine featuring a One Red Robin softie, ric rac in two colours, three different ribbons/trims (look at that lovely cherry one), a retractable tape measure - doesn't that just scream out to be in your handbag for measuring on the run, self-cover buttons, red snaps and pins.

Super-cute Hello Kitty buttons, a pattern with frilly knickers (which I can never resist), some cotton, and gorgeous five funky monkeys fabric which made Miss L's jaw drop as her fave song at the moment is "Five cheeky monkeys jumping on the bed".

It was all wrapped up in a bag that Fiona made from an Oh Fransson pattern which can fold within itself to fit in your glovebox or another bag when you head to the shops.

Thanks so much Fiona, it was a lovely start to my day.

What to include is based on a little list of likes and dislikes, and because I am not sure that my partner has a blog, here's what went Jess's way.

I made her a babushka pin cushion and thankfully she likes them too!

A pack of buttons with lots of blues, purple and aqua which she said were her favourite colours, some pins, iron on tranfers motifs, a cross-stitch, some ric rac and braided ribbon and a pile of small fabric pieces as she said she was trying her hand at softie making.

The hard part with swaps is estimating what to send so you don't send to little or too much - I hope Jess was happy with it all.