A Tilda Swap ........ Across " the ditch "

Greetings lovely friends & readers

At the start of this year Christine emailed me to ask whether I would be interested in doing a Tilda Swap with her as we are both dedicated Tilda lovers. I thought this was a wonderful idea & we both agreed to make very "loose rules" in that it would be a winter swap using Tilda fabrics but not necessarily a Tilda pattern. 

We both began working on our swap gifts in early Autumn & decided we would mail them to each other on the same day.  Christine is in Victoria, Australia & I am in Waikato, New Zealand so the Tasman Sea that seperates our two countries is often referred to as "the ditch".  We were curious to see whose reached its destination first.  Interestingly mine reached Christine in just over a week yet hers took 3 (long) weeks to get to me.

During our waiting time Christine suggested we do a facetime call to each other & open our parcels at the same time.  We have never met & only became "friends" through this wonderful medium called Blogging.

I had mine all laid out on a tray to begin opening them at our designated calling time ... it was So exciting & I even remembered to brush my hair that day (!!!) 😉 

The first package I opened was these delectable treats from Australia ... Choccy Caramello Koala's, Rocky Road Cookie Bites & a box of Australian Afternoon Tea.  Christine had popped the Caramello Koala's in for the grandchildren but I must confess Not every single one reached the littlies 😯 (!!!)

What was inside the other packages quite took my breath away  ... I must've mentioned once how I just adore the Tilda "Old Rose range" & Christine had remembered this ... this stunning project bag made from Old Rose fabrics & filled with all manner of stitching delights  💕 including a gorgeous variegated Cottage Garden Thread.

The sweetest needle-case & matching pincushion 💕

(The pattern Christine has used is a Gail Pan design)

This darling little thread catcher that winds up & down magically, & a pair of scissors with a strawberry scissor-keep attached  💕

You can read Christine's post about what she made me * Here * ... her photo's are much clearer than mine.

I was honestly just SO delighted with my swap gifts & at the end of our phone call I realised we had both chatted for an hour!! It was simply wonderful.

When we initially agreed on the swap the first idea that popped into my head was to make a doll for Christine.  She had mentioned she has pinks, greens, reds in her home so I pulled some fabrics in these colours from my stash & decided to make her the Rosalie Quinlan doll "Ruby"

This doll has a tag hanging from it's hand that reads "Dear Mummy We love you" - so I decided to stitch "I 💗 Tilda" on my tag.

The dress fabric is a piece from the Sweetheart Tilda range which is now a Very vintage Tilda (2015)

The doll is made to hang from a loop on her other hand but I feel she is equally as nice just sitting. 

I had some treasured vintage linens in my stash & I used this gorgeous crinoline lady one for my doll's pinny.  Instead of French knots for hair as the pattern states, I gave her some pretty hair using hand dyed mohair.

I painted her shoes using some pale pink chalk paint as I didn't have any fabric paint in this colour.

Christine has named her doll "Tilly" 💗

The face scrubbies & soap pouch are purchased from a gorgeous Handcraft Shop in Mum's town

I had gathered together some bits & pieces to include so I decided to stitch a little gathered pouch to hold them.  The soap is from this Lavender Farm which is 2 minutes up the road from where I live.  The pouch is also a Rosalie Quinlan design from her book Gift.

When I saw this wee china jug in an Op Shop the flowers reminded me of Tilda so I made a soy candle in the jug & included this, along with a N.Z magazine & N.Z choccy.

The hanging doiley Angels are from the book Tilda's Winter Delights .. you cut them out & then add a paper doiley skirt - just so sweet tied onto parcels. 

And for Christine's post about what I made for her ... go * Here *     We both agreed this was just such an enjoyable swap & were both so VeRy happy with our packages.

Quite by accident Sid & I have discovered that our local Library has Lego Club each Tuesday after school so we went along this week & had a wonderful hour building Lego with other children.  I think this might become a regular fixture in our Tuesday after-school activities.  

Thank you all so much for staying with me through this lengthy post dear friends,  

With much love & friendship to you all,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x