Thursday, August 18, 2022

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 (!!!) πŸ˜‰ 

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  πŸ’• including a gorgeous variegated Cottage Garden Thread.

The sweetest needle-case & matching pincushion πŸ’•
(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  πŸ’•

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 πŸ’— 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" πŸ’—

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

17 comments:

  1. Such a lovely swap - I enjoyed seeing all the beautiful things that you made for each other. xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Julie what a fantastic swap , you are both so talented I love every thing , well done to both of you .
    Have a wonderful day sweet friend .

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, my goodness, this looks better than Christmas morning! What you gals made for each other leaves me breathless. So much talent!
    The Lego Club looks like a very good discovery for you and Sid. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. How BEAUTIFUL are all those gifts you made for each other! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Julie what a fantastic project for the both of you. I'll have to see what Australian Tea is and see if I can find it online. I love Twinings. Doing all this crafty sewing and thinking up of things while worrying about your mum. Glad you did and could. And now to see Syd doing all the Lego stuff! He'll have a blast. And after the past couple years of no mingling I am sure this is great. Here in our rural county there are always 100 or more active cases of covid and no one taking precautions except nut cases like me with my mask on every where. Our librarian in my tiny 2 person branch has always be super cautious but he gave in at a main office meeting and sure enough caught the bug after these 3 years.
    Our days are getting shorter and cooler over night then warm and still summer like in the afternoons. Do not want to give up on summer but I know you "southerners" would love warmer weather. Lynn and Precious xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your lovely comment Lynn & Precious. I actually made all my swap gifts (& posted) before Mum went into the Resthome thank goodness ... as otherwise I think I might still be trying to finish them!!!! Like you, I still wear my mask everywhere - I feel it has stopped me catching the usual coughs & colds that I get each winter. You will be into autumn soon Lynn ... such pretty colours in the trees. Enjoy the weekend. xx

      Delete
  6. Out My window has left a new comment on your post " A Tilda Swap ........ Across " the ditch "":

    The details of these things just amaze me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh another talented Christine from Victoria ahahaha well more like just one talented Christine, wow I love everything she made you and everything you made her Julie, your both such talented ladies. I love your dolls Julie, nearly makes me want to start making them again, but then I come to my sensesπŸ˜‚ Sid looks like he is having fun, I use to laugh at my 30yr old son for still playing with lego, but they have a show over here called Lego Masters, in which the grown ups build the most amazing things to win money. so tell him to keep at it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. you sent and received lovely goodies.... so talented...
    Hugz

    ReplyDelete
  9. That is a beautiful swap Julie, both you and Christine have made wonderful gifts, you must have had a great time opening them all. The lego club sounds like a great after school activity.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your swap reminds me of the good old swapping days of blogging. They say you can make lifelong friends at school, uni, the maternity ward and I believe blog swaps could be included in that list. I've made some great blogging friends this way. I love all of your beautiful gifts, received and given. Have a great weekend, Julie. I hear the weather's appalling so take care too. xxx

    ReplyDelete
  11. Betty says .........
    as Annie says, your post remided me of the good old swap days - Annie and I had a swap and remained firm friends for many years now infact i was scheduled to visit her this year but adverse weather caused no trains to run - must try again next year! If only we could do the post man swap again - remember that one? where you sent to someone unknown and they passed it on and so on - it was really interesting when you discovered a new blogger :) your swap looks lovely, so very pretty - Tilda is such a lovely brand.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What lovely treats Julie. Such a gift to share your talents.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh I love all the gifts! Those you made and those you received. Your dolls are just beautiful, and ook very hard to make...those tiny legs and arms. You are so talented. Blogging friends are simply the best!

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a fabulous gift time you had with your blog friend, beautiful gifts .It must have been so much fun doing it on facetime.How wonderful having Lego afternoons at the library and such a good idea, that will make Sid a very happy chappy.Hope the dear furry ones are settled with you back at home.

    ReplyDelete
  15. What lovely swap gifts.

    Our library has a lego club as well. Must be pretty popular with the youngsters.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete

Hello, & thank you for taking the time to comment on my posts - I read and appreciate each and every one of your comments :-)
I always prefer to reply to your comments by email unless you are a no-reply-blogger in which case I will reply to your comments in this section here. Thanks so much for stopping by to read & comment on my blog x0x