mini swap

I can finally reveal all my makings for the last month. I got an email from my swap partner this morning to say that her parcel had arrived safe and sound all it was all a hit. So here we go.
Above is Edgar the monster made for the little boy, Tucker. He was initially designed by Ella and made from various scraps I had including the green woollen blanket I bought at the thrift shop and felted and used for lots of things. Edgar has yellow teeth "because he doesn't brush them very well" and a little dog in his pocket so he's not so scary!
For Julie I made this bag from a felted jumper/sweater I bought at the thrift shop and the little crocheted flowers I made. I loved this bag so much that I made another for myself. I felted them again (just in the machine) after I'd stitched them and the sewing almost disappeared. I love it. I will be constantly on the look out for cheap jumpers/sweaters from now on.
The scarf I made from a little bit of left over boucle yarn I had. I learned this stitch and it's so easy...a simple yarn over, knit 2 together along a row and then just yarn over purl 2 together on the way back. Makes this lovely lacey stitch.

For the little girl, Lucy, I made a little green soft toy cat which I designed and named Pistachio from the green felted blanket, a bag for Lucy which I later covered in needle felted flowers, a little toy mouse for Pistachio the cat and T-shirt bunny hat pattern courtesy of Katurah. I also found another cool use for the little crocheted flowers, making them into little hair bands.

Here's the rest of Tucker's stash (his bag also had some last minute needlefelting applied to it) and he got a dinosaur hat and tail (which bless his heart he wore to bed last night!)
This was such a fun thing to do...to make things for other people who I'd never met. Not only have I made a friend along the way, but I felt liberated with my creativity because it just didn't matter what I did. I loved making the bags. I loved making the toys (Edgar in particular was great fun to make in a very ad hoc kind of way-Oscar really loved him and wanted to keep him-who says he's 12!). It's funny because I don't think of myself as a sewer, but most of what I made was stitched (by hand). It's inspired me to do more sewing.

A super thanks to MollyCoddle for organising it.