Santa Sack Swap ~ 2015

As you may have read before in this post, I participated in a Santa Sack Swap hosted by Cheryll. These are the items I sent out to my partner Debbie. 

I started with the tote since that would be one of the major pieces to sew up. I created the tote without a pattern. I wanted it to be large enough to be used as a project carrier, with pockets to hold pattern books or magazines, knitting needles or crochet hooks and other needlework bits and pieces. I chose red with a white pattern so that it looks festive, but can also be used year round.

Half the work of this swap was trying to decide what to make! I perused Pinterest quite a bit looking for some fun ideas to create myself. I wanted to make a sewing kit to use with the tote, and after a bit of fussing and reworking, came up with this:

I made it from a Japanese fabric fat quarter, and I included pockets for scissors, crochet hooks and a little notebook. There is a needle book with a few pages of pure wool felt; a loop that holds a ring for embroidery floss; and even a pop-up thread catcher (also removable with a little snap on the bottom), the pattern for which I found here. The nice thing about the thread catcher is that it will still fold up with thread inside it.

I knit a Christmas garland using snowmen, Santa Claus and a Christmas tree, all attached to an I-cord. This was fun to make, but the details were surprisingly time consuming to add toques, top hats, scarves and all the little glass beads for eyes and embroider those happy little smiles!

A couple of knitted cotton dishcloths in peppermint colours were added to the lot along with a cute rabbit linen teatowel (which I forgot to get a photo of). I also did a paper-pieced patchwork decoration that is about 4 inches square.

The item that took the longest time, but which I enjoyed making the most, was this patchwork table runner. I used the pattern of "sawtooth star", which has become a favourite of mine. I like the placement which is sometimes referred to as "robbing Peter to pay Paul" since the stars are opposites side by side (ie: red star with a white background beside a white star with a red background). I quilted this by stitching in the ditch, which I think turned out rather nice. 

It was fun to work on these for several months and search out the patterns etc. on Pinterest and in my own craft library. I love sewing and knitting, and joining in these on-line swaps etc. really gets me motivated to continue with the making after the parcel is shipped off.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy