Craft Swap Recap

Oh, lordy, lordy!

This was one of the best Craft Swaps ever: the gifts were amazing and there was a lot of stealing (totally hedonistic, as my friend Melissa just said) and lots and lots of laughter.

Before the Craft Swap had even begun, I saw some amazing bags and garments coming through the door, so of course I grabbed my camera to take some photos...

There were no less than three Winslow Market Totes in attendance, but I only got pictures of two:
























The Winslow Market Tote on the right is my friend Julie's: her colors are red and turquoise and you may be able to pick out the quilt she made during the Mystery Quilt Weekend because the colors are exactly the same.

And pay close attention to the Winslow Market Tote on the left: that belongs to my friend Allison, who left the Craft Swap with my gift, which you will be seeing shortly!


And below is my friend Emily, whom I think is a total hot ticket: she was wearing her Lotus Tunic, made with batiks from the shop and paired with some cute jeans (be still my heart: you know how I love a good tunic or dress with jeans!). I sometimes never think of batiks when I am making garments for myself, but this tunic is so gorgeous I can't stand it! I'll have to remember them when I am making my next ensemble.


























Now that the pre-show has been sufficiently covered, onto the Craft Swap photos!




























































































































And I totally made out like the proverbial bandit: I got to take home both this gorgeous Marie Antoinette doll (I told you all I wanted one of these, remember? From the Wee Wonderfuls book!) and this Chicken Bumble (not from the Wee Wonderfuls book, but super-cute anyhow), both of which were hand-embroidered by my good friend Anne.

























Anne is on her way to a Caribbean cruise this morning: have a great time, Anne ! I love my goodies!
























And remember my friend Allison who came to the Craft Swap sporting her Winslow Market Tote? She left the Craft Swap with my gift, which was one of Amy Butler's Cosmo Bags from the cover of her new book Style Stitches.

Be on the lookout for my Cosmo Bag review blog post in the next few days.


There were a few "serendipitous" moments and "happy stories" from the Craft Swap last night:

The first "serendipitous moment" came about because of the horrible weather we had last Friday, which meant we had to reschedule the Craft Swap to take place last night, which meant that the Craft Swap took place on my good friend Nadine's birthday, which meant we had to get a cake... which didn't last long.





















And "serendipitous moment" number 2 came about before the Craft Swap, when Dawn's son Gavin gave her his "lucky die" because "It works, Mom." Well, it really did work because Dawn picked the best number, number 1, and at the end of the Craft Swap she got to choose whatever she wanted.

Here she is with her lucky die and with the quilt she chose.
























Doesn't Dawn look like she just got away with something? And isn't that quilt just gorgeous? Of course, I am probably super-biased because Donna used a couple of the fabrics I had printed up on Spoonflower that I gave away 2 Craft Swaps ago.

And I have saved the best for last: a "Happy Craft Swap" story.

Our very good friend Chris (You may have heard me mention her shop several times here on the blog. she and her husband Bernie are keeping the Midcoast hip!) has had a bit of a rough year, but just recently got the most wonderful news that she is cancer-free.

We really wanted to celebrate so all of the gals in our "community" here at Alewives (coincidentally the same gals who lose all restraint at Chris' shop) got together, made a La La Log Cabin block from Anna Maria Horner's cotton voile, then Anne stitched them together into a quilt top and Barbara Commeau machine quilted the whole thing.



We surprised Chris with her "We love you/ celebration quilt" at the Swap last night and it was truly a happy moment for all. The cotton voile is so soft and the colors are so bright and happy that we felt they fit the bill perfectly. We wanted to give Chris something that would let her know how we all feel about her: that she is such a beautiful person inside and out and she deserves a memento from her biggest fans.





Congratulations, Chris: your little Midocast Maine community loves you to pieces and couldn't do without you!

And I think that about sums up the whole evening.

This is really just a sampling of what went on: there were lots of funny moments and lots of amazing crafts, too. Way too many for me to recount on this blog.

If you like what you see and you are local-ish, we will do our next Craft Swap in early summer and we would love to see you there: the more the merrier!

Thanks to the 27 ladies who came and I will see you all again soon!

XO,

Rhea