In January Ali at Snipsnaphappy set up a little new year swap which was very good of her!  I’ve only taken part in one swap before and thought it was about time I did another one.

I received details of my swap partner and set to work on putting together some lovely things for her.  However, I  can’t tell you about those yet as I haven’t heard that she’s received them and its all about the surprise in this swap!!

I also knew that at some point I’d receive a treat in the post from the person who was given me to make for!  And what a treat I received.  Let me introduce Claire from The Hookery!! Look what Claire sent to me:

How lucky am I???  Very!  The felt needle case is beautifully handmade in the softest felt.  Very much needed too as I have my needles currently rattling around in a tin which never struck me as very wise.  (Although like Claire I love tins).  And as for that owl, what can I say.  He has lots of personality with his big eyes and he smells wonderful as he is stuffed full of yummy lavender!  Of course buttons of any sort are fabulous – and chocolate ones are always a treat!!

Somehow I had never come across The Hookery before, but it’s a lovely crochet blog and it’s now on my reading list.  Do have a look and say ‘hi’ to Claire while you’re there!

Some things just take a long time to come to fruition and for Anca there was a long, long wait for her pincushion swap, but she sent me a very excited email this afternoon saying ‘My pincushion is here!’.

The first pincushion I made for the Fox’s Lane Pincushion Swap aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages ago disappeared somewhere in the postal system and Anca, my swap partner and I were both really, really disappointed.  After exchanging several emails about where it could be I downloaded a claim / complaint form from the Royal Mail.  While it is possible to report it as missing, it is virtually impossible to claim for the lost contents.  They want receipts for everything: how is that possible for hand crafted items I made myself.  I’m not at all bothered about the money side of it, but the principle of that makes me more than a little gggrrrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, I couldn’t possibly leave Anca without a pincushion, so I made another one and I didn’t tell her I was sending it!  Sneaky huh??  I posted it ‘international signed for’ so it was receipted and tracked from door to door.  I wasn’t taking any chances this time!! 

I’ve already written up details of themaking the pincushion itself but now that I know the second pincushion has arrived safely in Bucharest I want to reveal all the details of my side of the swap.  I wrote up a post about 2 months ago in anticipation of the pincushion parcel arriving with details of all the little goodies I sent Anca and I still want to share those, despite them disappearing, so the rest of this post is from that original draft:

I was very excited when I first looked at Anca’s lovely website Happy hang around and started thinking of what I could make for her.  She has a coffee shop in Bucharest so I felt a donut pincushion was just perfect.  Coffee and donuts are a perfect combination in my opinion.

The other exciting thing about Anca is that she LOVES owls – more than I do I think.  Therefore, I just had to send her a few little owley things.  I found the pattern for lovely little owlets at Littlegreen and although this one I made has slightly squinty eyes I love its cute and homemade look.

I really enjoyed choosing and wrapping up the little parcels to send to Anca, a complete stranger apart from what I’d read on her website.  The knowledge that I was able to make and chose a few little bits and pieces as treats for a stranger was very exciting.

Anca also loves postcards and is part of a postcard exchange called Postcrossing.  I chose the best of a rather poor selection of postcards of Manchester to send.  Apart from Manchester United Football Club there aren’t really any particular landmarks that make Manchester instantly recognisable unless you already know the city, so I just chose one with pictures that seemed to be taken in this century.

To complete the package I got a few little owl stationery things to send too.  I love stationery so it was fun chosing them.

Many, many thanks to Kate at Fox’s Lane for organising this swap.  You can see some of the other gorgeous pincushions made for the swap in its Flickr group.  It’s been the first I’ve taken part in and I am sure it won’t be my last.  Maybe I’ll even organise one myself.  I have an idea of what I’d like to swap so let me know if you are interested and I’ll keep you posted.

The original whole swap package (sadly missing!):

Ooooh the cutest little owl arrived on my doormat at the weekend.  All the way from Idaho from Tracylea at Homegrown Insanity as part of the Foxs Lane pincushion swap.

He’s so cute – I love owls and I love colour so he’s just perfect.  (Yes, I do think he’s a ‘he’, don’t ask me how I know, I just do).  Tracylea makes lots and lots and lots of owls but this is her first pincushion so I am very privileged to have him.

After mailing him ages ago then him being returned to her, Tracylea was rather concerned that he wouldn’t make it this time again, but he has and I am very happy that he’s now found a safe home.  Big thanks to Tracylea for making him for me.

I emailed Tracylea to say he’d arrived and that it didn’t feel right to stick pins in him, but as she rightly pointed out he was made as a pincushion so he should be properly used.  As a result, I have now put him to good use.  Tracylea stuffed him with steelwool as she’d researched that as a good pincushion stuffing to keep pins sharp which is a great tip I haven’t heard of before.

Tracylea included some pieces of my favourite types of fabrics in my parcel too – cotton prints.  These may become lavender bags – my fave make of the mo!!

Now, all I need to do is work out why Anka’s pincushion hasn’t got to her yet - its now been a month since I posted it and I fear it may never arrive – and then this swap will be complete!

p.s. I just noticed when looking at the preview of this post that the owl’s colours match my website colours brilliantly!!!

Last night I emailed Anka, from Happy hang around, who I have made the donut pincushion for to let her know that I am her swap partner and that I was concerned that it hasn’t arrived.  You may have spotted Anka before as she commented on my pincushion make post!  I really didn’t want to have to reveal that the donut was for her until she received it, but given the passage of time I wanted her to know its on its way!

Anka was delighted to know the donut was for her, having already spotted it on flickr and here, and said that Romanian post can take aaaaaaaaaaaaages.  She has promised to let me know as soon as it arrives.

In a strange twist of fate while I was writing my email to Anka I got a comment on the site from Tracylea from Homegrown-insanity who has made a pincushion for lil’ ole me!  Turns out that the postal service has failed somewhere and the parcel aiming for me was returned to Traceylea in Idaho, USA.  That’s going to be one well travelled little pincushion when it arrives.

So it seems mystery solved and we are all at the mercy of our respective postal serivces.  However, despite that, I love the thought of the new connections I now have with people in Bucharest and Idaho, all because of 2 humble pincushions!  You’ve got to love that!

The question is, do I contact them about it, given that it’s meant to be a secret swap?   I don’t want to spoil the surprise but I equally don’t want them sitting waiting thinking they’ve been forgotten about.

Then there’s the complication of the volcanic ash that’s been floating around northern Europe in the past week.  I think my parcel should have got through airspace prior to this, but you never know…

I think I’ll leave it a few days for now and hope that its still in transit.  The Royal Mail website said 2-3 days to for the country in question, so it is quite a delay!

I haven’t received my pincushion from the swap yet either so maybe its delayed because of the airline situation too.  I am beside myself with anticipation.  Well, if such a thing were really possible I’m sure I would be!

The big question is… who will the recipient be???

P.S. I’ll post pics of the contents when I know parcel has been received