Catching Up -- Part Three, Secret Santas

When Donna decided to be an elf and run an international Secret Santa swap, I just knew I wanted to participate! It turned out that the woman who had received my name was not someone I was familiar with. Nemo was so thoughtful in her package! First, she made me the most adorable blue stitchery quiltlet and even put in a picture of the inspiration for the colors she chose. She sent along postcards of her area of Norway, and some fantastic Norwegian cooky cutters, too! She also sent two candy bars. You may notice that there is just one candy bar in the picture. My dear friend Carol who is Scandinavian was here when I opened Nemo's package, and I felt compelled to share one of the candy bars with her. I was and am totally delighted with Nemo's package and her generosity and lovely stitching.

I also enjoyed tracking down her blog and getting to know this wonderful gal who was so kind to me.

I was given the name of Little Mysteries to be a Secret Santa for. This, too, was a blog that I wasn't familiar with, so I went to her site and went back to the very beginning and read every post she had done so I could get to know her. It was apparent that both owls and violets were important to her, and I went out to the fabric shop in search of one or the other. I didn't find anything that I liked there, but did find some Alexander Henry owl fabric on line. As time passed and the deadline for mailing approached and the owl fabric did not arrive, I learned that Little Mysteries is a William Morris aficianado! Such luck! I dug into my considerable WM stash and picked pieces to make her a tote bag. I also sent her a pin of a U.S. postage stamp with a basket quilt block on it that my friend Emily made. The owl fabric ultimately came, after I'd mailed off the package, and I plan to send it on to Little Mysteries after the first of the year.

It was a lovely experience participating in this swap.