Linda organized a fantastic patchwork swap this spring and I was very lucky to be paired with Sarah! This lovely hand-decorated box from her appeared on my porch a couple of weeks ago…

…and the paper doll theme continued with her handmade gift to me — she made photos of me and Pearl into dolls using vintage Betsy McCall imagery, an amazing surprise!

Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the stacks of fabrics and trims she sent, a really fun mix of vintage and new stuff to play with (they were mixed into my stash before I thought to snap a picture), but the package was such a treat, start to finish, and she even sent some cute sock monkey cards. Thank you so much, Sarah!

I found a stack of vintage quilt squares a few months ago and I’ve been saving them for just the right project, and this swap seemed like the perfect way to make something fun with one. I chose a lively one and made it into a simple little drawstring bag.

I liked it so much that I made one for myself, too, and it’s a diaper bag staple now — it holds two cloth diapers, a spare cover, wipes and a couple of plastic bags nicely. I made them reversible — I lined hers with a navy blue and white rick-rack print I found at Cool Cottons, one of my favorites (Sarah had mentioned that she especially liked rick-rack), and sent her some more of it to sew with, too.

I also sent along some doilies, some metallic rick-rack, and another of the quilt squares for good measure! Pearl was pretty interested in all this tantalizing stuff so this was a quick photo shoot and then it was all packaged up and on the way.

Thank you to Linda for organizing and to Sarah for being such a generous, creative and thoughtful swap partner! You can see lots more swap photos in this flickr pool if you want to check out more prettiness…

Okay, we’re off to the Pearl Room at Powell’s!