Red & Orange Colorific Swaporama!

I am pretty excited because I mailed my box out to my swap partner for the Coloriffic Swaporama – Sept Red & Orange Swap today. This is my first swap of this kind & I can’t wait to see what my partner thinks of her goodies. I am a little nervous though. I picked things that I think she will like & use. I a good reason for each item but sometimes my reasoning doesn’t jive with other peoples, so we shall see what she thinks when she gets it. I made sure to include a letter explaining the thought process behind the stuff I picked. That may or may not be a good thing! That might make her think that I am even more of a freak!

So here is what I sent:


She said that she was new to sewing, so I added to her stash & sent a pattern for the so I added to her stash & sent a pattern for the McCall’s hobby Portfolio. With the pattern I sent enough fabric, interfacing & some notions(thread & bias tape), but then I thought she might not want to use that fabric for that pattern so I didn’t get all the notions for it. Also there are several options to customize the portfolio so I thought it best to leave it to her on how she would like to do, if she wants to make it at all. I know that she likes to do collages & scrapbooking also so I thought it was a good fit for her. The fabric I chose is all either reproduction prints of 1930’s & 40’s fabric or polka dots. She said that she liked vintage fabric, vintage seems to span a few decades now so I wasn’t sure which decade of vintage she liked. I took a chance on these. I think that they are pretty cute. I also included some cute buttons that remind me of the 1920’s, some paper & other scrapbooking items.

I wanted to put in a couple things that represent Michigan, but not in the obvious chochy cheesey “ I heart MI” type of way. So I included a note card from Michigan block print artist Grew Frostic & some fruit themed items (Kool Aid, orange Tic Tacs & fruit leather) because SW MI is called the fruit bowl or belt or something like that. We have tons of orchards, farms & vineyards. Yes surprisingly SW MI has a lot of wineries. I live near one of the oldest wineries in MI, St Julian’s, sorry I didn’t include any wine in my box.If you ever get the chance to check it out the tour is really neat & they make great wine. Also they will do special occasion labels. We had them done up for our wedding.

So on with the rest of my swap stuff. You were required to make or include at least one handmade item. I made this little purse that I also hand embroidered.


I thought that my partner would really appreciate the purse because she listed revamping thrifted items as one of her favorite things to do.



The paisley fabric for the purse started out life as these pants.


I picked them up at a thrift store for the purpose of making something for this swap before I even knew who my partner was. I thought that was a pretty good twist of fate.

So there my Red & Orange swap package is on it’s way. I feel good about getting that off & I am very excited to see what will be in my box! I’ll post pictures when it arrives!