Gift Time

Catherine and I were paired in the Blackbird Designs Exchange.  I thoroughly enjoyed stitching for my partner, Catherine.  She also lives in Minnesota and we decided to meet about half way between our homes to have lunch and exchange our gifts.  First of all, Catherine discovered that we have a mutual friend.  Next we discovered that our paths actually crossed in the mid 1990's. 

Catherine attended all of the Spirit of Cross Stitch events in Des Moines, Iowa.  A friend of mine and I attended two of the events, in 1993 and 1994.  A needlework shop in St.Paul sponsored a bus to the event and made arrangements with a motel in Des Moines for accommodations during the event.  We all went to Des Moines on the bus together. 

When we met, Catherine and I did not recognize each other but then I think we did not expect to.  It was just a nice time to get to know a new friend. 

I expect that you want to know what Catherine and I gave each other. 

This is the box that I made for Catherine.  I stitched Woodland Berries and lined the inside of the lid with it.  I painted, distressed, and waxed the box; I have shown you pictures of the work on the box.  You can go back into previous posts to see them.  I also included some gifts that I put into the box, none of which are shown in the picture.  For the picture, I just popped some of my stitching and sewing things into the box to add a little visual interest. 

Here is the lovely sewing book that Catherine made for me.  You can see how nice it goes with my old plate and the old fashioned print fabric.  I have it on a table where I can see it while I stitch.  It makes my heart sing. 

The send date for the exchange is 15 November.  We are all done; we both have our gift and it isn't even 15 November yet.  We are congratulating ourselves for successfully completing the exchange.