.: the sweet pouches have landed :.

Remember the Sweet Pouch Swap sneak peek?  

Just in case you forgot - the Sweet Pouch Swap is a very fun thing to do, where you make a pouch for someone and fill it with sweet treats.  You can choose whether to swap with someone from your own country, or go big and make it international.

Round 1 was hosted by the gorgeous Ros of Sew Delicious - it was a blind swap - meaning you made something for someone, but then someone else made something for you  (this is what I made for Round 1, and this is the gorgeous pouch  + goodies I received from Tammy of Karamat in Texas!).

Round 2 is on now - so sweet pouch packages have been criss-crossing the globe - in fact I'm surprised there hasn't been a news item about the significant increase in sweet-smelling international packages.  Hmmmm.  Anyway.  The lovely Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts hosted this round - a direct swap - and paired me with the fabulous + fun Kara from Me and Elna.  Now that Kara has definitely received my sweet-n-salty package, here are pics. 

The pouch is made from Melody Miller, Denyse Schmidt and Anna Maria Horner fabrics - total favourites of mine too.  I figured Kara needed some koala ears and other little goodies in her life, so popped them in with the Cadbury chocs, lollies and the not-sweet-but-very-salty Vegemite.  Kara has promised a video of her trying Vegemite for the first time.  I told her to spread it on a piece of toast VERY thickly, with no butter ....  No I didn't.  Promise.  I said a little bit of butter and then a very thin smear of Vegemite.  Really. 

I so love this gorgeous face - it's Melody's beautiful grandmother.  The book pattern is 'Books for Baby'  in Ayumi Takahashi's 'Patchwork Please'.

And on the back -

And - all filled up and ready to post.

So - on with the excitement - I received Kara's package last Friday! - and then she received my package the very next day! (which I think was also her Friday, but it was already Saturday here ... such is the global nature of our pouch swapping).  And Kara's already written a blog post about it - click across to see a pic of Kara wearing koala ears!  

Look at what I got!! - the most perfect patchwork pouch, made from Jeni Baker's/In Color Order lined drawstring pouch pattern - which I LOVE.  And a really cute fat quarter of fabric I have never seen before.  And a LOT of chocolate - about half of which no longer exists as it's been eaten.  And .... Cincinnati Chili ... which is definitely not sweet to eat ... and I have promised Kara that I will take a video of me trying it for the first time.  If you are on instagram - take a look at #goldstarchili and #cincychili for some amazing chili pics.  I've already worked out all the different weight measurements (pounds/ounces to grams/kilograms), so just need to find a chili-cooking moment, and work out which of the five different recipes to cook ... and fire up a video ... I'm thinking slo-mo.

I really love the fabrics Kara chose for the patchwork - so many gorgeous prints and colours.  And the yellow measuring-tape twill-drawstring is perfection, I love it, and also the cross-word puzzle fabric on the bottom.  Notice how the Butterfinger wrapper up there is opened and empty ... I ate it before thinking to take a pic ... good willpower and self-discipline on show there.  

See the cute zig-zag detail stitching between the patchwork and the fab texty print?  Took me a little while to notice that as I was too busy looking at all the little patches.  Super-fancy and such a sweet little extra detail.  And see the cute little blue-flower fabric up there?  That's by the super-talented Karen of Blueberry Park. I was so happy that Kara included some of Karen's fabrics, she makes such gorgeous stuff. 

I have never even seen this pink and orange lining fabric before - really can't believe it, as pink and orange are a bit of a favourite colour-combo.  You can see the sweet zig-zag stitching in this pic too, isn't it perfection? 

So - that's Round 2 of the Sweet Pouch Swap done for us!  Thanks so much Alyce for coordinating this round, and thanks so much Kara for such a fun and happy swap experience ... though it's not over til the chili and Vegemite videos are live to the world .... stay tuned .... xoxo cat