Super Swaps - sent and received

A little while ago I joined a Flickr group called Super Swaps and the project they were swapping was a 'covered notebook'.  I immediately made a Smiling Snowman Journal Cover to test a tutorial I found on-line.  It was a great tutorial so I modified it to make a notebook cover for my {secret} partner. 

She listed her favourite colours as red and aqua and that she liked gnomes, owls and mushrooms; no linen!  When I saw this gnome fabric in one of my on-line shopping sprees I immediately bought it as it ticked all the right boxes and was in the perfect colours and subject -- pretty hilarious fabric really!  I love it for its funny-factor!  My {secret} partner will now have a travelling gnome with a geisha notebook!!  Too funny!  Hope she can see the humour too!

Top: stitch details on front of notebook cover
Bottom: the back of notebook cover and the inside left side

As you can see, I added three lines of straight stitching on the front to bring some red from the spine/back to the front to tie it all together.  I LOVE the red pin fabric I used on the back - yummy!  So that is the notebook that I sent to my {secret} partner.  I hope she likes it!   Linking to Quilty Embellishment Day.

And today I received my notebook in the post all the way from Sweden!  How cool is that!?  Thank you Karin - it is lovely!! 

She made the cover using some half square triangles in a scrappy style and used green polka dot fabric for the spine and back.  A nice thick notebook in lime green is inside.  And look at all those stamps that it took to post it!  I'll save those :)  She sent me floss as well - a nice surprise.  I love swaps - you get to meet people from all over the world and you get great things in the post!  Win-win!  Cheers!

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This weekend I tended to my poor neglected garden.  Everything was so dry because I abandoned it when I went on holiday and didn't organise a 'garden babysitter' to water anything while I was away.  When I returned I was surprised to see that I actually had a handful of green and purple beans to eat, some rhubarb to pick and some amazing gladioli to cut to brighten the house up with... and a handful or Arran Pilot potatoes.   

This harvest was half of what I got from the Duke of York grow bag that I dug up before the holiday.  I haven't eaten any of this type yet so fingers crossed they taste better than the Duke of York which looked lovely but were not nice boiled up.  Guess they are more for 'roasting' than 'boiling'.  I wonder what Arran Pilot potatoes are best made into?

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Each month on the 15th I link up at Color Me Quilty for the Quilty Embellishment Day.  Last month I was the lucky July winner!!  Thank you Pat - the pattern has arrived safely! 

Look what I won!

And that's all for now folks :)