Superb exchanges

The end of June brought Opening Day for two exchanges on Needlecraft Haven. The Meet Up exchange was from the spring get together in Nuneaton earlier this year.

At the Meet Up everyone who wanted to join the exchange completed a little card with details of their favourite summer places, colours and treats. The cards were put in blank envelopes. Whoever's card you picked was your partner and the exchange gift was a coaster with the theme based on the details in the card.

I had Lindsay as my partner, her favourite summer places were the beach and visiting English gardens so I chose a Just Nan design that I thought looked like the layout of a formal garden. Lindsay's favourite colour is purple so I slightly changed the original colour scheme to match. I used a picture of a beach for the backing.

Coaster for Lindsay

Coaster back

When the card is put in the envelopes everyone is given a number which they write on the top corner, this is so when the envelopes are picked it's easy to see if you've picked your own without opening. Julie noticed that I knew she had selected my card and as Angi had selected Gill's (who is her close friend) they did a secret swap so Angi stitched for me hee hee. She sent a beautiful rose design along with a little tea bag but Ruby decided to steal that before it got anywhere near the kitchen !

Beautiful rose coaster from Angi

The other Needlecraft Haven exchange was the second part of the Four Season's Exchange - summer. This time I organised exchanges in actual pairs which we haven't done for a while. Chris was my partner and I know she loves gardening so I chose this basket of flowers for a coaster - although a small design it was quite complex to stitch, lots of single stitches but I loved stitching it and seeing the flowers come together.

Summer exchange for Chris

 Unfortunately one of the ladies on NH is unwell at the moment so I stitched the exchange piece for her partner - it was a quick stitch but I'm please with how it turned out.

Additional Summer Exchange piece

 

I received a beautiful pillow from Chris - I think it will be living at the caravan although it looks great at home too. Chris knows I love France so she changed the wording Summer Time to L'heure d'ete - what a lovely lady :)

 

Beautiful pillow from Chris

 We received another beautiful gift this week - Julie sent a gorgeous cross stitch picture for our 25th Anniversary. I'll be taking it to our party tomorrow night to put on the table with a few other things (I'm also taking my wedding dress but I'll be blogging that next time)

 

Hubby & I went to London and Paris to celebrate - you can read about our travels on my other blog Aimetu's - if you do pop by please leave a comment as it will add to our keepsakes.

Anniversary gift from Julie

My garden is looking ok but many of my flowers wilted whilst we were away - although DS & DD were home I think they thought the other would do the watering. Things are slowly returning and there are some lovely blooms although I do need more flowering plats as our garden always looks so green.

 

Fushia - it was tiny last year so hopefully will
fill the pot next

Climbing clematis - I love this colour

Hubby has a lily out in his pond

Thanks for calling by Aimetu's Stitching, your comments are always appreciated :)