A tinny sound accompanied the vibration of my phone, letting me know I had a new message. The alert on the screen was, once again, cut frustratingly short, as I glanced over it. “You are making for…” WHO?? A swipe, pass code in, and I pulled up Facebook. Nic. I was to make for Nic.

I think I may have laughed out loud at this point. I have made for Nic previously, for Secret Santa 2010, and also for the 2011 dolls quilt swap. And Nic made for me in this year’s mug rug swap. Apparently we are cosmically connected or something.

Our brief was a minimum of three gifts, covering Something Sweet, Something to Spoil Them With, Something for The Tree, Something in Their Favourite Colour and Something Handmade.

SOMETHING SWEET: Being the height of summer, and having had a rash of days reaching the high-30s, I was leery of sending chocolate. This was actually one of the last pieces of the puzzle that I decided on. I contacted a local bee farmer, and got some local beeswax, which I mixed up into a lip balm and then flavoured with local honey.

SOMETHING HANDMADE/FAVOURITE COLOUR: As a busy working mum of four children, I thought her crafty time might be somewhat limited, and thought maybe a little cross-stitch may be the perfect pickup/putdown solution. I designed this myself, based on THIS adorable dolls quilt that Nic made for Kirsty. I really enjoyed working up the sample for this kit, I think I need to do more cross stitch!

SOMETHING FOR THE TREE: Nic said her tree colors were aqua and silver – the perfect combo to crack out my recent Fimo acquisitions. Sadly, elf number one was a bit of a fail after I kind of left him in the oven too long, but luckily I had enough clay to make a new one. And truth be told, I think I like this one better anyway! He’ll have to be a shelf elf though, as I wasn’t sure how to add a hanger that was safe and that wouldn’t distort the shape. He is about 1.5″ tall.

SOMETHING TO SPOIL THEM WITH: again, I thought Nic’s spoiling time would be limited, so I made her this little coffee cosy for when she decided to spoil herself with a takeaway coffee. I love the little lace edging on this one, and I also added a quilted feather detail. Since we are “technically” a quilting group. Supposedly.

THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE: oh man. This has had me in stitches for weeks. Way back at quilt camp 2011, when Car wasn’t busy bitching about my lack of blogging, she, Bee and Kayscha were my sounding board for the design of Nic’s dolls quilt. I had almost everything cut out, when I made the fatal error of wondering out loud, if adding that on-point yellow square would add to the motion of the fan shape in the centre. Well. Didn’t I hear about that forever more. Which would be fine, but then Nic received the quilt, and failed to appreciate the motion in the design. Philistine. So it’s become a but of a running joke, and when Skip said I was making for Nic, I KNEW I had to do something with motion.

The idea hit me on a road trip, and a quick trip to Dick Smith proved disappointing, but Jaycar across the road was more than helpful. I came home. I spoke to my dad, and he got to work. And then. There it was.

A motion activated fan. APPRECIATE THAT MOTION NIC.

I received my little parcel from Esther yesterday, and it is just delightful. I only have dodgy phone pics for now, so I’ll photograph it and blog later in the week. Today started well, went downhill rapidly, and is on the improve again. My girl and I are hanging out and playing. There is a jelly roll quilt race in my sights. Monday. Three days to holidays. One foot in front of the other. Bring on 3pm Wednesday.