Secret Easter Bunny Craft Forum Swap

Well hello. Long time no see!
 A year infact has passed since I was last on the dreamstar diary blog and what a year it has been. Unfortunately my job took over my whole life last year not leaving me with much time, or even inclination, to get my sewing machine out and create. Now, having changed jobs a couple of months ago, I am a much more relaxed and happier person and maybe, just maybe, that little sewing spark will relight in the not too distant future.
 I have, however been creative in other ways, and on my other blog 'Styles Of Cooking' you can see I am doing food challenges and, at present, have almost finished my first challenge of making 15 bread recipes in a month.
 But back to sewing and despite not having done any for a year I still have a daily read of the threads and posts on the craft forum and when sign ups for the secret easter bunny annual gift swap came up I decided it would do me good to sign up again.
I felt quite honoured this year to have Karen 'BeadsByDesign' as my gifts recipient. She annually hosts the easter and christmas forum swaps and puts a lot of time into doing it so I knew my gift needed to be extra special for her.
It's great doing a forum swap as it makes you go on a snooping mission to discover as much about the person as possible. From Karens blog 'Creative and Faithful' I found she was a lover of the sea and beach and of the driftwood and broken pottery that can be found there. So the beach became my main focus for my gift. Having chosen the idea of putting a beach theme on a cushion I first put my ideas down on paper.
First I drew a house. 

Then I added sun, birds, a beach sign, shells and words.

Using my drawings I cut out fabric pieces from all my scraps and sewed them together. I found some lovely little shell design buttons on ebay to sew on too.

I added the words and then, after a quick visit back to Karens blog for colour inspiration, decided on a blue polka dot fabric for the main cushion colour.

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And here it is!!!!
I am so pleased with the finished product. Infact I may make myself one too.

It's easy to get so carried away designing your own gift that you forget that you actually get to receive a gift too! For me this year my received gift was extra, extra special as it was from a lovely lady that I have admired, and also been slightly in awe of, for the past couple of years. I love her work, her blog, her tutorials, infact everything about her!!
Ros didnt disappoint and she made me these beautiful bunnies 'Pip and Squeak' that I will put somewhere very special and treasure always. You can find more about Ros on her blog rosmademe.

I have decided to enter this post into Handmade Monday over on Handmade harbour blog  for the first time in months. It will be nice to enter back into the world of handmade and see what I have been missing out on for ages| And if you are interested in making bread dont forget to pop by other blop 'Styles Of Cooking' and maybe attempt a few of the recipes.