A Wonderful Surprise!

Last month I was chosen by Cathy to be one of the Pay It Forward recipients on her blog, With Needle & Thread.  If you aren't familiar with Pay It Forward you can read Cathy's invitation here.  As you will note, the explanation stated that the recipients will each receive 5 stitching related gifts & examples were given as follows ...

DMC, other threads, stitching needles, straight pins, buttons, ribbons, scissors, etc ...

a combination of items such as 3 threads, 1 pack of straight pins, &  1 pack of stitching needles ...

or just 5 threads

I expected that I would receive a small envelope holding these types of things but this is what I received instead ... a small box with a card & wrapped packages!

And here is what was inside those packages!

I am overwhelmed with Cathy's generosity!  I apologize, as always, for the crummy photography.  I'm working on getting a new camera which hopefully will be both my salvation & yours.  Anyway, Cathy sent me a package of my favorite stitching needles in my favorite size (how in the world did she know this?), a package of R&R hand dyed chenille trim in a gorgeous blue color (we all know how much I love chenille trim!), 2 hanks of Crescent Colours hand dyed floss ... Manor Red & Wavy Navy (CC is another love of mine & I don't have these ones!), a very useful corner gauge (I've not seen these before ... very cool!) from her favorite stitching shop, Stitchville USA, a little bag of Lindt milk chocolate truffles (to die for!), & last ... but certainly not least ... one of her fabulous handmade cupcake pincushions with tatting trim made by her mother!  I swear, I couldn't speak!  It is gorgeous!  My pitiful photo in no way shows how beautiful this pincushion is so please do check her blog post showing a grouping of these lovely pincushions!  Even my husband commented on how very pretty this pincushion is!  She also included that lovely card you see in the above photo with a sweet note telling me a bit about each thing she sent.  (In answer to my question about the needles, it turns out these are her favorite needles as well!)  Thank you so much, Cathy, for everything!

Cathy's mom's tatting is, by the way, exquisite!  I used to teach tatting so I know my stuff   : )   How much do you want to bet that I'm going to be looking at this pincushion every day & before too long dig out an old shuttle or two & start tatting again!  You know how EASILY INFLUENCED  I am ... lol!