Today was my lucky day! I received this adorable little cottage pincushion from Ruth for the Scrappy Pincushion Swap. I know that with these swaps many people like imagining that each item that they see might be the one coming to them and they get excited. If I love something, I assume I would not be lucky enough to get it and don’t think about it again. My husband calls me a pessimist. He might be on to something. This is one of those items that I did secretly hope was coming to me though I doubted it!

Ruth always adds the nicest details and I am a huge fan of details. There are beaded flowers and vines covering the cottage and a million little hand stitched shingles on the roof. And the front door opens to reveal this little girl and her chicks! How cute! It makes me smile because when I was a kid my job was to collect and wash the eggs and sell them to our neighbors.

Ruth gave two big hints on Flickr. The first one went right over my head and the second was the image above of a vine in the shape of an “A.” Had I seen this, I might have thought for a moment that the pincushion could be coming to me if not to one of the other millions of Amy’s also sewing and blogging and born in the 70s. But somehow I missed seeing this picture! So, it was a complete and total surprise and for that I am grateful. It is such a lovely gift that I know took a lot of time to make and I appreciate all of Ruth’s efforts. She also included 3 pretty hat pins in her package. What an enjoyable swap!