A Couple of Days After Christmas

I am so grateful for this time of year and for the things that we celebrate. Without getting caught up in all of the commercialization, I decided to give handmade gifts for Christmas this year. I was involved in a few swaps and had a very fun time with those. I think that I have been very good to wait to open my SSCS gift, until the big day.

On Christmas Eve, I worked from 1500-0500 Christmas morning...a long shift to be sure. Went home to get a very few hours of shut eye and then............................... it was time for................ the grand opening...................but wait............before that.....my SSCS elf was none other than Chookyblue herslef. It seems that my original elf had to pull out of the swap and being the perfect swap hostess, CB took me under her wing;) Something we all need to think about before hosting a swap...what will you do if someone who joins your swap is unable to make it to the finish line???

OK....now for the unveiling...... This is what my SSCS gift looked like all nice and neatly wrapped up when it arrived.....................

..............and inside I found..............

...............by now I was pretty excited because I had waited about 3 weeks to open my gift.............

The Violet Crumble, I had never heard of before....but for the record........it's gone.

Needless to say it was yummy. One of those things that you just can't get enough of.............When all of the wrapping paper was removed .... look what I saw..........

.....a lovely little mini quilt, a kitchen towel, a charm square pack and my yummy Violet Crumble;p

My mini quilt

...............a cute little kitchen towel.............

........sorry about it being sideways............

and my charm pack, and of course, the oh so quickly disappearing VIOLET CRUMBLE . . yum;p

Thanks so very much Chookyblue, for all of the goodies that you sent. They are very much appreciated!

And thanks so very much for offering the SSCS to all of us;)

I played SSCS elf to Kris in Australia. I peeked in on her blog several times to try to find out just what I might make for her. I had never seen Kris' blog, Tagalongteddies (you know the rest), before so I read several of her posts just to get some ideas...Well I found out that she liked teddy bears......hummmm.....imagine that........ I wounder how she came up with the name for her blog. I also found out that she has a wonderful sense of humor, and feel like we would have a blast hanging out together.

Anyway, this is what I used to make her gift.......

...some PINK leopard fur........

...............shinny black eyes...

.....a BLACK VELVET nose............

pink button belly button

before the final stuffing and embellishments.....

.........and after the final stuffing and embellishments.........

...... soaking up the last rays of sun before the snow gets here.....

Again, sorry for the sideways pictures.

I hope that you all have a healthy and Happy New Year filled with lots of love and creativity;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

to you all!!!

Merry Christmas to All

Merry Christmas to all of my new Bloggie Friends. I hope that your Christmas is a very happy and safe one. Thanks for so much inspiration and for your wonderful comments. I look forward to spending much time with you all in 2K9.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

PIF

Just a short post to let you know that I am participating in the PIF Program and here are the rules...
I promise to hand make three of you a little gift that I think you will like and have it to you within the next six months. In return each of the three of you will promise to do the same to three others. Easy peasy...so please let me know if your are interested by leaving me a comment. I will be taking the first three that specifically mention that they would like to participate in the PIF Program;)

Happy Holidays To ALL

Where Does the Time Go???

I can't believe that it's been weeks since I've had the time to do some blogging. With all of the hussel and bussel of the season and all of the added things to try to get done time has just flown by. I have a lot of catching up to do---so let's get to it.

I've been involved in several swaps and am receiving some really fun goodies in the mailbox Isn't it the most fun to open the mailbox to find goodies from some other part of the country or even the world. I love the thought that there are people all over the world with whom I can share the things that I love to do and that make me happy. I love checking in on all of your blogs and seeing all of the lovely holiday goodies that you are making and receiving.

I'm not even going to try to do these in the order done or received...

This is what I came home to on Friday...

With the ever present warning...

Can I just tell you...this is killing me...good thing I'll be going to Arizona later this week so the temptation to ignore the warning and open this package will wane, even if just a little. That is if I can make it to Thrusday.

Here's just a little hint of what I made for my SSCS partner...

Sorry about it being sideways--thought I fixed that. These are some of the other things I used to make ............





...I took some of this...


















...and a few of these...

...and one of these...

...and a whole lot of this...

I have more pictures but they will have to wait until I hear that it has arrived at it's new home far, far away from here;)

Another swap was ALQS. Has anyone ever quilted with metallic thread??? That was the challenge that I took on. I don't recommend it. The pictures that I have don't hardly show the quilting or the large seed beads that I added for bling, but I had fun making this little gem...

You can see a little of the metallic thread along the back of the snowman on the left and if you look really hard you can see some of the seed beads.

As hard as it is to see the details in this little quilt when the light hits it the look is just what I was going for. I hope that ____ in____ likes it.

One of the RT's that I work with raises alpaca. This yarn is from some of the animals that she owns. I can hardly wait to start knitting with it, but that probably won't be until after the first of the year. I would also like to try some dying...

A week or so ago I came home to this...

...all the way from Teresa in Whales...
There are 4 little maple leaf buttons that are just adorable and the colors are very just beautiful;)

She also sent along these yummy little goodies ...

...and as you can see ... there aren't many left;p

Thanks sooooooo much Teresa the little quilt is just as cute as it can be and the candy has been enjoyed, as you can tell.

I made these today...They'll be heading off to their new home in a few days...along with some other holiday goodies...

When I was a little girl one of my great-aunts gave my brothers and me a very special Christmas Pillow Case. I remember hardly being able to wait for December to put my Christmas Pillow Case on my pillow. I left it on clear through January because I wanted a special pillow case for my birthday and that was the only one I had.

Well, this has turned out to be longer than I had planned and I still have more...I will be heading off to Arizona on Thursday to visit my oldest son and his family. We have an annual ornament swap each December that my dil's mother organizes. It's fun to get together for a night of girl stuff, yummy food, and ornament swapping.

I hope that you all are enjoying this holiday season. Until next time...

Enjoy

I Love to go Thrifting

My dil and I went thrifting today. I love to make something new out of something old. I spent less than $20 total and this is what I got...

I'm not sure just what I'll do with this piece yet, probably dissect it into a lot of small projects. I love the little mittens along the bottom border...it's 4 times this size and cost $1.

There are 3 place mats for $.75, 3 hoops for $.75, some RED crochet thread that will not be used for crocheting for $.50, the little doll was $1.19, but she only cost me $.25, and 3 pieces of woven cloth each about the size of a fat quarter +/- that cost another $.50.

The light fabric here is 3 yards of knit, good for t-shirts or jammies (the colors are a little washed out in the picture) for some little girls I know. The next fabric is also a knit and there's about 2 yards there. It's pretty stiff so I'll have to wash it before I decide weather it's soft enough for jammies. If not, then it's t-shirts for this piece. The next piece is one yard of flannel. No plans for that one yet and then a one yard piece of baby gingham in pink (I can think of a zillion projects for this piece). Who knows what I'll do with the little burlap bag, but for $.50 I just had to get it.

A variety of patterns for just $.25 each

This is a "book" of fabric samples for only $4. Each piece is 10" x 5" and there are 62 pieces in every color, texture, and pattern you can imagine. I know that there's lots of potential here...so if you have any suggestions, I'd love for you to share them with me;)

All of my Christmas Cottage Blocks for the swap over at Freda's Hive are done now and ready to go to their new homes. I have had so much fun making them.

I may have shown some of these before, but they're just so darn cute. This will be a fun quilt to put together, especially because each block is made by somebody different;)

I hope that you all have a great week;)

Enjoy;)

Eye Candy

Went to quilt guild meeting on Wednesday. We usually have some sort of class before our meeting. This month it was on Sewing Room Organization. Many great ideas were shared there as well as where to buy some of the organizational items. We also learned a few quilting techniques. Good time;) Our meeting started a little after 1300. After all of the business was done we had our "sharing" time. I love this part of our meetings. We get to see what other guild members have been working on. After sharing we had several different members showing different applique techniques. Each presentation lasted about 20 minutes and we all got to choose 3 to go to. I only got to go to two because I had to leave early and go to work. All I can say is fun fun fun.

Here's the Eye Candy

Quilts from Guild Members

3 D Applique

This was one of the applique techniques

we could watch being demonstrated.

Is this lady talented, or what???

I am just in awe of people that can do applique work well...like here.


And now for you Dear Jane fans.........these are some of my favorites...........and remember, the finished size of these blocks is just four and a half inches........

I love this Bear's Paw..........and remember...

Only 4.5"

I have more Eye Candy, but will save it for another time.

I have tomorrow off and hope to get some sewing done. I hope you all are having a great weekend.

Enjoy;)

Angels in Blogland;)

A while back I joined a miniature quilt swap.....made my quilt, sent it off and then waited and waited and waited. To this date I haven't heard if the person I sent my quilt to has ever rec'd it, but then I haven't heard that she didn't either...I never rec'd a quilt either (boo hoo), but our gracious hostess "angeled" me out. Well, today when I got home from work guess what I found in my mail box.........go ahead, guess................................I was so excited that I ripped, yes ripped into the package that I found there...................and this is what I found..................

This lovely mini quilt full of sunshine.

I know that it will make me smile whenever I look at it, especially during the snowy winter days that are on the way.

My Angel is a lovely person by the name of Anjea from Austin.

I love the nice warm colors, never thought of black as a warm color, but I can't imagine this little beauty without it.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

ANJEA!!!

You truly are an ANGEL!

ENJOY;)

Woke up this morning to snow on the ground...talked to my daughter in MN and she said that in was in the mid 70's and my daughter in CA is enjoying 80+ degrees, but she went to AZ this weekend to visit my oldest son and his family...where they're having 100 degree days...still.

Got this idea from AJ (crazy mom quilts)...

someday I'll figure out how to do that little link thing...

Matching dish cloth and dish towel

...I hope the person getting these likes them...

Rec'd these "Vintage Sheets" from a swap that I did. Most of them will be going into an hour glass quilt that I'm working on...got that idea from AJ, too.

I hope that you all have a great week and don't forget the Christmas Cottage Open House tomorrow.

Enjoy