Christmas Craft Night

A new annual tradition...Christmas Craft Night at my daughter-in-law's mother's house.  Maribeth and Emily set up stations with instructions and supplies for several fun projects.  One was to make a Christmas Count-Down plate.  Maribeth pre-painted the plate centers with blackboard paint.  Then we used paint pens, added pretty ribbon, and chalk attached to string.

Another cute project were the candy cane place card holders or labels for items in a buffet.

My personal favorite was the pine cone owl.  We used glue guns to attach eyes, beak, face and wings.

There were also pillar candles in glass containers to decorate with burlap, ribbon, snowflakes, etc.

And finally, the popular fabric garlands of lights made a second appearance.  All you do is tie strips of fabric around the strand of white mini-lights.  They look so pretty!

Maribeth and Emily searched Pinterest to get ideas for the projects.  With wine and hors d'oevres and good friends, it was a very happy and festive night!

Christmas Surprises

It's Christmas week for two of my quilting groups.  Yesterday the Anything Art group met at Ruth-Ellen's for our annual holiday lunch to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah.  We all helped make the potato latkes, and Ruth-Ellen made the kugel.  

In honor of the season, I made some little ornaments for the ladies to select.

Some are made from a piece of needle-felted batik enriched with silk roving and other fibers.  The shiny one on the left is made with Textiva film and bits of ribbons and threads that I fused to a piece of Timtex with Misty Fuse.

Here it is, upside down...thanks, Blogger!

I made quite a few of these but they were snapped up yesterday at the art quilt bee meeting!  Each one has a little bead, mostly ones that I made from Shrinky-Dinks painted with Lumiere paint.

I received a very nice quilted, beaded fabric bowl from Toni yesterday.  She cut up a quilt, tucked in the sides, and voila!

Roberta made us each a fabric-covered notebook covered in cheery Ultra-Suede.

Sideways this time!  What's going on?

Tomorrow it will be Christmas brunch in Wake Forest with my Whacky Ladies bee.  I don't get to participate in all their meetings anymore due to the distance involved in driving at night, and also because we often leave for the mountain cabin on Thursday nights.  But I am looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow!

Christmas Ornaments from Here and There

Every year, when I get out boxes of Christmas ornaments and decorations, I remember not only Christmases past, but places we have visited. Many years ago, I started looking for Christmas ornaments when we traveled out of town. This was not always easy, since school teacher vacations were mostly during the summer months. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the ornaments which bring back fond memories of our trips.

Way back in the 1970's, Charlie played trombone in The Little German Band. (It's not little...there were over forty members!) They performed on weekends at Oktoberfests, and often at the N.C. State University Faculty Club. In the summer of 1976, they arranged a tour of Germany and Austria, and we both worked two jobs to save up extra money for the trip. (I worked eight hours a day for the state Disability Determination Section, and at night as a waitress at an Italian restaurant!) That was our last trip to Europe. We found it very romantic...I came home with a little stow-away on board! We named him Bryson, but the German Band members called him Little "Helmut." Anyway, even though the trip was in July, I bought some wax Christmas ornaments. Two have melted after being stored in the attic, but I still love these two survivors. I guess they are made from molds, and then hand-painted.

It is hard to take photographs of ornaments on the tree...they tend to jiggle around!

When Bryson was about six months old, we went to visit college friends who lived near Charleston, S.C. They now live only about thirty minutes away from our mountain cabin, so we see them much more often. I remember Vicky and I pushing our babies in strollers along the waterfront and through the markets in Charleston. This is one of the ornaments I remember purchasing there... a little toy horse for my little boy.

When I get a new Christmas ornament, I try to remember to write the year on the back with a white or gold pen. I am so glad that I have done that, now that we have been married for 38 years. It is getting harder to remember things!

Fast forward quite a few years...I must not have traveled much once we had two babies and very little money for quite a long time! Most of our ornaments from those wonderful years were the children's school projects made from jar lids and dried pasta! I treasure them, too, although I have bequeathed most of them to the boys for their own Christmas trees. Charlie eventually changed careers from being a university business office employee on a fixed salary, to becoming a successful financial advisor. I accompanied him on many nice business trips across the country. One of my favorite destinations was San Francisco...

and each time we went there, we visited Muir Woods to see the redwoods.

And I found this jolly California Santa in a gift shop in Sausalito, where we stopped on the way back from Muir Woods and the wine country.

We have also been to Boston twice. The first time, it was the 200th anniversary of the U.S.S. Constitution, a ship nicknamed "Old Ironsides." The spouses were treated to one of those bus tours where you can get on and off to visit places sites of interest, and I very much enjoyed seeing this old battle ship that was named by our first president, George Washington.

When Charlie first became a stock broker, he trained in New York City for three weeks, his first trip to the Big Apple. The boys and I could not afford to visit him then! I actually was born and lived in the New York vicinity for my first fifteen years, but had not been back to visit since 1966. I finally got to revisit my "home town" a few times within the last ten or twelve years.

One place I had never been was New Orleans, Louisiana. July is not the best month to be in the Deep South...but I found this jolly Santa, possibly mixing up some beignets, who adorns my pantry door. Does he look a little like Paul Prudhomme? I think so!

But our best trip EVER, which was a reward for a wonderful sales year, back in the LAST wonderful sales year, was in June of 2001, when we had an all-expenses-paid trip to the Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas. The Atlantis is such a huge resort that you could probably spend a week there and not see everything. They have plentiful gift shops there, if you feel like dropping $99 on a piece of Lalique crystal about an inch square. While Charlie was attending the obligatory business meetings, I decided to visit the craft center across the street, where locals sold their hand-made items, and they actually expect some haggling. I spent less than five bucks, and came home with two authentic island ornaments. The first is this smiling island lady...can you see the hand stitches on her shoulder seam?

And this jolly island Santa, complete with straw hat, who has the fluffiest cotton beard in the world!


I hope you have enjoyed reminiscing with me! Now it is off to finish the giant customer quilt that I have been "wrassling" with on the Gammill!

Christmas Brunch

Today was the first of the Christmas get-togethers of the season for me. My local bee, The Whacky Ladies, met for our annual Christmas brunch at Brig's Restaurant in Wake Forest. We have so much fun at these parties, although this year we were sorry to miss two members who both underwent surgery this week. One of the things we do is a gift exchange. Most of the time we have a "gift grab,", where you choose an unopened gift in order of drawn numbers, and open it. Then the others can choose your gift instead of an unopened gift. This year, we did something different. Carolyn read a story about the Wright family. You had to pass your gift to the right or left every time you heard those words in the story. This was fun, kept us laughing, and no one had their gift "stolen."

I got a much-needed desktop needle threader and some lovely red fabric.

The inchie on the left, is actually a "twinchie", or two-inch little art square that I made everyone for favors. More about those next time.

Donna made our brunch more festive by bringing everyone a Christmas tapestry place mat to use right there at the restaurant. Mine will go well with all my snowmen!

Mary makes lots of gift items, and made us each a rose brooch. This pic is a little out of focus.

Marilyn made an assortment of embroidered mittens. She does beautiful handwork!

Janice made adorable errand lists in a padfolio-type of notebook.

After the breakfast, at least four of us headed to our LQS, Quilts Like Crazy!, for their 30% off sale today. I purchased some fabric that is very different than anything else I have, with the thought in mind of making a tote or perhaps a little girl dress. Look how Janice's memo pad matches the fabrics. Do you think she influenced my color choices?
The print fabric with the birds and dots is by designer Tina Givens, who lives right here in little old Wake Forest, N.C. It also has some fairies on it.

For my final bit of quilty news, here is the Jim Shore nativity set I treated myself to yesterday. Jim Shore's work usually has quilt designs used in the clothing of his characters. I have quite a few of the Santas and angels, and one Snowman. I have been wanting the nativity for a long time. This is the smaller one from this year's designs.

Decorations

I finished my holiday decorating yesterday...do you hate me? Charlie got the outside done last weekend, we got the tree decorated while the kids were here...but that left all the Christmas quilts and knick-knacks to make decisions about.

This Santa is floating on a papier-mâché moon from the chandelier in our kitchen dining area. Behind him is a Norfolk Island pine, one of many that has grown from an 8-inch pot to excessive heights from all the light entering the kitchen from windows on three sides. I add little ornaments to its drooping branches.

I like to group similar ornaments. Here are some snow people in my dining room. Oops, I meant to repaint those walls since my touch-up paint does not exactly match! Oh, well!

We have a very small dining room with a round lazy-Susan table that Charlie's father commissioned for his family from a mountain woodworker. Many meals were enjoyed here with his large family. We don't sit in there very often, partly because those ladder-back chairs are not very comfortable. But I like the look of the old wood. These angels are riding around on the lazy Susan...

while other angels are flying above them and shining in the light.

When I was little, my mother made a felt Christmas tree wall hanging from three shades of green felt trimmed with rickrack. She sewed toys and trinkets to it. I loved this as a child, but it was looking very sad a few years ago when we moved my father from his big house to a retirement community. The felt fabrics had all faded to a sort of khaki brown. Then, I found this triangle-shaped patchwork tree at the Ashe County quilt show, and used the decorations from my mother's tree to "trim" it. Now my grandchildren love to look at it. I hang it low on the wall in our entrance foyer.

Merry Christmas!

At our house, we are ready for Santa to fill the stockings...

Those are not real kitty-cats, but they seem content to bask in the glow of the gas logs!

And we have lots of surprises under the tree for tomorrow morning. One of them looks like just the right size package to be my needle-felting embellishment machine...do you think I have been good enough all year?

Wishing those of you in the cold, snowy areas a safe and warm Christmas and holiday. It was cold enough here a couple days ago to freeze up the fountain in our little garden pond, but it is warming up today. I have been outside in just a light long-sleeve shirt. And it looks like we are dreaming of a wet Christmas.

But, I wish everyone a time of peace, joy, and love. And may you carve out a little time for yourself to sew, quilt, knit, draw, read, or do whatever makes your heart sing.

My Little Angels are Coming to Town

Tomorrow is the day we have been waiting for...my children and grandchildren will all be here!

I can't wait for Avery and Lily to see the house decorated for Christmas. The snowmen are waiting for them...

Santa might be hanging around in the kitchen... and dining room...
I like to put a child-friendly nativity scene down low where they can touch it and move the figures around. They are just plastic, for that very purpose. This is the first year I have had the china cabinet we bought in the mountains.

Did you enjoy the huge full moon last week? Here you can see it low in the sky to the left of our house.

We can ride around and see the neighbors' Christmas lights...

And then on Saturday, forty-two of our relatives will be joining us for dinner!

This will probably be my last post until Monday. I think I might be a little busy for the next few days!

But, please check out Selvage Blog today. I got a nice nod from Karen, who provided the instructions for the Great Big Tote Bag. Thanks, Karen!

Here are a few pictures of our weekend efforts to decorate our house for Christmas. (Yes, I found the little adaptor that lets me stick the memory card into the laptop.)

Yesterday, a cold front came through and brought very blustery winds, and all of the deer were laying on their sides when DSH got home. Oops, he had forgotten to nail down the anchors. They are now back upright doing the perpetual graze-thing on the same spot of lawn.

We are hosting a Christmas gathering for my family, the Turners, on December 15. It will include four of my five brothers, my sister, my father, two aunts, a cousin from Alaska, and all the assorted spouses, children, grandchildren, girlfriends, boyfriends, and this year even a foster child. I am thinking maybe fifty people? So, we try to make the place as festive as possible. We have been doing this every year for about the last eleven or twelve years, I think. We have a huge yard and an open floor plan that sort of accommodates the crowd. It's a lot of work, but we look forward to seeing everyone! And we always miss the missing brother and his family who live in southern Florida. They always make the trip for family weddings, and sometimes come to the North Carolina mountains for the summer, but we sure miss them .