Hand-Made Christmas

I have been to three Christmas parties with friends since my last post!  Should have gone to another on Saturday, but it is getting down to crunch time to get my preparations ready for Christmas.

The "Christmas Craft Night" with my daughter-in-law's mother was a first for me, and a really fun idea.  Emily and her mom are awesome hostesses, and this party was no exception.

Maribeth had set up four stations with instructions, a finished product, and all supplies needed.  I felt just like I was back teaching elementary school and creating successful learning centers!

One of the most popular was the fabric garland.  We each got a strand of electric lights, and all we had to do was knot strips of fabric, burlap, trim, etc.  Mine is going to look perfect hanging over the kitchen window in the mountain cabin.

I also love my snowman ornament.  We used chopsticks to stuff some fiberfill into a clear glass ornament.  We twisted red and green pipe cleaners and glued on cotton pom-pons to make him some earmuffs.  A permanent felt-tip pen and some orange paint created the face.  How cute is that?

We also made some plain red pillar candles look much more glam for the holidays simply by applying double-stick tape and adding glitter.

There was another project to make gift bags out of lunch bags, but I have not decided what to put in it yet.  I have an assortment of ribbons, tulle, and gift tags punched from Christmas card stock.

Maribeth said all her project ideas came from Pinterest, and most of the supplies came from stuff she already had or the Dollar Store.

The next morning I drove back to Wake Forest for the annual Christmas brunch with my Whacky Ladies quilt bee.  We have a tradition of exchanging small gifts for everyone, and a larger gift for one person in a "Dirty Santa" game.  (Person number one chooses a wrapped gift and opens it; Person number 2 can steal it, or choose an unopened gift, etc.)  I managed to hang on to my beautiful little snowman quilt made by Marilyn.

Mary made Christmas trees from buttons and cinnamon sticks!

Lori added crystal beads to wooden Christmas ornaments.

Marilyn made the blue heart-shaped snowman ornaments.  Her embroidered felt ornaments represent a good percentage of my Christmas ornaments after twenty years or so of this Christmas exchange!

Donna Made machine-embroidered mug rugs in red and white.  I'm not sure if she somehow made these via a computerized pattern on her long arm.

I feel so lucky to have these enduring friendships and people to share my love of quilting and crafting.

Folded Fabric Ornaments

How are you all doing with your holiday preparations?  Here in Raleigh life is busy, busy, busy, with special lunches, dinners, parties, and outings with friends and family.  Over the Thanksgiving holidays I made some ornaments to exchange with my quilting friends at our holiday parties.

I saw the instructions for making these Folded Fabric Ornaments on You Tube.  The video is by someone with the unlikely name of Crouton Crackerjacks.

His turned out to be perfectly straight and even.  Mine were kind of lumpy and uneven.

Oh, well, I got them done in time for our latke party last Wednesday for the art quilt group (notice some in Hanukkah colors?)  And I think I have enough for my Whacky Ladies quilt bee brunch on Friday.

Someone decided to knock over our mailbox last week.  I came home from eating dinner at my son's home, reached to check the mail, and met empty air as the post and box were lying on the ground.  One of the nice things about renting is that you just call the landlord's agency and get it taken care of. Now our old dented mailbox has been replaced with a shiny new one.

December 3 was the five-year anniversary of adopting our sweet dog, Kasey.  We got her from a family who had gone through a divorce and changing situations.  They did not tell us that she had heart worms.  We got that taken care of.  Later she had to have surgery and physical rehabilitation for a torn cartilage in her knee.  Before she even recovered from that, she developed an abscess from a broken tooth, and had more surgery for that.  This little free dog has cost us thousands, but she is so sweet, and is a very good dog.  She does not leave the yard, is content to mostly sit at my feet all day, and has been such a good companion.

We kept our granddaughter, Charlie, last weekend.  What a joy!  She will be three in January.  She seems so grown!  It will be fun to watch her enjoy this Christmas.

My husband is continuing to recover his strength after all his cancer treatment and surgery.  In fact, he has been working every day for the past two weeks to try to finish up the financial year for his clients.  We hope to be able to spend a couple weeks at Christmas in the mountain cabin.  It is all decorated and ready for us!

Snowmen on Parade

What a difference a little paint makes!

After more sanding,  I finally got to start painting my little snow buddies.

Some of them still need a little touching up, and I might give them all a coat of clear acrylic varnish.

But I am glad to get this project almost finished!

Half-Baked Snowmen

I decided to try a new craft that I saw in a magazine.  I went to Michael's and bought air-dry clay, styrofoam balls, sturdy wire and even my very own pink wire cutters.  Then proceeded to make a huge mess as I tried to form snowman faces with the clay over the balls.

I have found out that I am not a sculptor!  Looks kind of like the Seven Dwarves, doesn't it!

It took forever for these to dry.  I wanted to paint them yesterday, but after sanding, I still had so many cracks that I had to make a paste with the clay and do some repairs.  See the spaces between the head and the hats?

We'll see how they turn out after drying and sanding a second time.  Stay tuned!

New Things

Today was the annual Christmas brunch for my local quilt bee, The Whacky Ladies.  We met at Brigs' Restaurant in Wake Forest.

Our custom is to exchange small gifts, often handmade, for each member.  This year I made a selection of quilted bookmarks and magnets.  Here are the needle-felted magnets, made of silk roving and Angelina fibers.

I also had a few made from one of the mini quilt sandwiches that I use to check thread tension on the longarm.  I added some beads and/or embroidery to these.  They look kind of Cinco de Mayo to me!  Wrong holiday, but they got snapped up pretty fast!

And there was one magnet from some of the Non-Traditional Patchwork from Rebekah Meier's book, Fabric Art Collage.

The bookmarks are quilted pieces from a piece of Setacolor painted/and or foiled  fabric.

We also exchange one big gift. This year I made a tote bag from a tote bag! 

I opened the sides of one of those gimme-bags from a school conference.  I added patchwork made from my own hand-painted fabric and commercial fabric.  These are painted with Shiva Iridescent Paint Sticks.

I added some fusible batting and the patchwork, and sewed the sides back up.  I added a lining in a light striped fabric.

My big gift from the exchange was a Yankee Candle Snowman candle holder, with cinnamon-scented candles. He is very happily at home in my Christmas Snowmen display! (Right in the middle, front row)

I came home with some wonderful little gifts.  Here is a change purse from Sharon with "Quilting Bee" fabric.

From Janice, our scrapbook queen, a beautifully decorated metal box of beautifully-wrapped candies.

Several lovely new ornaments:

And, a gift I've been enjoying while typing this post:

But, the best New Thing of all....

I finally decided I was ready to get another dog, especially after babysitting for my Grand-dog Roo  recently.  I've been looking online at all the local shelters. Finally, I found the one I wanted on Craigslist.  I went to get her yesterday.  We are already in love!

She is three years old, a Golden Retriever mix, but much smaller.  She only weighs about 35 pounds.  She came from a family with lots of children.  So far, she has been a perfect dog!

She loves our big yard and going for walks.  So far she has stayed downstairs, thus avoiding my longarm quilting room where she should not venture.  She loves to sleep at our feet, and will sit with her paw on my lap.

We are not sure what we will call her yet.  Stay tuned!  I am so happy to have a sweet doggy again! 

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!