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 Brunch

It is only December 6, and I have already attended two Christmas parties! Last night was my husband's company dinner at North Ridge Country Club in Raleigh. Very nice with great food, a DJ and a large dance floor in the ballroom.

This morning my bee, The Whacky Ladies, got together for our annual Christmas brunch. We went to a restaurant in Wake Forest named Brig's, and had a large table in the party room. They let us linger as long as we wanted. It is always fun when we start showing the quilts, and all the waitresses and other customers start oohing and aahing.

So, I have given away one of my secret projects I have been working on this week. We have one of those gift exchanges where you pick a number, and then either select a wrapped gift or "steal" someone else's unwrapped gift. Lots of fun! Mary ended up with my quilted totebag.

I used the basic instructions from Great Big Tote Bag posted on Selvage Blog. But, I just made up some patchwork instead of using selvages. And on this one, I did not bind the whole quilt before folding in half. I finished the edges with zigzag and stitched the sides on my sewing machine, and added a binding just to the top and to the handles. This is how it looks inside.

You can see the quilting on the inside. I attached the bottom with velcro to the bottom of the bag. It is two pieces of Timtex covered with batting and fabric. This gives the bag a little bit of support.

I actually made two of these at the same time, but with slightly different patchwork and a different finishing technique. I will post pics of the other one in the near future after it finds a new home.

Here is a great double-nine-patch Christmas quilt that Paulette brought to the brunch for show-and-tell. What a great idea to use border prints on the backing!

Here is a lovely little purse made by Mary that I received in the gift swap, along with a silvery bookmark from Carolyn and an adorable snowman made by Marilyn.

DH has declared this as the day to finish decorating the house for Christmas. He is stringing lights outside, so I better get busy and bring down the rest of the Christmas stuff. We hope to get the tree up today too.