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.