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.

Sneak Peek

I just got back from my first Christmas function of the season. My bee gets together every year for a Christmas brunch. It used to be at someone's home, but we decided several years ago to go to a restaurant so no one has to have their house decorated and cleaned by the first Saturday in December. It was great- slow service made it perfect for our exchange of Christmas favors and our Christmas gift grab. No one grabbed anyone else's gift this year- aren't we polite? I love my gift, which is a Jim Shore Christmas angel ornament. Perfect! I have a collection of the Jim Shore Santas, and one snowman. These are beloved by quilters because he adorns his sculptures in patchwork clothing.This little lady is perfect- she has a dove on each hand.

DSH wants to decorate for Christmas today, which means we have to do something with the old triple dresser and mirror which is currently parked in front of the door to our storage cupboard. I am thinking Goodwill. He is thinking hauling it to our son's old bedroom on the third floor. I am thinking I want that room for a painting studio and won't have room for a triple dresser in there. He went shopping while I was at the brunch, so I have just a minute to update my blog.

I finished quilting one of my gift projects yesterday and am pretty happy with it. Can't reveal it yet, but here is a little peek at two of the leaves that embellish it. I cut the leaf shape from hand-dyed fabric that had Steam-a-Seam Lite on the back. Then I used my Tsukineko inks to bring out more color, stitched the leaf to the quilt with invisible thread, and then stitched over the veins when I was quilting. The stems are two colors of embroidery floss couched down with invisible thread. The girls in my bee liked it this morning!