Mug Caddies for my Board Members

I made a dozen mug caddies for my Foothills Board Members and for several friends.  I made a handmade etui (needle case), and pin cushion to go in them, and several quilting items - and put some sweets in them too. Here's the one I made in a class and also a sample of the ones I made for the Board.

 

At the Christmas Party I was presented with some pretty "Baskets of Wishes" blocks in fall colors from members of the Foothills quilting group to thank me for my year as Chapter Chair.  I love them.  

BLOCK OF THE MONTH FOR 2017

In my Palo Verde Patchers Handwork Group this year we made a darling Redwork Basket quit.  I designed it, made a class sample, and sent a block out each month.  Here is the cute quilt.

This year we also covered the topic of coloring on fabric with crayons.  

Handmade Christmas Gifts for 2015

Seasons' Greetings.  I spent many happy hours making Christmas gifts for my quilting friends this year.  For some I made a crazy quilt style embroidery hoop picture and for some I made a little pin cushion using wool felt with fabric accents.  

 

What a wonderful time of year!  I feel so blessed to be able to spend time with friends and family.  Last week alone I attended 3 Christmas luncheons - good food, good friends, and a lot of good memories made. 

10 Minute Table Runner

Have you heard of the "10 Minute Table Runner"?  The description alone captured my interest so I decide to make one and see if it was really that fast.  I discoverd that the sewing time actually is 10 minutes - amazing (if you have everything cut out and ready to go first).  I decide to make these for Christmas gifts this year.  Here are the ones where I remembered to snap a picture.

Another Christmas Party

I belong to a neighborhood quilting group too.  We get together at each others homes and do handwork, chat, and enjoy each others company once a month.  The hostess for the month makes lunch for us, so we call ourselves the Lunch Bunch.  We had our Christmas Party this week at Louise's house.  It was such an enjoyable day.  But........I forgot to snap pictures at the party this year.  When I got home I did snap pictures of the gifts I received though.  Aren't they great! 

You can tell this group enjoys food, there are a number of food related gifts (home-made candy & chocolates, home-made carmel corn, home-made bread & fudge, etc.), plus some flavored honey, and also a wonderful cookbook.  Did you see the cute oven fingertip mits?  I can't wait to try the Best Press - I've been wanting some of that for my ironing. The cute calendar is a 2-year one for my purse - that will come in very handy.  And did you notice the item in the center back? It's a framed poem about our Lunch Bunch that one of the ladies made for us.  I've already tried most of the goodies - yum!  I don't think I'm going to have to do too much holiday baking this year since this is such a nice sampling to enjoy.

For lunch Louise made a delicious Raspberry Cheese Blintz Casserole for us.  It was great!  All in all, it was a very nice day, with good food, gifts from the heart, and especially wonderful and supportive friends.  What could be better!

Christmas Party

Our applique group had it's Christmas Party last week.  It was at my house this year.  I enjoyed every minute of getting ready for it - from decorating the house and trimming the tree, to getting the house cleaned and polished, to cooking my part of the meal.

I really enjoyed making holiday poppers for table favors.  I filled them with various chocolates and a rolled up paper with guessing game clues written on it.  Each one had clues to an old time movie and then a question that related to the movie on the bottom where the person could tell about some personal memories - such as a memory of their favorite Christmas, for the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life".  The ladies enjoyed the game so much they said they hope to make it an annual thing.

The table turned out festive and nice.  Here's a shot of a few of the ladies around the table.

Of course there was plenty of good food.  Everyone brought a dish to share which always makes it more fun and interesting................and delicious. 

I made the main dish - Autumn Roasted Chicken & Sausages.  It's a Rachael Ray recipe, if you want to look it up on her site.  I included various vegetables that are good for roasting (peppers, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and asparagas).  The recipe calls for black grapes too - I couldn't believe how delicious grapes are when they're roasted.

Oh, and we had presents - wonderful presents.

These are gifts I will use and enjoy and these are friendships I treasure.  It's so nice to get together with ladies who enjoy applique as much as I do and to get to know each other better.  I don't think there's a one of them I couldn't call day or night if I needed help or just an ear to listen or a shoulder to lean on........or cry on.

I forgot to have someone snap a picture of me at the party so asked my husband to do that when he got home.  It was such a fun day and you can tell it made me happy from looking at my big grin.

Christmas Party

Our local quilting guild Christmas party was yesterday.  One of the things we did was to make pin cushions to exchange.  They were all so adorable.  I would have been happy to take any of them home.  Here are 3 picture of the table with the pin cushions - aren't they cute and all so unique and creative!

 

These are the two I made to give away.  This first one is an old fashioned sewing machine.  I tried beaded fringe for the first time and also hand made the decorative straight pins I put in it.  I don't remember when the idea for this one struck me, I may have seen a picture of something similar somewhere on the internet.

This second one that I gave for the exchange is a pear.  The pattern for it was on-line at:  UKlassinus.blogspot.com

I received 2 pin cushions in exchange.  One is a rooster and one is a cupcake.  I think they're just adorable.  Here is a picture of them along with the other goodies I got at the party.

In the bottom left are homemade chocolates that Laura made to give us plus some chocolates from Cerretas Candy Company that Patty got for us.  Then there's the gift certificate for a fat quarter and a wonderful quilting book.  We each got a different book - I just love the one I got.  The books were what was passed in a right and left game.  A story is read, in this case, one that Sandy wrote, and each time the word right or left comes up, you pass to your right or left.  You take home what you're holding when the story ends.  It was a cute story and so nice to have such a wonderful book.

Handmade Christmas Gifts for 2009

I've been making Christmas presents this year.  It's been so much fun.  Gifts made by hand are my favorite kind of gifts to give and to receive. 

For a close group of girlfriends I made this nail kit case:

This is the version I made for a few of the guys in my family:

This is how they look when they're opened:

The pattern was free on-line at http://www.dhbuscher.com/

For some of the gals in my family plus another group of close girlfriends, I made these bracelets:

 

One of my girlfriends, Kim, taught me how to made these adorable bracelets - she's so nice.  The pattern is called spiral rope.  I've also seen this pattern free on the internet if you'd like to search for it.

My neighbor, Chris, also generously gave me a lesson on how to make earrings.  I tried a few pair to give along with some of the beaded bracelets.

I've also been working on a tote bag crocheted from recycled plastic grocery bags.  It's kind of hard on the arm and hand muscles to crochet with the plastic stips so it's taken me quite awhile to finish.  Plus I decided to make mine fairly large so it's taken some endurance and lots of breaks to get it done.  Haven't decided for sure if I'll give it as a gift or keep it - it didn't turn out quite as cute as I'd imagined it would.  Here are a couple of pictures - one shot has a few grocery items in it to show the size scale.

It's kind of deep, isn't it.  Lots more groceries can fit into this handy bag.  My friend, Kim, showed me how to make this tote bag at a class she taught at our local quilting guild meeting.  She brought a couple of handouts of free instructions from the internet - one of them is Marlo's Crochet Corner.