Thursday, December 22, 2011

Little by Little


I only meet with one quilting group anymore - back in the day I think I belonged to three different very organized guilds. But this group is different - we meet in each other's homes once a month. At one time there were probably 14 of us, but the numbers have dwindled in recent years and now there are only five of us. At our last meeting we met at a restaurant for dinner and exchanged small gifts. I tried my had at using the metal letter stamps I've owned for years an never used. The name of our group is Little by Little cuz 15+ years ago when we started, our focus was on making miniature quilts. Anyway, I stamped our group name on flattened spoons from the thrift store and glued on a few embellishments, plus added a hanging ribbon.


I tucked each of them into a small woolen mitten that I bought at a local gift shop.



And then slid them into a little package that I stitched up on my sewing machine.


I think they will be a fun little addition to the sewing rooms of my friends!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Projects

Last week I met with the hooking group in Salt Lake City and we had a nice time - shared treats and goodies and enjoyed each others company.

Myra brought two of the five pillows that she has made as gifts for her daughters - I can't remember who the designer is - but she especially like the pattern because it wasn't 'just' for Christmas, but could be displayed all winter long.


Nancy showed us her finished rug and told us about some sticky stuff she puts under her rugs so they won't slip on the carpet - I'm going to try and look for some of this and use it for my rugs too.


She also showed us some ornaments that she hooked using a pattern in the most recent Rug Hooking Magazine. Just needs to get the back finished and they'll be ready to hang on the tree. She wanted to add some metallic touches, but instead found some irridescent beads that added a bit of sparkle to them. Cute!


And I actually started a new rug so I had a project to work on too! Scrappy - it'll be for my dining room table.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

What Was I Thinking?

All over blogland, talented people are sharing photos of their beautiful homes all decked out with Christmas finery - but not me! For some dumb reason, we decided to get new carpet about a week ago and the house is in terrible disaray. We're making a bit of progress at getting things put back together, but it's slow going since we're thinning collections and weeding out old clothes and other stuff - what a huge job! Anyway, I've had emails from a couple of concerned folks who were worried about me since I hadn't posted lately, so I'm sharing these disgraceful pictures to show you what I've been doing. Hope to be back to normal soon!