Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends.
We hope that 2016 will bless you with wonderful memories.

Mdn Samm's ornament exchange (A day late)

Good Morning everyone.

Mdn Samm over at Sew We Stitch, organized an ornament exchange.

I was lucky enough to exchange with a couple of ladies.

Unfortunately, not everyone has a blog.

But I have to say, they must have checked out mine.

I received 3 ornaments that are birds!

This first picture shows two of the new birds I have received.

Can you believe all the knitting Sharon did of the 4 

ornaments.  Let me tell you that stocking is so tiny!

I love that Mouse, well I love them all.

Two of the birds are pictures here.
The top left ornament is a Hallmark ornament, that says
"Friends in Harmony".  It is funny, but we are!  We almost always are on the same
wave length.

My partner, was so kind and sent me this sweet table topper, which she hand quilted,
and this fun snowman pin. 

Here is a better picture of the second bird ornament.

Look at the lovely hand quilting.

Then this sweet bird showed up at my door.
I sent out 5 packages with ornaments, and received 3 back, not
a bad response.
As you know, I love making ornaments, and I love sharing.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my new ornaments.
I am so pleased, and excited to add them to my little tree.

Have a great rest of your week.

Mary 

Open house at A Touch of Amish in Barrington, Illinois

Saturday was get out of the house day!

A Touch of Amish, quilt shop, in Barrington was having an open house, to

show quick little gift ideas and projects.

It was originally scheduled in November, but that was the one weekend

we had snow. The roads were horrible, so they cancelled.

They have a neat schedule set up, so that you can get the opportunity to see 

all the demonstrations.

This one was for a cute Santa Mug Rug.  It was a kit all cut and ready to be sewn
packaged in an adorable snowman mug.
Naturally I had to get one of these!

Now about this sweet snowman ornament?
Just 1/2 inch wide wool strips rolled to create his body and hat.
Now I think I can do that with the abundance of wool I have.
Great for next year!

Then this snowman ornament!
I think there was a lot of snowman themed items!
Again, a fun little handwork project.

This was created using an Acucut die.
But can easily be done with any acrylic hexagon ruler
The whole inside is made using hexagons, cut in half and or cut in quarters,
to build him.

The demonstrator said this idea came from
Missouri Star.  They snowed how to use the hexagon ruler
to make pumpkins, with a little imagination, she made it into ornaments.

Again, this table runner is made using the Acucut die, but can easily be made
using a hexagon ruler.
There was instructions to make the individual tissue packages that
you can stick in your purse. Demonstrations and kits, for all the projects I showed, as
well as a cute mini table runner, a star ornament, snowflake ornament, gift tags, wool flowers,
holiday pillowcases, a wine bag, door hangers, and more.
It started at 10:30 and went until 3:00 with up to four demonstrations every 30 minutes.

I got a few new ideas of things to play with.
It is time I went into my sewing room and got busy.
I hope some of these ideas are things you may want to play with.
I know we are getting closer to Christmas, and may not have time,
but there is always January.  I find I will start working on this type of
projects after the new year.  You can never start too early, for next Christmas.

Hope you have a wonderful week.
Mary

Then and Now

Today our bee "Prairie Friends" had our annual Christmas Party,

at The Grumpy Goat in Elgin.

What a wonderful time we had.

Our lunch was delicious, but I have to say the company was was even better.

Marcia was our hostess. She made the reservations and planned our day.

Instead of exchanging Christmas gifts, we each were asked to bring

Scarves, gloves and hats to be donated to the women and children 

at the Community Crisis Center in Elgin.

This was a great idea, and we all donated.

When we can all get together, we like to get a group picture.

Marcia surprised us all with photos from the past.

This was all of us in 2010,

Here we are in 1989.

This is us in 1990
The quilt behind us was made by us for the St Joseph Hospital Maternity Unit in Elgin.

Here is a picture of our newest member and her adorable little girl.
We made the quilt they are sitting on.

Here we are today.
I think we are all looking pretty good considering the 26 years that have passed.
The hair styles have changed
a bit through the years.There have been some of our friends that have moved and no longer part of our monthly bee and
 we have gained new friends..  As Linda said today, we are our own family.  We have been there for each other. We have always kept our number at 10, with the thought that we could all fit in someones home easily.
Through the years we have gone to quilt conferences, we stay at a hotel one weekend a year to sew and enjoy each
others company.  We have made  charity quilts and even a couple of raffle quilts that we donated to
the one guild that most of us belong to. We have shared ideas and motivated each other.
We are like sisters, but with different Mother's.
Merry Christmas to all of us, along with a Wonderful New Year.

Mary

Out and about

We had a visitor in our backyard the other day.
I sure did not expect to see a red-tailed hawk sitting in the tree.
I happened to have the camera by me and took the picture through the window.

I have been practicing on my picture taking.
Think this one turned out pretty good.

On one of the rainy days we have had, this eagle was in a tree by the Fox River
He looks a tad wet.

After one of the rains.

On Sunday, there had been a lot of sandhill cranes flying over.
Thought I would take a drive and see if I might find some in a field.
Instead I found these two gorgeous birds.
I could not believe it when I saw them coming out of a small wooded area.

There was a house near by, so I stopped to see what they knew about them.
The gentleman said someone dropped them off about four years ago and he and his family have taken care of them.
They have free roam of their property and the woods near by.
In the winter he will put them in a barn.  He said they have just taken over.
I can't begin to tell you now many times I have been past this farm, and never saw them.
I thought maybe turkeys would be out, as there is a flock in the area.

In between the snow and rain I have been trying to get out and about.

Last night we got a bit more snow, but the overall temperature is still

in the 40's during the day.

Here is the last quilt that has gotten done for this year.
It was started in November of 2007 and was a "Buck a Block" at our local quilt store.
These were the colors and layout chosen by "Prairie Stitches:.

I had had all good intentions and had 6 of the inside blocks done, then it got
put away.  Last fall I decided it was time to finish it up.
After a couple of quilt retreats and Thursday sew days  I finally got the top done.
Quilting got done, then it sat a bit again until I sewed the binding on
Done!!

Feels pretty nice to have another of those pesky UFO's done.

On another day I wanted to try out another pattern I have been "saving".
I love containers, and these baskets are filling the bill.
I had a charm pack or two that coordinated with the fabric I used for the trims.
They went together pretty good.
I have to say one thing though, They always look bigger in the picture.

I used another coordinating fabric for the inside.


Sometime you just never know what you will find.
Beautiful things are all around.
Be open to them.
Enjoy.


Mary