Our quilt group met last Friday for our annual gift exchange extravaganza - it was over-the-top fun and the gifts this year were all exceptional! We loved being at Stephanie's home - her artistic talent was on display in every room. I so loved her special touches that made her home so cozy and inviting - from her giant pencil painting to her TV stand to her Christmas tree - it was all fabulous!
Speaking of fabulous, my good friends at CSN have offered up another lovely gift certificate for $65.00!! And it's good at ANY of their 200 stores! Just leave me a comment on this post telling me which "gift" pictured below you would have liked to have picked and you'll be entered to win! I'll pick a winner on Sunday December 26th, and on Monday the winner will be emailed their gift certificate for some great after Christmas shopping! Now let's get started!
As I mentioned, all of the gifts this year were great - like this framed hand-stitched felted wool Santa that Marsha brought and she also threw in that hilarious apron! Pictured at right is a work in progress by Stephanie - it will eventually be finished and framed (Stephanie is usually busy working on her gift AT the meeting...we've come to expect that from her and don't want it to EVER change!)
A little hard to see but those two little framed pictures were hand-stitched by Denise (you can click on them to see a larger pic) they are adorable! We had two bags as gifts this year - the red and black bag was made by Helen and she said it was about as much work as making an entire quilt! The black and white bag was made by a former member, Jan, who paid our group a visit a while back and brought this bag as a door prize - Ardith won the bag and saved it to use as her gift - it was nice to have Jan "represented" at our meeting!
Claudia PIECED together the garland of mini-stockings - which I had in my fat little hands for about 30 seconds before it was stolen! In the middle is one of Terry's masterpieces and pictured at right is a cross-stitch that was beautifully worked by Janet.
Lori embroidered the framed Love and Joy piece (which I happily came home with!) My gift is pictured in the middle...can't take credit for it though as it's a rip off from something I saw in Blog-land and I'd tell you who made the original but I can't remember where I saw it! It's a felted wool wall hanging and the candy-cane is the hanger. Dawn made the "Quilting Santa," it's cross-stitched and wonderful!
Before we sat down for our feast we had one more surprise...Lori must have been filled with the Christmas Spirit because she brought a door prize ...and Helen won!
Right now it's a top but when Helen gets it quilted and bound it just might give Lori second thoughts on giving it away! Pretty generous, huh?!
At our Christmas meeting we also awarded the most coveted award in all of Quilt-dom...The Golden Silver Thimble! This year, the priceless thimble went to Claudia for "her prolific quilting abilities, she doesn't just have a quilting machine, she IS a quilting machine! And for perseverance through life's many trials proving strength and beauty can be found in a very skinny package!"
Congratulations Claudia!
That's it - pretty amazing gifts from equally amazing women...now, tell me which one YOU would have wanted to take home and you'll be entered for the $65 gift card! Leave me a comment now! Contest ends Sunday, December 26th!
