Girlfriends and Quilts

Girlfriends:
It's that time of year when my girlfriends get together for our annual Christmas dinner. This year is was the "Original 7" who attending the dinner. I didn't take many pictures, however, this one is great.

We ate lots of appy's, had cocktails galore, and then had yummy seafood lasagna and ceasar salad for dinner. After the gift exchange this was served.

I'm all about the desserts, my hips can confirm this. But the expression "Life's too short, eat dessert first" really does apply to this delight. It's a Snowball Cake and the recipe is here.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm

Quilts:
Here are a few more pictures of my holiday decorating. I made three of these little cross stitch pull bells back in the mid 90's. I found a little stitch shop in Spokane WA while on one of my many business road trips.(I'm glad I didn't know about quilting back then). Stitch shops were hard to find, we didn't have one in the city I lived in, so it was a big deal to find this one. I saw this little kit, all the materials were not available so I asked the owner to order the supplies and said "Mail me enough to make 3" I didn't ask how much any of the parts were for this project, neglected to consider the exchange rate from CAN to U.S. at the time and when the little envelop arrived, it came with a very big bill. But it was worth every penny. I love this banner, I put it out every year. My dad is on his own now and it's one of the decorations I will take out and put up when I arrive at his winter house in AZ. It's small, but packs a great decorating punch.

Here is a close up of the Santa's. Each Santa measures 1" x 1 1/2" Their beards have hundreds of seed beads stitched and looped and hat's off to the designer. How creative!

This table runner is made from my most favorite Christmas fabric collection. Holidays in Paris by In the Beginning. Don't bother looking for it, it's sold out all over the world! If you have any in your stash, lucky you. I have a few pieces in various shapes, just waiting for some other project. I miss cut a piece for this project and when I called the shop I purchased it as, she laughed! I guess it flew out the door. I ended up ordering online from a shop in MD and told them to pack as much of this collection into the flat rate envelop. Silly me, I should have told them to use a box!

Notice the great border, this is letting the fabric do all the work for you.

Finally, my large snowflakes. My mom crocheted these for all of her family. In the last few years of her life, she was very sore. Arthritis and hip issues, and to keep herself busy while resting in her chair, she tackled a book that had 100 different snowflake patterns. Some are 2" in diameter up to this size. I put the small ones on my tree every year and hang the three big ones in a place where I will see them every day. It's all about the memories!

So pull out your own memories, share them with your fellow blogger and enjoy all the season has to offer. And find a few minutes in all the hustle and bustle to sit and sew, it's good for the soul!
Sharon