Finishes! Parties! Snow! Finishes!

Yipee!  I finally finished all the stitching on my Christmas presents, and got them all mailed on Monday. 

4 mini quilts done!

5 mini quilts done!

Last Christmas I gave mini Santa quilts and quilt stands.  This year I made Valentines mini quilts for their stands.  I'm thinking of making Spring themed mini quilts for next year.  Most of these are  hand quilted, but, in order to get them finished, I did machine quilt 3 of them. 

I found these cute little snowmen at a craft fair earlier this month.  They are microwave popcorn, decorated like snowmen.  I gave some of these as gifts (with cash attached).  They are so cute!  The hats are made out of gloves.  These were sent to some college boys, so, I'm sure they can always use more gloves (and snacks).  If I could draw, I'd make some of these myself for next year. 

microwave popcorn snowmen

card on microwave popcorn snowmen

My oldest son and I mailed all our out of town packages on Monday.  Yipee!

On Monday afternoon, I finally started the gift for the Thursday sew-in exchange.  I won these fabrics (except the backing), from Sandi, over at A Legacy of Stitches.   These were fabrics from a table topper that she'd made (shown at the bottom of that post).  I took her idea (I didn't know the measurements) and made a few changes, and whipped this up. I made the top before we headed out to see The Hobbit (IMAX 3D). 

table topper that I made

backing of table topper

In order to get this finished (I finished it Tuesday night), I machine quilted it.  I stitched down the binding while the family watched a movie at home. 

On Thursday, my sew-in group had our Christmas party.  We all brought food to share. Some of the yummy foods included chicken and dumplings, beef bourguignon in puff pastry, shrimp, baked spaghetti, salad with strawberries, and, of course, desserts!  YUM!

the food table

my plate (first serving)

Thursday sew-in group

We also had a gift exchange.  We each had to make something ourselves for the gift exchange.  Here are what the ladies went home with.  Some of the pictures also show the maker, too.

Karen (maker) & Jan (receiver)

up close view of pockets

what I came home with.  Lovely!

Jinny with the kitty pillowcase she'd been admiring

Jinny also got a kitty scarf (she loves kitties)

Kay (maker) with Marilyn (receiver)

Jo (front) with her notebook cover full of goodies (maker Jinny in back)

Danette with her goodies from Jan (Danette made my snowman wall hanging)

Marilyn (maker) with Karen (receiver)

Kay with her applique gift, made by Jo

Mary went home with my table topper

 Mary has a blog, too.  She also posted about our party here.

Some of the ladies also made other gifts to share.  Here are some of the lovelies I came home with (I didn't picture the candy, sorry Danette).  The candy is HIDDEN from my guys!

card from Marilyn

hexie ornament from Karen

mini folding tree napkin, made into a lovely ornament, made by Mary

hot pad with towel by Kay

I also had more finishes this week.  Stupid me didn't get pictures of them before mailing them off on Monday.  I made three cupcake Birthday mini quilts.  One for my niece (Dec 29th birthday), and one for Chris, over at We Love Quilting!  Her birthday is Dec 25th!  (Happy almost Birthday, Chris!)  Chris shows hers at the blog post above. 

I made three of these, extra binding is shown on side (oops, I didn't get pictures of the completed quilts before mailing them out)

 I also had another party on Thursday.  Our Venturing Crew has the Christmas party at my house.  Fun!  More food, and fun teens and parents.

food in the kitchen

more food in the dining room

Thursday night, we were expected to get hit with the snowstorm that hit most of the rest of the midwest.  We hadn't had snow for 290 days, breaking all previous records for the area.  Our expected 2-6 inches turned out to only be a trace of snow, but, that's ok.  More is expected for Christmas Eve.

not much snow

On Friday, I finally got a chance to wrap the presents for under the tree, here.  Now our tree doesn't look bare, like it had looked.  The poor tree really needed some presents under it. 

Sorry if I haven't commented on your blogs.  I'm a week behind on my blog reading, and hope to get caught up in the next few days.  It's been a very busy week.  I only mentioned part of what I did.  I'll be headed to the vet later this morning.  I think my little dog blew out her knee.  She did it Thursday afternoon, but, was much better on Friday, but, in the wee hours this morning, she let me know it was really painful.  Hopefully it is just out of joint, and can be helped quickly and easily. 

Merry Christmas!