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Media: Within a Quarter Inch & Quilt Dash (entry 51)

One more entry for today, I seem to be on a roll and I almost feel like I miss my blogging world lately, it must be the Christmas spirit in me that makes me feel like I need to connect more, does this happen to you also?

I decided to sponsor two sites: Within a Quarter Inch and Quilt Dash.

 

Some of you may recognize Within a Quarter Inch as I’ve talked about Alison Rosen before and how much I love her podcast. Just just like the rest of us, trying to squeeze one more precious minute out of the day with something creative. She’s a mother of twins and she loves to quilt, talk about her latest purchase and all sorts of crafty things. I’m not sure how she finds the time and the budget for what she produces…but good on her and we love her for it. I’ve sponsored some episodes of her show and she is having a quilt contest for people to be entered IF they leave a comment on my site here.

So thanks Alison for donating a prize and for doing such a great job on my sponsorship commercials 🙂

I’m also sponsoring a site called Quilt Dash. This is a site where you can register for the “dash” which means they give you a list of the online stores you need to visit (aka dash to) and find the “clue” and then click on it and you get points and entered into a draw…I gave an excellent prize of the 5″ Elena Scissors which is such a nice addition to your quilting supply of scissors..it’s been very interesting watching the traffic come through my site!!

Thanks to all of you for your support, it’s so appreciated and I love hearing from you…

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Winner, Gift Exchange and Christmas (entry 50)

Entry 50 already, WOW where does the time go *smile*

Hi all, well today I have a winner to announce, Vivian from Northern Needles Blog entered her favourite Christmas story for my Quilters Connection Magazine Post, here’s what she entered:

For some odd reason I cannot remember any memorable childhood Christmases. How crazy is that? I must be blocking or maybe I just can’t think tonight LOL. Surely I would have remembered if something terrible happened.

I do have a Christmas story, however it takes place when I was all grown up. I hope you don’t mind but I want to share anyway!

We live quite a distance from our whole family, definitely not a short jaunt. It was my daughter’s first Christmas. As I’m the oldest, she was the first baby in the family, so it was quite an exciting time for everyone. Everyone wanted to be together, to hold her, to be there when she opened her first gifts (she was 11 months at the time) and just enjoy her since our visits were rare due to distance, etc. So we took some extra time and went home for a couple of weeks. Days of visiting and nights of card games and board games, lots of pop and junk food and dainties and fun.

Christmas Eve morning came and something was definitely wrong. I figured it was just the travel, the food, the excitement. Until I sniffed some meat. There was only one other time that meat did not appeal to me. I put 2 and 2 together and made a mad dash to the nearest town with a drugstore. I was on pins and needles all night, just waiting for the morning.

Christmas morning came and with it came the results. Before the mad rush of present opening, I got to make my announcement to the entire family. Little Lisa was on her way!

It was a wonderful day of celebration, although there was no way I could have any of the turkey.

That was my best Christmas. I had my little girl and a new one coming soon.

Thanks Vivian for your story, I know quite a few women who would agree with you :). Please send me your mailing address so I can get the copy of the magazine out to you, Thanks for following my blog & Merry Christmas.

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Since no one is posting their quilting bit of goodness right now as we have all of these secrets we are keeping from our family and friends…I thought I would have a scrappy non-quilt related post.

Cookie Exchange with my MIL, SIL and my Sister it was sure fun and we made some awesome cookies
These were mine, whipped shortbread with cinnamon chips in them, so delicious.
My MIL, thumbprint cookies and they were my favourite. I actually had to make a deal with DH so he would save these for me *smile*. She scrap-booked her recipe card – so cute!
These were my Sisters, Ginger Cookies, scrumptious!!
These were my SIL’s they are lemon, cranberry shortbread. 
We were kind of joking about having to make 4 dozen cookies amoungst all of the other Christmas stuff going on…but it worked out and it was such a nice down home visit with the ladies – thanks Colleen for making it happen.
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Here’s my MIL’s Christmas card for this year. Every year she water colour paints her card then gets it printed onto photo paper…this year was probably her best yet, but then again I really liked the Christmas decorations she painted one year…
For me, this little bird is all puffed out trying to stay warm yet enjoying the stillness of the day with the freshly dusted tree branches and the brisk air, how re-freshing she would say…Love it!
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Last but not least, I thought I would share a picture of Tig. Since we rescued her from the pound 8.5 years ago she has never really enjoyed winter and is always cold during this time of year but hey who isn’t :). In the winter months, she can be found either a) under the tree or b) on a heat register…it’s really quite cute:
{not one piece of the register vent is exposed, she has it covered LOL)

I have one gift left to make for our “homemade” Christmas and it’s for Jeff’s Nannie (mom’s mom), if anyone has any ideas please send them my way as I’m kind of struggling here…thanks so much.
Until next time, have a happy creative day…
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Flying Needles Quilt Guild (entry 10)

Hi Ladies, I absolutely loved our Christmas exchange this year with Flying Needles Quilt Guild. This Guild is fairly new in age but has such a vested nature in one another and respect for each other that it is a real pleasure to belong to. Since I am one of the founding members, I can truly say how much I love being part of this group. All of the ladies are warm and friendly and open with offering support and praise upon each other. I am related to two of the members in this group Karen R and Colleen M through marriage but I feel a kinship and sister-ship with so many of you.

Here’s some photos of our amazing gift exchange bags and WOW did this ever turn out to be a hit!!

{All of the bags…amazing}

{I think this one is Carol L’s…I love yo-yo’s!}

{Center: Anna with her custom drawn and painted fabric…beautiful, bottom right: Colleen M: with her cute Rice Bag Foot Warmer which I believe Anna B received…hmm was it meant to be?}

{This is the one I received from Riska & I love the colours, thanks for the pretzels and the matching fabrics, I will put those to good use :)}

{I must also give a shout out to Mary D (I think) as she made about 30+ of these fabric wrapped Christmas crackers complete with little inspirational saying, needles, candies and so much more, thanks so much what a nice treat and surprise!!}

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I also wanted to thank Robyn for the amazing home made Egg Nog which I LOVED (sorry if some of you didn’t get to try it as I did have a couple of helpings…:)

I heard from so many of you through-out the day about how much you loved this gift exchange. It didn’t seem to feel like a challenge this year to come up with something and I don’t think one person in the room felt dissapointed with what they received, so great on all of you for making this special for all of us 🙂 From the overwhelming comments about doing this again next year, we’ll (I’ll) see what we can do:)

To those ladies who couldn’t be with us for whatever busy reason that happens this time of year, we missed you! Please also keep Shirley H in our prayers and thoughts.

Have a wonderful Christmas, Flying Needles Quilt Guild and a Happy New Year.