Thursday, December 11, 2008

A Wonderful Time!

We had our Thimbleberries Club end-of-the-year party tonight, and I just had a blast! It was so much fun spending the evening with all of my quilty peeps, eating and talking and winning prizes and exchanging gifts--what could be better? Well, doing it in a quilt shop, of course, where there are millions of things to tempt us and inspire us toward more creativity!

Our group meets at Quilters Corner in Sacramento, and Pam and Nicole, two of the owners, do a wonderful job organizing our meetings and making sure we enjoy ourselves, get the latest information from Thimbleberries, and keep busy and inspired with new projects.

One of our activities this evening was a secret gift exchange. I received a wonderful handmade door ornament--a cone made from decorative paper and glitter and filled with greenery and berries and hung from a pretty ribbon. Also in my package was a charm pack and a tin of direction-marked pins from Fons & Porter. I tried to get photos, but they really didn't turn out very well. I haven't been able to show you before because some of our members read my blog, but here's the wallhanging I made over the weekend as my contribution to the exchange:


This was another fairly quick project, although not quite as fast as the Santa wallhanging. Still, it was made using a few of the same techniques and combined regular cotton quilt fabric, wool, and embroidery.

Speaking of Santa, remember this guy?


Yep, I'm sure you do from all the comments you left! Well, at the quilt shop, I came across these delightfully cute, cute, cute peppermint buttons:


I just love the crisp and graphic red and white of peppermint candies! I bought eight buttons, but two of them made their escape before I took the photo. Want to see where they ran off to?


One of my friends at work, Missy, suggested adding buttons and tabs to hold a stick for hanging Santa, and when I saw the Christmas bulb quilt hanger and the buttons, I knew exactly what I was going to do. Santa went to Thimbleberries with me for show and tell, and then he came home for a visit, but he's going right back to work again tomorrow where he'll be re-hung at my desk. I really need to get a photo or two of Christmasland at Kim's Desk. All I really need to add is a fireplace (with the crackle of burning logs) and some Christmas music, and I could probably just live there. Well, maybe not--I'd sure miss the Sweat Shop!

The Sweat Shop, by the way, looks like a bomb went off in it. I could barely stand to be in there tonight during the time it took to add tabs and buttons to Santa. All these quick projects I've been working on mean I've pulled a lot of different materials from here and there, and I haven't really stopped to put any of it away. Tomorrow night after work, that's the first thing on my agenda--cleaning it all up so I can work happily again. And as soon as that happens, it's back to quilting the Valentine heart quilt--I really need to get that finished up for the class I'll be teaching. And you know what? I had such a fun time tonight, the adrenaline is still pumping and I'm wide awake! I bet I could easily stay up half the night quilting. But I'd better not--tomorrow's going to be a busy day at work.

Thank you for taking your time to stop in to visit me!

26 comments:

Shirley--Knot-y Embroidery Lady said...

The tabs, buttons and the hanger are made for your Santa! Got that "second wind" going on here - wish we could stay up and quilt together. Thanks for sharing.

Jane said...

You do have an eye for the good stuff, Kim. Thought the Santa quilt was perfect before but the buttons and the hanger made it even better!

Vickie E said...

Great evening for you! I so enjoy seeing what you're up to. The snowman pillow was fantastic. I wish I had half the creativity you do!! thanks so much..

Unknown said...

What a great idea. You won't want to take him down after Christmas. Or think of something else for the New year.

ranette said...

Another cute wallhanging! You must have more hours in your day than I do in mine. The buttons look yummy enough to eat and I like them on the Santa quilt.

Carol said...

Sounds like the perfect evening. Love Santa and the tabs, buttons, and hanger just finish it off wonderfully.

Anonymous said...

Santa is just getting better all the time, love the bulb hanger too!

Latane Barton said...

aren't those buttons the cutest? dau Marie and I are headed to our Christmas quilt bee this morning. Hope to have pictures on my blog later.

mary-myneedlethead.blogspot.com said...

What an adorable idea with the buttons! Love it! Hugs, Mary

MichelleB said...

I love the buttons and the hangar. They made an adorable quilt even more adorable.

Sherri said...

The peppermint buttons are absolutely perfect!

Unknown said...

A D O R A B L E! What else can I say? Glad you had fun. I wish our secret Santa tomorrow was going to be like that instead of the dirty santa and lame gifts we will get!
Christy

Paula said...

Love the ornament quilt. It looks elegant!! Perfect finish for the Santa quilt.

Anonymous said...

Santa looks great with his additions! So cute! And I love your ornament wallhanging. Very pretty :o)

Judy said...

OMG! I saw those buttons at Joanns yesterday too and thought I could use them but then put them down...Trip back to the store! O love those hangers but I seriously want them to make a simple one with no topping on it...think they will do that just for me???LOL!

Love Santa and the more I see him I just might have to make one for myself. Is he from the xmas list patterns?

Penni Domikis said...

As usual you find the best stuff. I love those buttons and what a cool idea. I also love the quilt hanger. It's perfect. I bet the lucky winner of that wallhanging was just pleased as punch. I wish they had Thimbleberry club here. They don't really have any kind of club here except the embroidery club. I will be joining the Baltimore Album class in January. The resident applique expert is having a BOM class for one year and I signed up already as a Christmas present to myself. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with it. I'm excited. All my BOMs are done on my own and it's not the same.

Lorraine said...

How cute is the lightbulb hanger...not as cute as your Santa of course! Nice to have some decorations around you at work....my boss said my (our) office area looks like a patchwork shop....!.....the theme for decorating this year at work is hand made.....so I have taken a few things in.....haven't even really started yet as I want to leave some things in the house over the weekend......but wait until next week....yowsers....I will be moving some stuff into his office! LOL Love all your projects...you must be just buzzing with creativity.....and working on Valentines already....! February (or your class) will be here before we know it...

PunkiePie (Jen) said...

OMG! Santa is even cuter now! Love it!!

Jen :)

Amanda said...

Your party sounds fun. I got together with my sewing group today and there's just not words to describe how fun it was! There's something about it being cold, Christmas, exchanging gifts, eating delicious food, sewing, ... it was great.

I love the peppermint buttons and the light bulb quilt hanger. I, too, had to clean up my sewing room before I could sew. It's still messy, but that's how its going to be for a while.

I'm glad you had fun!

Nan said...

When I look at your blog, I start to sing "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas". As usual, I LOVE what you've been doing, you talented, talented girl, you!
Sounds like your Thimbleberries Club party was loads of fun. Those peppermint buttons look good enough to eat, and are perfect for Santa.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it just a great group of women??? Pam and Nicole do a wonderful job and I always enjoy what is brought for show and tell.
Your wallhanging was wonderful.

Julia

Sherry said...

Oh Kim, those buttons are the perfect touch to your adorable Santa wallhanging. That bulb hanger is great too.

Red Geranium Cottage said...

Those are some cute red/white buttons. And they look great on your Santa wallhanging.

MARCIE said...

Those little buttons are the perfect touch to your already adorable Santa wallhanging! And I love the snowman pillows. Your quilting makes everything perfect!

Creative Times with Sue said...

I have found your blog from another and just had to say I love what you have done with your Christmas hanger. *clap**clap* :D

Candace said...

I've been enjoying all your Christmas goodies, both baked and sewn, and I particularly love your Santa wall hanging. I know that you have provided a wonderful tutorial, and I was wondering if I missed it, or is there a reference of where to get the pattern for the Santa block that you started with. Is it one that you created yourself, or can it be purchased. the angle and everything about it is perfect, and then you added the hanger and the buttons and it got even better than perfect.