Holidays

Many of our ornaments are hand-made.

Some were made by the children when they were little, some are tatted, and some were made as gifts from friends.

 A Winter Wonderland

 Two tatting books received as Christmas gifts. O lucky me! I see tatting in the New Year!














We had an early celebration as DDIL had to work over the Christmas weekend. The tree is now down and all the decorations are packed away until next year.




Wishing everyone All the Best for the New Year!
May 2011 be filled with Joy and Happiness,
and may your Creativity Blossom.


      HAPPY NEW YEAR!!


Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Noel and A Christmas Angel

  

May Angels Surround You

Guide you, Guard you,

And keep you safe

This Holiday Season.

No matter how you celebrate, may all your gatherings be filled with, family and friends, love and laughter, peace and joy.

Blessings to All.

I'll be back sometime after Christmas.

Hugs from Suz

Gingerbread Houses and Christmas Baking

Almost every year for the past twenty-five years, I've made gingerbread houses. Some have been for the family, some for gifts, and some have been used as fundraisers for schools and choirs. I love how the house smells of ginger and cinnamon for the month before Christmas. And it's so much fun to build the houses from scratch, and then decorate with delicious treats.
This year I wasn't feeling well enough to make the houses,so I'll show you pictures of the ones I made last year:

I think I'll have to make some gingerbread cookies instead.
I did bake some butterscotch brownies, pan shortbread, and butterscotch oat squares.

But they're already gone! Guess I'll have to bake some more.











Here's hoping you have fun Christmas baking, too. Yum!
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

A Package in the Post

I found a package in the mailbox. It was from NickiLee!  Oh, boy!  My Christmas CQ block!

Once I was home, I gently opened the package.

An envelope with a pretty card.

I began to unwrap the tissue paper.

Ooooh, a peek!
I see red velvet and beads and beautiful fabrics, lace.....

I uncovered more tissue paper.....oooh, so lush. Rich fabrics, beautifully embellished. I picked up my square to open it fully......




What......?




Hey!  Wait a minute! This isn't a CQ square!

I flipped it over.



Hmmm. It's so pretty. Look at that button clasp   ...and the wreath!



I opened the clasp.

It's a sewing kit! With treasures inside! Blue beads, gold metallic thread, and 7 beautiful, porcelain (?) beads with delicate flowers......... and a beaded brooch. Wonderful!

These beads are lovely!

The whole outside of the sewing kit. Isn't it gorgeous? I love it! Trimmed in red velvet, it's soft to the touch. I didn't have a sewing kit, so this is just perfect!

What a great idea, NickiLee! Thank you so much!

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

Lizbeth Thread and Tatting

I received two samples of Lizbeth thread ( thank you Georgia!)  and was eager to try it out.

 I made an angel. She turned out okay, although I don't like the wobble on the centre ring. It makes the beads off-centre, and that's probably either my tension needing some tweaking, or the picot for the join should  be made with a paper clip instead.
I do like the varigated thread colour, and I like how it tatted: not too firm, but not soft. I didn't block this.




Then I decided to tat this week's homework from Georgia Seitz's Online Tatting Class. It's a pretty motif with  graduated picots. The center is supposed to be square.
Does it look square to you?      Nope.   Shoot!
The whole motif is supposed to end up being square.       sigh.                 Not square.
It's supposed to lie flat: mine curves.
I started with the varigated, but ran out and had to add the pink. Good thing the pinks match. But it looks odd, doesn't it?
The joins no longer line up correctly, the motif is out of shape and off-square. Hmmm I think I'll have to try this pattern again.


The verdict?
The graduated picots look okay, I think.
The thread is fine: it's the tatter tatting that needs work! Lots and lots of work. Oh, well, maybe it's my cold/cough/chest thingy. Yeah, that's it! I'll blame it on being sick. You believe me. Right?
LOL


I hope whatever you're doing today, you do it well. Have fun.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

A Christmas CQ Swap

NickiLee and I had a summer 1:1 cq swap last year, and had so much fun, we decided to do a Christmas one. This time we made the squares for one another, and then embellished them.
I told Nickilee I was going to use the stash of Christmas fabrics I've been gathering and saving over several years, for when I had time to make an embellished table runner. There were traditional fabrics, such as holly,
red berries, red, white and green stripes, and some not-so-traditional designs, such as black cotton with gold gift boxes. I laid them out, mixed them up, changed them around, and came up with several nice possibilities. But for some reason, I just couldn't make a start.

Hmmm. Then I realized why I was blocked.

Anyone who knows NickiLee even just a wee bit, knows that she loves the colour blue. Aha!
I rummaged through all my fabric stash, and came up with blue fabrics I hoped she'd like. I had so much fun doing her Christmas square in blues, white and silver.
This is the square I sent to Nickilee:

 It's certainly blue! I flirted with the thought of a "Blue Christmas' theme, then with a theme of Angels singing 'Glory Glory', but in the end decided to keep it simpler.







Most of the seam treatments are done with beads and either lace or ribbon.

 There are fire-polished crystals added to this strip of pale blue lace.

 ribbons, decorative thread, and beads..... and bead hearts on a strip of navy beadweaving.
















the fabric gift boxes are outlined and tied with metallic and decorative threads, On the right side you can see a bit of one of the tatted garlands I made to drape on the tree. They proved to be too heavy looking for the lace and ribbon-yarn I used, so I placed them  as borders and decorative strips, instead.

White 'cats-eye' beads adorn the pale blue lace with strips of white and silver beads. There are blue star beads, and a ribbon of tatted, metallic garland .                                                                                       


















                                                                                               I'm so happy that NickiLee likes her blue Christmas square!        

I am eagerly waiting to discover just what wonderful creation NickiLee has made me! I'm off to check the mail box!











Gee, what shall we do for 2011?

Hope there are wonderful discoveries in your mail box!


Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz