A Crafty Diversion

I headed off to Jane's cottage last weekend with BIG plans for everything that I wanted to get done so that I'd feel that I have a bit of a start on my Holly Bazaar list. Well, that got a bit sideswiped, but in a nice way.

Both Linda and Jane are beautiful card makers and they opened wide their treasure chests of supplies so that we could create a collection to donate to the Madonna House Gift Shop. After a bit of a flurry looking at all the stamps and inks and papers we got down to business, some stamping, some embossing, some cutting and then finally, all attaching strings and packaging them in little bags of six. I have to admit that stamping/card making does not come easily to me so I was happy cutting stamps and trims, embellishing and attaching the ties.

We were going to work at cards and tags for a couple of hours but it lasted through to dinner. When we did a final tally we had made 70 packages of six cards/tags, so that will be a nice bundle to drop off. I kept a few packets of tags and will take them to the bazaar, so at least I got a little bit done :).

This little elf fighting with the Christmas lights is adorable.

After dinner we moved to quilting. When Linda saw the batik placemats that I had taken to bind she was smitten, so they won't see the sale table at the bazaar (sounds like the Official Cookie Tester, who often buys my goodies before they leave the house). I'm okay with that because the church still gets the money but now I think I should make something else.

I never did work on the placemats on the weekend but last night I made the binding and finished them off.
















I'm really happy with how they turned out - both front and back - because when I first put them together I wasn't so taken with them. In fact, I thought that they were absolutely lousy. It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for your perspective.

I've run out of some of the fabrics that I used in this set otherwise I would make another like it but I'll see if I can come up with another colour combination....M