December 2020

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I’m taking a short break for the holidays. I hope you all enjoy the days of celebration and reflection. Let’s hope we can reconvene our guild before long. Watch for a message about blog prize pickups. As soon as I know if we’re meeting in January, I’ll let you know what’s up with our prize patrol.  

Hello all, Mary Ellen here.I got this photo from Linda H, one of our guild members. I mentioned crafting with thread spools in a recent blog post. So many of you remember the 4 nails in the end of the spool and making yarn ropes. Lots of other fun craftiness was had at this time of year with spools (and wooden peg style clothespins). I still really appreciate gifts that someone has made, rather than bought. Do kids still make their gifts for mom and dad in school? Here’s Linda’s photo of her spool creche to share. I’m finishing up the holiday cooking today and tomorrow–candy rather than cookies. I only made 3 kinds of cookies for this year–no get-togethers at which to share them, and I have very little willpower if they’re kept here!

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I have finished the drawing of the prizes for commenters. Too bad that we were not able to have any parties this year-my original plan was to award the prizes at our March guild birthday party, then at our holiday party,… While getting ready to draw the names I did a bit of tallying. From the start of the collection of names we had 252 comments submitted by 38 different commenters. The math tells you that most ladies (all of the commenters were women) commented more than once over the period of time, and therefore had multiple entries in the drawing. Here’s the plan for getting the prizes to the winners. IF we are able to  have a January guild meeting, (big if!), I will have all of the prizes at the meeting. If we still are not able to get together, I will pick […]

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Cleaning up my crafting space a bit and came across some empty thread spools. If you’re a crafter, you know that it’s hard to throw away things sometimes because that thought “I could make something with that” is always close to the top of the brain. I was recently at a crafty store which kind of pumped up my enthusiasm to “making stuff” so those empty thread spools have been saved. Here are some cute ideas for repurposing spools. If anyone has any empty spools, especially old wooden ones, that you don’t want to keep I will gladly take them. But before you decide if you want to keep them or not, have a look at these ideas: click here. As with everything else, there are tons of ideas on Pinterest-many suitable for kids to make, and not necessarily needing “vintage” spools. Working on cut out […]

Hello all, Mary Ellen here.That list of comments to yesterday’s prompt got my mouth watering. Every cookie/treat sounded good to me. I haven”t started my baking this year–and with our “stay at home” orders I probably won’t do as much as usual. Can’t be trusted with lots of cookies in the house and only myself to enjoy them! Do you need any ideas for quick gifts for neighbors or friends? Gudrun Erla has few free patterns at her website that you might like, and you probably have enough fabric and batting on hand to make them up quickly. Click here for the patterns. Today is the last day to comment for our holiday drawing for prizes. Since we can’t get together this year for our guild’s holiday party, let’s all raise a glass with dinner and toast the good friends we have made through quilting! And here’s the last prompt […]

Hello all, Mary Ellen here.It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Big fluffy flakes coming down slowly. So pretty. How are all of your holiday preparations coming along? I have put away the fall things, but haven’t gotten the Christmas ones out yet. Got my 2nd shingle shot yesterday, and don’t feel very ambitious today. The cleaning crew comes today, so I’ll blame my lack of decorations on wanting everything cleaned up before I add “Christmas”. If you’re looking for a project for the kids to do, here’s one that could be cute or pretty. Lace appliques will take it one direction. Fussy cut fabric appliques from novelty fabrics would take it another way. Click here for directions. A reminder that tomorrow is the last day to comment on our blog to be entered into the drawing for prizes. If you miss the deadline, your name will go into […]