FROLICKING

OK, I have to admit I frolicked yesterday. I am usually not much of a frolicker, but yesterday I had the pleasure of getting together with my two good friends here in Virginia Beach for our annual Christmas lunch and gift exchange. We all lead such busy lives and complained that we don't get together often enough.This may be the last good picture we have of us together--2009! Notice I said good. Haha!

We lunched on sandwiches from Panera's, which I picked up on my way to Joan's house. Joan has her house all decorated for Christmas, and it looked lovely. Now let me share the darling gifts I received from my dear friends.

Joan loves to work with wool, and she stitched up one of these darling table mats for each of us. It is so precious, I love it! The design came from Lisa Bongean at Primitive Gatherings. Lisa actually came to our booth at market. It was quite thrilling! She even bought stuff! Naturally we went to her booth as well. It is always a thrill to see the actual designer peddling her wares! (However, Lisa was out gallivanting and we saw her husband Nick instead.)

Joan found this cute little tin for us, and I never run out of objects to put inside little tins. Maybe HSTs?

This darling little tree was made by Sue's husband and then she decorated it with tiny cross-stitch ornaments. Isn't it the sweetest thing? And thanks to Sue I now have a Christmas tree up and decorated!

Sue also made these darling little angels with the sweetest faces. They are fabric fused to felt and the face is drawn on. Sue did a beautiful job with that. Isn't it wonderful to have friends who know just what you like? I always remember one Christmas morning, one of my kids opened a gift and was so thrilled, they said, "Wow! I didn't even know I wanted this!"  That's how I feel after our little exchange.

Did you see the lovely post that Mary at Quilt Hollow wrote about me? What a sweetheart! It is like my own little magazine spread! Scroll down a bit to see it as Mary writes often. Mary is a long-arm quilter and does really lovely work, in fact she quilted one of mine that was published in McCall's. Oddly, the photo she used in her post was taken at the same time as the one above, at the Olde Green Cupboard booth-Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival! It was such a magical time! Haha! Thanks Mary, for such a lovely review!

After my last post I got comments from  many of you who shared my feelings regarding a lack of enthusiasm for Christmas. Well, not really Christmas, but what Christmas has become, and what has been commercially created. It is like we have to rescue the real Christmas! Mary at Quilt Hollow shared the nicest video that really touched my heart. I put it in the following post--just below this one!

Christmas Blessing to everyone!