Christsmas Gift Idea, Art Group Quilts and of course, Jack

First off, my older sister Brenda was in town (well my parents town) so I went up north to spend some time with her.  As usual, she had a great gift idea for friends at Christmas.  Well, not all my friends, the ones who will probably get them already saw mine and oohed and aahhed and kind of hinted they would make a great Christmas gift.  So this year, they all get one.  The other friendship group is getting something else that my older sister is making for me.  Anyway, here is what she showed us this weekend.  She found a tutorial on oneprettything.com and her and a friend perfected it and shared it with my sis-in-law, mom and I.

They aren't that hard to make and are so pretty.  She made the black one and gave it to me for my birthday and together we all made a silver one.  So today I was already at Hancocks Fabrics to buy some synthetic fabrics to make more.  Black, gold, silver and white. 

While she was here we took a little trip further north to visit my step-daughter Kelly and my grandson Jack.  I was just getting over a cold so I wasn't allowed to hold him but everyone else could.  But I did get more pictures.  I can't believe how much he changes in such a short period of time.

My sister Brenda and Jack (sleeping)

My mom and Jack - finally waking up. 

My niece Claire and Jack hungry but not for his binky.

While in Ripon, my sister-in-law Marcy's brother Jeff and his wife Marianne were in town and we had a Texas Hold-em Tournament.  Jeff had the whole thing organized and even gave us newbies lessons earlier in the day.  We had a lot of fun.  I was the first one out so I became the official shuffler.  Great fun.

Marianne Laun, Patrick and my mom

Jeff Laun, Brenda, Marcy and Drew

 And right after I got home from work on Monday, my Loose Threads Art Group met at my house for our November meeting.  We are going through the Fabric Embellishing, The Basics and Beyond book.  This month our technique was bubbles and wrinkles and the inspiration word was Illumination.  Here is a picture of what we all made.

Anna's came out blurry - check her blog out as I'm sure when she's done (she wants to bead on it) she'll have it on her blog.  (annatheartistwithin.blogspot.com) Unfortunately you can only comment on her blog if you look at it thru Internet Explorer.  (I use firefox.)   Karen's piece was her interpretation of the Book of Kells.  I had no idea what it was so I had to look it up on-line.  Since I was hostess, I had to choose a technique for next month (but actually it will be January) and the inspiration word.  I chose photo on fabric and showed them the basics of photoshop and how to play and use filters on photos.  My word is JOY!  It will be exciting to see what everyone does with that. 

Anyway, tonight it's all about getting ready for another busy week.  We have a guild board meeting on Wednesday night, a late night quilting party (Cut Throat Quilters) at the quilt shop on Friday Night and all day Saturday and Sunday our guild's stacation type of retreat.  (we sew all day at Country Manor but get to go home to our own bed each night).

Thanks for looking.