McKMQG Ornament Exchange

Here is the ornament I made for the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild ornament exchange.  This was a fun little project made in the hoop.  The pattern is my Embroidery Garden.

Gift of Christmas & Christmas Candy Cane Zipper Pouch.

Over the weekend we got together with dear friends for Mommy & Daughter outing.  We went to see the Gift of Christmas at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.  All I can say about the show is that it was absolutely incredible. I left my phone in the car so did not get any pictures but no picture would have done the production justice.  It was fantastic!

Here is a picture of the four of us before we left for the show.  Kristi and I have been friends for more than 25 years (since college) and it's hard to believe our babies are growing up into little young ladies. 

Here's a little Christmas zipper pouch I made for my friend's daughter, Katie.  I love this little whimsical candy cane fabric in cute pastels, Micaela helped pick it out.

I used pink & white dot lining for the inside.  Micaela made a bracelet on the Rainbow Loom to put inside, I wish I had taken a picture. 

Hope your weekend was great!

Ornaments

Here are two ornaments I made for last night's ornament exchange at the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild.  Both are designs from Embroidery Garden.

Joy to the World

I love how the candy cane makes up the J.  

Reindeer

Love how the candy canes make up antlers. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop Day #5

Today is my day on the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop.  Welcome and Howdy from McKinney, Texas to anyone new to my blog.

Special thanks to Mdm Samm at http://www.sewwequilt.com/ and Carol at http://justletmequilt.blogspot.com  for hosting and cheerleading the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop.  This is my fourth blog hop and I have enjoyed every single one.  It's been fun to think about Christmas when it is more than 100 degrees outside!

I thought long and hard about what to do and decided to share the Christmas item I am most proud of making first.  This is a table runner and napkin set I made for my In-Laws who have been married for more than 50 years!

I embroidered the family name and their wedding date on the runner and then each individual family members name on each napkin. 

I've got a few extra napkins for when the older grandson "Eric" marries, but it's going to be a while before the other three grandchildren marry because they are 8 and younger.  Hopefully this Christmas linen set will become a family heirloom that the children today will cherish in the future.

The second item I am sharing is what I do what I make the most, zipper pouches!  I made this one for our daughter with Christmas fabric.  I've made many of these in MANY fabrics but as far as I can remember none in Christmas fabric.   Now that our daughter is 8, she really is into receiving gift cards because she can combine several and buy bigger ticket items that we normally don't buy. I thought it would be fun for her to carry all her cards in one fun pouch.  I am going to have to hide this until December-- wish me luck.

This pouch is made in the hoop using an embroidery machine.  This particular design is from Five Star Fonts and I have used it a gazillion times... really more than 100 times.  I will gladly give away one Christmas Zipper Pouch (made with your choice of Christmas Fabric from my stash) to one lucky person that leaves a comment.  I'll let Micaela our 8 year old pick the winner so direct your comment to her.
 
I hope you like my projects.   Be sure to visit the other girls on the blog hop today.  Again, thanks for stopping by.  

Why-Knot-Kwilt

Debby Kratovil

Apple Avenue Quilts

Domestic Deficit Disorder

Jane’s Fabrics and Quilts

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Cate’s Linens

Brenda’s Blog

Charlottes Creations

Selina Quilts

Made By Me In Red

Blooming where I am Planted   ME

 

Merry Christmas!

We wish you love, peace and joy

today and everyday!

From The Fipps Family

Getting into Christmas Spirit

Many stores are already decorated for Christmas and I've had a few items in my Etsy store listed for over a month.  The other day I was surprised to get an order for three Christmas Santa Towels from a grandma in North Carolina.  She wanted them for her toddler grandchildren to go in her Santa themed bathroom.

Here are the towels...

She was so happy when she received them, this is what she wrote:

They are GORGEOUSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! OMG, they are going to look fabulous in their Santa bathroom!!!!! WOW!!!! I am sooo crazy about them!!!! GREAT job!!!  I absolutely LOVE them!!!!
Thanks so much!!!!!  My Grands are going to FLIP over them.......... their Mom too!!!!  Thanks again!!!  Regards,  Barbara :-)

It's always nice to get a note from happy customers!  Thanks for stopping by!

Elf is Back

Our Elf is back.  Midas Carlos (Micaela named him) is back in town early.  He spent all of December with us last year.  Micaela has been asking about him for weeks, so he's on special assignment from Santa.  The elves in the North Pole (me) made him a special outfit for the month of October.  It's a cape and belt with Halloween candy all over. 

We've been finding him in the weirdest paces.  Here he is in the breakfast nook, hanging out in the soup tureen.   I expect this is the last year Micaela will BELIEVE, so we are embellishing as much as we can.  So fun to be parents.  Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Embroidery

Here are a few things I made to give for Christmas... I am so mad at myself for not taking pictures of everything! In some cases I was literally sewing right up until I walked out the door and in the rush did not have a chance to snap a picture.

The biggest item I made was a this set of 11 napkins and a matching runner for my mother in law & father in law. There's one napkin for each family member. It's hard to photograph 11 napkins at once clearly but I think you get the idea. These will also serve as placecards kinda sorta. I used all lower case to keep the font small. I love the white ric rac and the green trim!

I don't know of more people coming into the family anytime soon but I have some blank napkins set aside for when new members join the family (like the grandchildren getting married). The matching runner is 72 inches long but it was too hard to photograph full length. I embroidered one end with the family name, est. (for established) and my mother & father in law's wedding date. I love the ribbon 'fringe' on the ends.

Once I got all the names programed into my machine, the second set was not as difficult to make, it also helped that it's a younger family with just two children and obviously no grandchildren yet...lol. This is the set I made for my brother in law & sister in law who got married just three years ago. I did white napkins for them just so the sets would not be completely alike.
I embroidered the runner the same, just updated with their totally coool 8-8-2008 wedding date.
I was done with red and green after all of that! Now I have a year to make a set for us! Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Tablescape

This is our breakfast table now. I've been building on a gingerbread theme for about ten years but never had much (gb) on the table. I had a collection of the Sledding Characters dinnerware by Debbie Mumm (mentioned here) and I never got brave enough to mix other stuff with it. Most of the gingerbread accessories around were things in the kitchen. This year I added to my collection....

First, I found these snowflake salad plates at Wal-Mart of all places. I brought one home, thought they looked good and then went back for another 3. Later on I was at Pier One and found the gingerbread shaped plates, bought the last four right on the spot! Two weeks ago I was at Dillards and found the gingerbread house napkin rings, of course had to have them too. The rest of the stuff just came together.

Dinner Plates: Sledding Characters by Debbie Mumm, purchased in 2001

Snowflake Salad Plates: Wal-Mart 2010

Gingerbread Plates & Napkins: Pier One 2010

Gingerbread House napkin rings: Dillard's 2010

Big Bowl in Center: Hobby Lobby 2010

Cupcakes: Kohl's 2009

Placecard Holder: Kohl's 2009

Gingerbread Man: Kirkland's

Here are pictures of a few more things around the kitchen area:

Thanks for stopping by!

Kitchen Gingerbread Decor 2001

A couple of days ago I posted pictures of my kitchen table at my Bonham house. Here are some pictures of the gingerbread stuff in my kitchen. Now remember this was back in 2001, light green and pink were my kitchen colors. Oh my how we all evolve!

I love this gingerbread train, my dear friend Debra gave it to me! The star Longaberger basket one of my favorite things too, it was from my friend Mary Beth.


I had a little tree on top of the fridge. All the ornaments were gingergread things... Corny, I know!
Oh, how I loved my Bonham House! Thanks for stopping by!

Kitchen Table 2001

Here's the Kitchen Table in my Bonham house (1919 Bungalow) back in 2001. The dinnerware is Sledding Characters by Debbie Mumm. I absolutely had to have it. Remember this was 2001! I bought it piece by piece and then when I the stores ran out resorted to Ebay for more pieces. In the bidding process I met a girl who was bidding on the same stuff. I got brave and sent her an email to figure out what she wanted so we would not keep bidding against each other. (This is back when the user name on ebay was your email address and it wasn't astericks like it is today). Found out the girl was from Texas and around my age. Long story short, we became friends! She and her husband visted me that year and I visited them in 2004. We're still friends ten years later and keep up with each other on facebook. In the end, she got 12 placesettings and I got 8!

I am not as crazy about these dishes now but the story behind them touches my heart so I won't part with them. Micaela thinks they are cute and says she wants them for when she grows up! I am going to find some accessories to go with it for this year's table. I'll be sure to post what I come up with.

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas in Bonham

Here are pictures of my Bonham living room Christmas 2001. I had so much fun decorating this house.

This was the tree that replaced the one in my master bedroom (previous post). I had really tall ceilings in that house- 12 ft, I think. I had to use a ladder to decorate the top of the tree. Well I have to use a ladder to decorate all the trees but but this tree I had to get on the top step, lol.

Ahh, the fireplace... I always wondered about the family that originally built the house in 1919. I was told they had many children so I imagine many stockings were hung and lots of family photos were taken here. I was too scared to use the fireplace so I just filled it with lights and glittery stuff.

It was fun to decorate this mantle because it was deep. This year I put the Christmas village on there. I don't remember how many buildings and people I had but they fit pefectly in this long narrow space. I haven't used this village in 8 years, I still have it in boxed up-- maybe I will pull it out this year since Micaela is old enough to not break it.

Hope you've enjoyed my stroll through memory lane, hope you are having fun decorating your house for the holiday season. Thanks for stopping by!

Flashback Christmas 2001

These are pictures of my bedroom during Christmas in my Bonham house back in 2001. Please keep in mind this WAS 2001, I would not necessarily decorate like this today. I took these with my very first digital camera. I would have never dreamed of a blog back then so there is no professional staging or anything. This is a room I slept in for several years before relocating back to Dallas and eventually getting married.

I look back on my five plus years in Bonham fondly, mainly because I enjoyed living in an old 1919 bungalow so much. I had more space than I knew what to do with and filled the house with things I loved. I enjoyed every minute of it. I am going to start sharing some of those old pictures every now and then....

I always wanted a pink bedroom as a little girl and finally got one when I was 29 a few years before getting married. The color turned out darker than I anticipated and it looked very PeptoBismal when the painters were done. I had to deal with it even though it was alot darker than I wanted.

Back then I set no limits on Christmas decorations and buying stuff. One of the coolest things about my Bonham house was the fireplace in the Master Bedroom. I was too scared to use it but I had the best time decorating the mantle for the different seasons... Here it is....

This was the tree! Quite large, the diameter was six feet at the bottom branches and it was like 8 feet tall. I had this in the living room several years but when I got a bigger one, I could not bare to part with this one so I put it in the master since I had plenty of room.

I wish I had close up of the ornaments, the balls were all different shades of pink, pearl white and green. The door behind the tree lead to a screened in sun room. I had access to the sunroom from the living room so I blocked this door for the holiday season.

This was the other side of the room facing the dresser. I only had a double bed at the time-- The canvas above my bed is by Angie Strauss from Niagara on the Lake Ontario. It is signed by the artist, it was my five year anniversary gift from the company I worked for at the time. I have that print in our guest room/sewing room now.

This was the other side of the room. I bought those chairs at Goodwill for $9 each and recovered them myself. I also made the curtains.
Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed my flashback to 2001!