"Do Something" blocks 2012

Every year in early December at our bee's party, our most generous hostess, Sandy Z., gives willing participants a brown paper lunch bag containing one of her antique quilt blocks (she must have quite the collection, because she has done this for several years now).  The catch is that participants must make "something" from the block and return it to next year's party. If you aren't able to do something with the block, then the block must be returned to Sandy.

And here are the results shown at this year's party, from last year's block. It's amazing how similar some of the blocks look considering the making was all in secret.

Marie M. used antique fabrics and blocks to surround her basket.

Peggy S. did lots of piecing on hers (she gave her BlocLoc ruler a workout for the flying geese.)

Debbie S. did more with reddish-browns and some appliqué.

Meghan also had a plaid basket and used more reds and browns.

Carol T. is going to make  a needle case with her block  (this is the outside; inside not quite finished). 

Sorry for the blurriness...I couldn't get Linda G. to stand still for anything! The block she started with is on the lower left, and she made three more blocks to match.

And this one is mine. I was the only one with solid colors in the basket, so I went with more solids. I'm not sure what else I will be adding to the block -- maybe four different borders in the style of Gwen Marston?

Christmas Card Production Line

Here's our Christmas cards for 2012. Of course the cards have fabric! One-inch strips of batik (shown uncut on the right) both inside and outside the card. Husband G gets a big kick out of coming up with an original card every year (there was only one year that he was so busy we had to buy our cards...I ended up enclosing a note to apologize to everyone for the non-homemade card!)

Most of the 80 or so cards are now on their way!

Here is last years's card, also embellished with fabric: See the fabric triangle on the front?

And here's a shot of the inside and back: