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My friend Susan, The Working Caregiver, came over today to make some homemade holiday gifts. We started with doggie treats for all the pups.
Oatmeal Peanut-Butter Doggie Treats
1/2C oatmeal
1/2C flour
1/2C corn meal
1/2C oil
1-1/2C whole wheat flour
2 eggs
2TBSP vanilla
2TBSP peanut-butter
1-1/2C water*as needed
Mix all dry ingredients in bowl. Make a well and add wet ingredients. Mix and add water in gradually till moist but not wet. Roll onto floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters, we used bitty snowflakes, and place on lightly greased cookie sheets.
Bake @400 for 20min. Turn oven off and let them sit in oven for another 20min. to dry out.
Cute cellophane Christmas baggies tied with ribbons!
What pup wouldn’t love these. I know Daisy does:)
Next was the Marshmallows. We followed the recipe from the Paula Deen Christmas magazine.
Lessons learned…easy on the food color! Now I have Barbie pink marshmallows.
And I think next time I’ll not use so much peppermint either….not really my favorite. But, I gotta say, it was easier than I thought. I will definitely make these again next year.
I also made Paula’s Three Chocolate Chip Cookies for the wonderful girls at the Petsmart Hotel who take such great care of Daisy once a week at Doggie DayCamp.
I gifted them in an empty hot chocolate container, covered it with paper, and tied it with cute ribbon.
I’m fond of Heather Mulder Peterson’s fabric and books. If you haven’t checked out her blog, Trends and Traditions, head on over and take a look. She has a beautiful home that she’s decorated with a lot of her quilts and fabrics. It just might inspire you to decorate with some of your quilts too.
I’ve made lots of projects from her books & here is a table runner I made recently with her line Rebel Roses. 
I also have some of her fabrics from Sanibel and the Christmas line At Home For The Holidays. So, I was excited to hear aabout the new one coming out called Artful Home. Here’s some pics I pulled from her site.
Aren’t they awesome. I love the brown & blue one and the red floral print. Got to get me some of this. It doesn’t hit the stores till late March though, which gives me plenty of time to figure out what to make with it.
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Hi – those are gorgeous fabrics Lorrie – I want them all too and especially when the browns and blues are mixed together which leads me to my fabric pick for today…Etchings in Silvery Moon by Studio E Fabrics. The blues, grays and silvers reminded me of the wintery sky, fresh layer of snow and the bitter cold we are having. Makes me want to snuggle under a quilt sipping hot chocolate next to a crackling fire – wow, a little corny but I think I’m finally accepting its Winter!
I have lots of felt scraps. One year when my mother-in-law’s house burned and she lost a lot of her Christmas decorations, I made her an advent calendar out of felt. It was supposed to be a replica of the one she lost. 
I made me one too:) So, I have lots left over from this project.
I checked these two books out from the library to help out with that. If you don’t take advantage of your local library, you should! Mine has lots of quilt and craft books. Even if they don’t have the one you’re looking for, most likely they can bring it in from a different library in your area. This way you can see if you like them before buying them.
I made that cute little gingerbread ornament from the Fa La La La Felt book….so easy! This book might be a keeper. It had lots of great ideas.
I also made these cute gift card holders from The Farm Chicks Christmas book.
Using pinking shears, cut the felt 1/2″ wider than the gift card and twice as long plus 1 inch. Fold the bottom end up and the top down. You can hot glue the sides of the bottom to make the bottom pocket, but I just ran a running stitch around it. Cut a slit for the button and attach a pretty, fabric- covered button to the pocket and you have a great way to use some of your stash. Wouldn’t it be pretty with some embroidery on it too?
Hey, do y’all like my new Christmas dress?
I’m just joking:) Shelley and I decided to do a little shopping yesterday. We visited the Red Barn Nursery. They turn the whole farmer’s market barn into a cozy Christmas place. They have a fire in the fireplace and even a kitty that was especially fond of Shelley.
Then we headed to the Woodstock town square where we went to Seasons by Peg/Cobblestones. Oh my that was Christmas heaven in there! So many awesome displays and gifts and ornaments. The whole store was Christmas. 
That’s where we saw this cool “dress” displayed. And look at these cute elf shoes that I couldn’t resist buying.
They match my quilt perfect, right?
Of course we couldn’t go shopping without visiting at least one quilt store. So off to Material Girls. One of my projects for 2011 is to finish the rest of the New York Beauty quilt. My 1st block is the one that I use for my avatar.
My focus is going to be Kona cottons as the solids, Kaffe polka dots along with Kaffe prints. So, I picked some more of those up today. Here’s what I have so far. 
I”m thinking that me and Shelley may need to make a trip to Quiltology in Chicago this weekend to do some fabric shopping. They have a great selection of Kaffe.
Woooo-hooo party!
I usually throw this party for the kids but now they’re too “old” and some are away at college this year. It wouldn’t be Christmas without one, so I decided to do it for the SewMod group.
Oh boy, did I have a great time! Candy was everywhere! I just knew Daisy was going to puke that night because she waited patiently for any to fall to the ground and let me tell ya that when I got up the next morning the floor was spotless:)
Here’s the setup
Does it look like I’ve done this before? I’ve given these parties going on about 7 years now. I Love it! 
I hope your Christmas parties are lots of fun too.
Enjoy the season!
We had our SewMod Christmas party at my house this year. Lots of food, wine, and fun…oh and let’s not forget the presents.
We have a very talented group of girls here….We exchanged names and this is what I got from Andrea. Isn’t this fabric a hoot! I can’t wait to make something from this.
Shelley made Vicki this awesome pillow. Doesn’t she look excited…I want this pattern!
This is Pattie’s beautiful table runner from Vicki, and Pattie made Andrea a cute one also.
Paige made Kelly this cool quilted picture. 
Paige got a Moda Candy Bar from Kelly and I made Shelley a set of tea towels.
Then we had a gingerbread decorating party!
OMG what fun. I’ll show those pics tomorrow!
And don’t forget to keep practicing your doodle sandwiches. Paige wants to give us a few weeks to get the hang of it before introducing us to our next step.
Colorful Christmas Flannel from Riley Blake
Speaking of flannel…..need a quick gift?
Every year I make about 10 rice bag warmers and keep them by my door for the neighbors and friends. Super quick, super easy and everyone LOVES them, especially here in the frozen Midwest. I gift myself a new one each year and the old one goes in the freezer because they are also great ice packs. I probably heat mine up at least once a day in the winter.
All you need is flannel, long grain white rice, and the special ingredient is…apple cinnamon tea.
It’s a great way to use your flannel scraps. You can make them any size you want…square or rectangle. After you’ve sewn the bag, fill it a little over half way with the rice, I just use my judgment here…there are no rules. Cut open 1 of the tea bags and pour in with the rice. Sew the opening closed and you’re done!
I attach simple instructions for those who’ve never used one….
Apple-Cinnamon Warmer
Heat in microwave 1min & 45 sec.
It will come out of your microwave smelling like apple pie…you’ll love it! Just the thing for a snowy night.
We still have some fine tuning with the header and our logo but we are up and running now. I listed some Christmas flour sack tea towels as our first items.
Aren’t they cute? I had so much fun working on these. And did you notice that I found another way to use my Figgy Pudding and Fruitcake scraps:)
Paige is also working on some things too. She’s going to have some big tote bags available and she loves to make baby items. I can’t wait to see those.
I’m working on this really cool sewing box that doubles as a pincushion.
It’s made from an antique Singer sewing drawer. Hopefully I will have some of those available in January.
We also are working on having fabric and sewing supplies.
here’s the link to Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SewModDesigns?ref=pr_profile
We would love to hear what you guys think!
Every year, the day before Thanksgiving, we buy a 10ft Frasier Fir. It fills the space in this room to the very top. I spend about 4 hours stringing the lights and about another hour or so decorating it. I love every minute of it….well, maybe not so much the lights because I really just want to get to the fun stuff…the ornaments. 
There’s just something about pulling out each ornament, remembering where it came from, and finding the perfect spot on the tree. Most all of our ornaments are mementos of something and a lot of them are handmade. Every year Santa brings Russell a special ornament in his stocking….yes I said Santa! i know he’s 15, but in our house “you have to believe to receive”
I’d like to share some of our ornaments with ya’ll.
Here are some of the cross stitched ornaments on the tree.
This is Daisy’s 1st Christmas ornament. I used Bunny Hill’s pattern “Allie Dogs” and had a dog tag made for its “collar”.
This is one of the many snowflakes that my mom has made for me over the years. it’s crocheted and beaded and they are great fillers for all the spaces on the tree. Definitely my favorites.
Do we have any Christmas Vacation movie lovers out there? Love, Love Love that movie. Squirrrrellll! Remember when Clark says that? Hilarious! So, we hide a little squirrel in our tree too and every year when I put him in there I have to say squirrrellll:)
Another treasure is the Letters to Santa ornament. Every year Russell would write Santa and before I would mail it off, I copied it and kept the original. All his letters are rolled up in this special little keepsake.
So, for all of you expecting Paige’s Free Motion Monday, I have some bad news….the internet was down yesterday. I told her I’d fill in for her this morning.
I got my elves quilt back from the quilter and it is sooo cute!
It’s a Halloween pattern called Which Witch by Crazy Old Ladies that can also be made into a Christmas quilt by adding the elves shoes with it. I used Kate Spain’s 12 Days of Christmas line.
My quilter did this cool heat setting embellishment on the tips of the toes and the edges of the dresses by using a tool like this.
It sparkles now and really adds that something extra to the quilt.
Check back tomorrow and hopefully we will have Paige’s post ready for you.
SewMod