Ornament Exchange

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's a lovely, if somewhat brisk, day here in Northern Illinois.  Our embroidery guild hosted its annual Christmas party last night, and everyone had a grand time.  One of the things we do each year is an ornament exchange.  Those who want to participate bring a wrapped ornament that they made and get to pick another ornament sight unseen.  Here is the beautiful ornament that I unwittingly chose:

This was made by my friend averyclaire,

it's a Little House Needleworks design

and I absolutely love it!

You should check out her blog--

she is not only an embroiderer but she also does

beautiful hand quilting, too.

Here is what I made for the exchange...

This is from the 2011 JCS Christmas Ornament issue

and the designer is Casey Buonaugurio.

I liked the design so much I made one for myself.

The first one I did is on the left.

While sewing it together,

I forgot the cording for the hanger,

so I just used a piece of #16 Kreinik.

I also sewed it really close to the embroidered design

which made the finished product even tinier.

I learned from my mistakes on the second one,

which is the one that I brought for the exchange.

But I'm quite happy with the somewhat flawed one that I kept--

it has character.  heheh

The tree trunks are pieces of one of "Molly's sticks"

from our backyard.

The weird thing is that averyclaire chose my ornament!

This was just a happy coincidence, not planned.

That's it for now.

Hope you are having a wonderful December day.

Thanks for visiting!