Birthday Surprises

Surprises are supposed to be just that. I have made or sent different gifts to relatives recently that I did not photograph. How do you write a blog without pictures and make it interesting and keep it alive?

Recent birthdays include those for my elder GrandSon (who is in Marine bootcamp in San Diego now), my eldest Niece, a Niece-in-Law, my only Brother, and one of my dear Friends. Coming soon are most of the rest of my family. The Grandkids get money gifts these days because that's how they like it. However, the two older Grrrls are getting hand-crafted gifts too. My Siblings get quilts or mini-quilts. I just mailed off Brother's bday card with two Mug Rugs in it for he and his wife. (No photos)

To this end of wanting it to be a surprise, I am hesitant to post photos of what I make here after they are finished. Those works in progress (WIP) are a different story because sometimes I am not even sure what they are!

The Great Pumpkin quilt is almost finished with hand and machine quilting, so will be ready to bind, and then ship off. My Sister is already writing about Fall decorations. I can almost hear her glee over the bright colors of this quilt and of course, its theme for The Great Pumpkin. I've been working on the binding and mitered corners for all those Mug Rugs just to get the practice and I am declaring right here and now that the corners on her quilt will be really great looking! I love the holiday and the deep, rich colors. 

After cutting squares from the Halloween fabric scraps, the entire studio got cleaned, yet again. All those fibers create such HUGE lint balls some call dust bunnies. And this new cat refuses to dust the way Vito seemed to do.

One of the swaps on Swap Bot was a prep for Halloween. Its sort of like those advent calendars, which I dearly love. I decided to duplicate the efforts and make one for the Halloween-born Granddaughter. Its 30 envelopes with something to read in each of them and then a small, hopefully flat gift. On the 31st, they are supposed to get a Hallows card and a nice gift. Well, I want to put in good things to open and serve as decor. I found a lot of templates online and got to making envies of various sizes. Its really fun. However, the stores are still selling back to school items. School starts here mid-month and hopefully the Halloween stuff will be on the shelves.