I finally had time to make some earrings using the felt balls, seed beads, and findings we have on our site. They are even easier to make than I thought they would be – and I thought they'd be very easy!

FYI – for those of you who have never heard of 'findings', they are the wires, hooks, chains and clasps that are used in jewelry making. We have just a few on our site – enough to get you started. If you really get into this, you may want to go to your local craft store or look for more online.

Here are some close-ups:

Those are 2CM black felt balls with beads sewn to them. The bigger white beads and the b/w combination beads are ones I had in my stash.

This pair is made of two 2CM green felt balls and two 1CM or 1.5CM gold felt balls. The seed beads are the black iridescent and the crystal from our site.

I'm in the process of making a 'how-to' movie and I'll let you know when I get it uploaded.

… or, if you are me, you might sometimes say "WTF"?

I have changed my vocabulary since my youth, deleting those words that really can't be said in polite conversation. But my kids are grown and every now and then I do have to say "WTF"! (I apologize to those of you never resort to using words that can't be printed in a newspaper.) But I do think there are some situations that might make the nicest among us say WTF…

These are designed by Minga, from Argentina – and there are more designs that are just as good. If I could figure out how to order a poster, I would. Of course I'd have to hang it out of view of my grandchildren who would ask me what 'WTF' means and then I'd have to tell them. Their other grandmother, Judy, would figure out how to not tell them and I'm so happy that they have her in their lives too!

I've got my house ready for the holidays – had to because we had a party last weekend. Nothing like a deadline to get you moving! I'm not particularly good with centerpieces and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on flowers that I knew I couldn't arrange well. Instead I used glass pieces I already had with sparkly inexpensive garland and glass ornaments. Here's a grouping that ended up on top of my grandmother's china cabinet in the dining room:

And a close-up, below. What's nice is that I can move them around from place to place as needs change.

It has taken me years to figure out that if you keep the color combinations fairly simple (in this case red and white and clear glass) it looks planned and more expensive. I used the color combo throughout the house except on my tree where the lights are multi-colored and the ornaments span the ages.

We've had this tree for more than 20 years – it's become a member of the family. I've spray painted and glued glitter to it in recent years and it fits our space really well. Why mess with what works?!

Jack, my grandson, is 3. Chris and Lorna moved him into a regular twin bed a few weeks ago and I promised to make a bed quilt for him. Jack is all boy and needs a quilt that he (and the dogs) can play on. Probably with his shoes on. This was not the place for an applique quilt – or even for one with much piecing.

I have had a cotton tablecloth with a map of the United States printed on it in my stash for quite a while. I think Moda made it. I bought it in a kit with a coordinating stripe and some huge blue rickrack. I added some light-wieght denim for the outer borders to make it fit the bed. (FYI – the denim is not this dark in person.) It took me 2 days to set together, baste, quilt, and bind it. Lightning speed quilting!

I didn't quilt this one heavily because it just didn't need it. Let me also add that the fabric is thicker and 'shifty-er' than regular cotton. You have to becareful not to stretch it out of shape while you are working on it. I took this photo before quilting on my design wall and you can see that I didn't get it all the way straight. Here's a closer shot before quilting.

Jack LOVES his quilt! I was going to hold it until Christmas but he needed it now and I couldn't see a good reason to make him wait for it. He has firetrucks under the tree and he will love them too.

If you are interested in making a map quilt of your own, I did a google search and didn't see this exact tablecloth, but there are others.

Don't you love elves too! This elf in particular? I made 22 elves just like him to give as gifts this year (I make an new ornament every year). This elf pattern was designed by Tami Pfeil and is in Quilting Arts GIFTS magazine. I used her instructions (with minor changes as noted in the video on this page)

We'll send out our next newsletter on Monday (or maybe later today if Linda gets the office computers hooked up) but I wanted to share the felt news with you before that. If you go to our home page you'll see lots of links that will take you to all the new felt stuff.

In addition to the elves, I've made 2 charm bracelets (one for Linda, one for me) and an eye glass holder. I'm ready to start on some earrings. I can honestly say that working with the felt balls is fun and kind of addictive. You can make some lovely things in record time which is very nice at this time of year!

There is a wonderful quilt shop in McKinney, TX, just down the road from me. Susan Allen, the proud inmate/owner, has a new block of the month that features blocks from our book Applique Delights.

Susan's blocks are embroidered (rather than appliqued) which is an excellent way to stitch these designs. She set them together with a cheerful flying geese border.

This BOM, called Meadow Circles, is available at the Quilt Asylum site. Click here for the details.