Merry Christmas

I received an early Christmas present and now have to confess that I have already opened it. This year I joined a group called the Southern Cross Crazies. They are a friendly bunch of women who all love crazy quilting and now and again have a swap or round robin to keep everyone motivated and enthused.

This year they decided to have a Christmas Cracker swap. We were given directions on size and content and were secretly given the name of the person that we were to send our cracker to. There was a data base where we could say what colours we prefer and our likes and dislikes. That is a good idea because as anyone who has done any crazy patchwork knows, it takes a long time to complete something and if you are giving it away, you certainly want the recipient to like it.

I dutifully sent off the Christmas Cracker that I made to Alison and she wrote back to me saying how much she loved it. Imagine my surprise when I received my Christmas Cracker and it was from Alison! We both got each others name in the swap. You can see the pictures of the Christmas Cracker that I made for Alison here.

Here is the absolutely beautiful Christmas Cracker that I received from Alison.

Christmas Cracker from Alison

It is larger than it looks in the photo, it measure about 16" long and was beautifully embroidered.
I looked at the cracker for two weeks because it was so beautiful, I wanted to enjoy just looking at it.
Everyone else was opening their crackers and saying how much they loved them and I knew that I had to open mine as well.

I was overwhelmed by all the beautiful goodies inside. It's hard to believe that Alison could pack so much into such a small space.

Christmas Cracker contents

It was filled with laces, fabric, thread, ribbon, buttons, beads and a scissor fob and needle book!
When I opened the cracker I could see the embroidery more clearly.

Cracker opened

Here are some close up photos of the contents.

Silk Fabric

Images

Lace

Needle case and scissor fob

Threads, ribbons and beads

You can see that I was thoroughly spoilt.

It was a lovely finish to the year. Everyone enjoyed it so much that we are going to do it again next year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.
Now is the time to relax and have a break after all the hard work we have done this year. I always look forward to a new year but I think it's also important to look back on the past year and remember all that you have accomplished. Sometimes we are too busy to stop and remember it all.

See you next year!!

Bye for now,
Linda