Hand Made Ornaments

I love, love, love hand made ornaments and here are three I received from three dear friends this year.  We met for lunch, gabbing and gift exchange last week, a tradition we started many years ago.  We meet for each others birthdays and for QuiltNebraska, the Nebraska State Quilt Guild quilt convention each summer.  One friend has a December birthday so we combine the birthday and Christmas celebration.

This first ornament is beaded over a 1 1/4" glass Christmas ball ornament and is so small.  The beads are Delica sized seed beads done in the peyote stitch.  Fay made each of us one of these tiny exquisite ornaments with different designs.  Mine has snow men and cardinals on it - cute, cute cute!

Ornament #2 was made by my long time good friend Janet.  Actually Janet and I were in highschool and best friends many moons ago.  We stayed friends over the years but only wrote once or twice a year until we both started quilting and joined the Nebraska State Quilt guild at the beginning of the organization in the mid 80s.  (Almost giving my age away aren't I?)  We became closer and have enjoyed all the social times and quilting things we have done together over the years.  She even opened a quilt shop which is a great place to hang out.  Too bad I live about an hour and a half away.

This ornament is one of the cute kits Janet sells from her store, Quilter's Delight in Holdrege.  Different sections of the fabric are lightly colored and then the designs were all hand embroidered by Janet with a single strand of floss and are so delicate looking.

Ornament #3 is adorable and made with stacks of buttons.  Shirley gave this one to me last week and it came from a store called Ten Thousand Villages.  There is a store in Kearney and one in Lincoln and they have the most amazing merchandise.  Isn't this little man cute!

This is what it says on the website about Ten Thousand Villages -"Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit program of Mennonite Central Committee.  Ten Thousand Villages' mission is to create opportunities for artisans in developing countries to earn income by bringing their products and stories to our markets through long-term fair trading relationships."  (There stores in other parts of the United States too so check them out and help out a fellow artisan.)

 

Maybe these will give you ideas to make for next year as it is probably too late to get any of these things made this year unless you are super organized and a fast worker.

Lynn