Party Time!

One of the holiday parties I try not to miss each year is my quilt guild, Mountain Star Quilters' annual bash. Not only are these ladies great seamstresses and designers, they are also terrific cooks, so even though we focus on salads and desserts, we all end up completely stuffed and have the special treats that each of us only bring out for holidays. This year, we held our party at Helm's St Charles Inn, a bed and breakfast owned by member, Tammy Helm and her husband, Mark.


Our quilt club does a Yankee swap ornament exchange every year at our Christmas party. Our rules are that the swapping is done before the gifts get opened, so the packages are often much fancier than the ornaments within! That is the lively part of our gathering, with lots of banter and swapping till the last person's turn ends the chaos, then we get to see what hand-made delights the ornaments turn out to be.


I wore this skirt, which I made about a decade ago, inspired by Kaffee Fassett's work (I have his book, Kaffee's Classics, but have never made anything from it, daunted by the extensive intarsia work involved).

My dear friend Beatyanne, a fellow MSQ member, first met me by stopping me on the street in awe of my skirt... she didn't even introduce herself, simply mobbed me with questions. It's been a continued joke between us ever since. She was delighted to see me wear it, and I was delighted that I fit in it again!


No, I did not make this stole! In fact, I found it on sale yesterday while Christmas shopping.... but I have been unsuccessfully looking for the pattern for over a year. Please let me know if you have the pattern... although I plan to count out the rows, measure, etc. and work out the pattern myself so I can duplicate it.