Handmade Gift Exchange and Xmas Wreath

Twice a year the sweet gal at Craftaholics Anonymous hosts a Handmade Gift Exchange. This is super fun, and this is now the second one I've done. My partner was from the blog Who Makes up this Craft, and she sent me a 9x13" baking dish with my last name etched on it! So cute! I didn't take a picture, but hopefully she will and post about it. If not, I may do so. So here is what I sent her (minus the creamer and sugarer, they are for scale)

 She told me she liked houndstooth, so I went with a traditional Christmas candle mat. 

This is actually my second attempt at this thing. My first houndstooth, while cute, was not houndstooth. The ratio of the small triangles to the squares was way too small, so I ended up with something very funky looking. The gals at my quilting retreat told me they liked it just on its own merit, but they agreed it wasn't houndstooth. I may post it in a later set of projects if I remember. The whole project is about 10" square, and I also quilted the outside border in gold thread. Doing that reminded me what a PAIN it is to quilt with gold thread! Some company really should figure out a better way to make that stuff, because it is such a nightmare. 


It must be Christmas craft time, because I also threw together a wreath from some cedar branches Ryan brought me when he cut down our Christmas tree. 

I'm pretty please with how this turned out, it's made just with wire and cedar branches, and a little ribbon for color. I didn't use a wire wreath frame so it's not the world's roundest wreath, but I'm OK with that. I will give a word to the wise: if you make your own Christmas wreath out of cedar branches, wear gloves! I picked tiny little bits of cedar needles out of my fingers for three days. This is one of those little things on my mental bucket list that also fits into my personal "things a farm wife should do" category. There's just a big part of me that thinks a traditional-minded farm should have a traditional Christmas wreath!