Sewcialites and mini clips

The Sew Vintage group had a fabulous Christmas party on Saturday afternoon, and it was so much fun. It's just a wonderful group of ladies with ages ranging from 30s to 80s. Our common interest lies with quilting and all things vintage.  And we enjoy getting together.  We did a potluck, and I know that I tasted every single tasty dish from the bounty!  I love potluck!

We each brought a gift with a vintage theme, and played a game to exchange the gifts randomly.  Some of the gifts were actually vintage items such as a lovely cookie jar, a china Christmas bell, and the pillowcases in my photo. Other gifts had a vintage vibe.  The gift I took home included these beautiful hand embroidered vintage pillowcases and alphabet mini clips. The pillowcases have butterflies and will go perfectly with the butterfly quilt that will go onto my guest room bed in the spring.  

 

There was also this set of the mini clips with tiny wooden circles labeled with the alphabet.  Becki made these herself.  I use numbered pins for labeling rows of blocks, but these are perfect for identifying the many pieces in individual quilt blocks.  

My first use of these clips was for the Sewcialites block #7 called Butterfly Garden.  On the pattern the designer has the pieces labeled A-H.  As I cut the teeny tiny pieces for the 3.5" block I just clipped them together with the correct lettered clip.  Then when the pattern said to join a 7/8" (yes that is correct) piece G to a piece E - no guessing which was which.  I know I'll use these clips a LOT.  Thanks Becki - I love my gift!!

The only Sewcialites block from last week that I have made so far is the red and white 3.5" version.  Sunday only allowed for about an hour of sewing time, and this is the only block I managed to do.  Sunday afternoon I attended a play with friends and went to supper afterward to celebrate one of their birthdays.  The play we saw was "Away In The Basement - Church Basement Ladies".  It was put on by the local community theater and so well done.  Funny and great singing!! 

The small red and white blocks are most likely going to be used with the house block that was part of a UFO just hanging out in my sewing room.  The final layout won't be figured out until I have all of the Sewcialites blocks done.  But it's fun to play with ideas as we work on these.  

Now I need to get the other versions of this butterfly block made before the next one comes out later this week.  I sure don't want to fall behind.