Surprised by Love

At a quilting retreat this weekend, I was overwhelmed and completely surprised by an outpouring of love and good wishes.  Two of us had experienced tornado damage.  Karen's house was completely destroyed.  Ours, if you've followed the blog, was uninhabitable for 5 months while repairs were made.  Along with many of  Karen's belongings, her Christmas decor was scattered across the state.  She even described strings of lights which were found wrapped around trees.

So Quiltaholic, aka Thearica,  from the HGTV Message Board forum for Quilting and Needlework rallied the others together and filled two huge, whopping baskets with amazing ornaments for Karen and me.  These baskets were filled to the handles and wrapped in pretty plastic to keep them safe.  The overflow were in an accompanying box.  Some ladies crocheted their ornaments, some beaded, some made quilted ones and yo-yo ornaments... You get the idea.  What an amazing and generous collection of gifts!  We both spread out all the ornaments at the retreat to let everyone see the variety.  It took 2 tables each to show them off.

It was such fun discovering each one unique and made with love.  I took several snapshots of the spread and I hope you'll enjoy seeing them too.

peeking into the box of goodies - from Kmouse

These will bring joyful tears each year when I hang them on my tree in my studio.  I'll keep them separate to remember this expression of love from my online friends.

Merry Christmas!
- SeeingStars