Little Gifts...

 

'Tis the season! At our recent Christmas dinner for the quilt guild in Ocala, we received several delightful gifts, most crafted by guild members. Our water bottles were topped with this cute pieced Santa topper. It's a Half-Log Cabin block fashioned into Santa. We also received a pair of craft scissors in a handy stitched holder with tuck spots for other sewing tools. Our committee did an outstanding job once again organizing a very special event capped off by a talented musical performance by a married couple singing holiday songs.

Our gifts were contained in this cute stenciled drawstring gift bag. And one member upcycled dozens of empty thread spools into clever tree ornament. There are so many tiny details including a little charm at the bottom.

And speaking of gifts, we have a number of crows on our farm- three or more are called a "murder of crows". While walking the dogs over several days, we noticed small shards of decorative house tile on the ground. And then we found these golf balls. We are miles from any golf course and nobody near here hits golf balls into a pasture as a pastime. Finally we figured out that these treasures must be "gifts" from the crows. I put them in the grotto with St. Francis. Those old quilt blocks are "aging" nicely. We started giving the crows some grapes and peanuts along the fence line, but the gift giving seems to have ended. With horses, we have plenty of grain bits and water sources around to keep them happy. I remembered a neighbor down the road telling us several years ago that she received gifts from the crows, too. We'll keep looking.