Our PTA (Professional Textile Artists group) goes all out for our annual Christmas gathering. Our gracious hostess was Barbara this year....
We arrive early.....arms full of packages, food, show and tell, books to share....you get the idea. We do a white elephant exchange that always generates much laughter. Some 'gifts' are desired....others not so much. Wrapped packages are collected and.......
..........
each of us draws a number from a bag. Starting with #1 - that person selects a gift from the pile.
.......Clearly Cathy is happy with her gift (which happens to be my contribution....not exactly a 'white elephant'....but my Christmas decorating days are over so this guy needed a new home.) #2 now can either select a gift from the pile or 'steal' any of the previous gifts opened......and so on until all the gifts have been distributed. Cathy's glee was short lived as the Santa was 'stolen' by #3 or #4. A specific gift can only be 'stolen' twice during that single round.
Connie loves vintage clothing and has gotten so creative utilizing textiles that we might pass up. Here she models her Christmas table cloth skirt!!
Dort makes a "use it up" scrap quilt about every two years.....it's astonishing to see how she utilizes so many different fabrics into one cohesive quilt!
The PTA members......unfortunately, 3 of our members were unable to attend....and I took the picture....so it's not quite complete. We look so well behaved don't we??
Some members use our white elephant exchange as a means to clean out their sewing rooms. Here Georgia Bonesteel models an 'oh so once stylish' apron that was one of the items in the package she selected. Immediately, our vintage clothing stylist Connie called dibs on it!
Linda Cantrell (left) is trying to retrieve the purple sweater from her package which Lynne tried on and decided to keep for herself!!
You see why many items are called 'white elephants"???
Judy is modeling a painted paper cut accordion hat that was in my package....it looks adorable on her. Hats give me a headache and this one was super tight...guess it had to be or it'd fly off if worn outdoors. Actually the construction and design were quite amazing.
The unwanted items have a way of showing up throughout the year....left in members sewing rooms etc. for them to discover when the group has departed for home. Or even the following year as part of the next exchange.
I'm counting my blessings to have been included in this group of fabulously talented, generous, kind friends.
3 comments:
A sedate group for sure! What fun. I bet some of those items go to the party as often as all of you do- like the backwards clock.
I can imagine what fun you all had seeing what was in all those parcels, like you I cannot wear a hat but now have discovered ear muffs they do like daft on an old lady but who cares they keep me warm and as long as the ears are warm the head feels warm too
This always look like so much fun!!! What a great group!!! And I would have taken that 'santa' too!
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