I had a ball!

So Saturday was the holiday party for the lace group. The Atlanta Chapter of IOLI celebrated 30 years as a chartered chapter this year. I missed that meeting (and lots of others). But miss the holiday party? No way! As in past years, it followed the usual (perfect) routine: EAT, gift exchange, group photo, fun craft project. We do have our priorities in order. : )

I packed my tote the night before with craft materials, gifts, camera, nametag and things. I even got there early and had time to sit and chat with Kay as she knit on another gift blanket. That was nice.

Many years Kay has been Party Guru and planned and prepared our crafty fun, but this year Pat (busy, but still blogless Pat) planned our project and we made paper Christmas ornament balls.

Pat owns a die cut machine and had a template that would cut 4 circles at a time out of each recycled Christmas card front. Pat had enough circles already cut for us so we could get right to work. Thanks, Pat!

Right to work as soon as we had all pawed through the circles and made our choices. Then things got a little quiet for this group as we were bent over gluing and assembling our spheres. I had to get Pat's help at least once to make sure I got the right edges glued together.

I especially loved the one Doris made as it looked quite Victorian.



Doris (2nd from left in green vest) was a charter member of the group and is an excellent historian for the group, keeping an album of photos and information. So nice to look back at all the good times and friends.




And if ALL that wasn't enough fun, Pat gave us all teeny tiny Santa hats to wear. Hilarious! So much FUN. I haven't laughed as much in months!

There are a lot of amazingly talented lacemakers pictured there. I got close-up photos of several of the ornaments on the tree that I hope to share in another post. Even those won't come close to showing what some of these women are capable of producing with just STRING!