Gifts for My Family

A few months before our trip to Scotland and England, I decided to make several Quilty gifts for my family member that we would be visiting on our trip.  This Christmas star table topper was given to my cousin and his wife.  I used a Jaybird quilts pattern to make it. 

The backing is Christmas fabric I had in my stash. 

I made 6 wide open zippered pouches for various cousins as well. All of the fabrics were in my stash---obviously, I have too much fabric...

Canada themed pillowcases were given to my uncle and some other cousins. I bought these fabrics especially for these gifts.

I'm told that these went onto the pillows right away when they got home!

My cousin, Alison, loves to drink tea so her pillowcase was made with teacup fabric which I found in my stash.

I also brought along 5 lap/baby quilts as gifts...The first one was for my aunt who loves the colour purple.  

My step grandmother was given the scrappy trips lap quilt that I made earlier this year, just for her. It reminded me of her pretty garden.

My cousin and her husband were the recipients of my batik triangle quilt.

There were also two baby quilts--one for a recently born baby boy and one for a baby which will be arriving early in the new year.

You may wonder how I fit all these gifts into the suitcase...

We purchased vacuum bags and put all the quilts and pillow cases and zipper bags inside.  Once we sucked the air out with the vacuum cleaner, the bags were much smaller and fit quite nicely inside the suitcase.  We just had to watch the weight of the suitcases for the plane, but that worked out fine.

When we were in Inverness, we went out for supper and then decided on ice cream for dessert.  We looked on the internet for an ice cream shop within walking distance and found this one a few blocks away...  You will never guess what was next door!

A quilt shop with lovely quilts in the window.

I hoped that they would have some of this Scottish themed fabric in stock for me to buy!

The shop was closed but plans were quickly made to visit the shop when it opened in the morning. Across the road, we saw this shop...

Laskey's book shop is a famous used book store which is in an old church.  My husband loves to read so he headed here while I went to the quilt store.

The sun had just set as we headed back to our bed and breakfast inn.

There may have been some stash enhancement at the quilt store....