Christmas at the Eleventh Hour

Not that I wait til the last minute or anything, but it looks like I've only bought one (1) Christmas present so far. No sense waiting til the last minute, I always say.
But luckily while I was taking a break from quilting another one of Charmaine's gynormous quilts, I found a mess of these mug rug patterns over at Beaquilter.

Bea's designed them all in EQ7 and, if you have the software, she's willing to share the project file with you! And even if you don't, you can use any favorite block and adapt it to make your own mug rug design. They are so quick and easy, I might just be giving these to everyone on my list. Don't know how it'll go over with the 2-7yr old crowd.
And while we're talking about being unprepared for Christmas (cuz 364 days advance notice is never enough), raise your hand if you've ever run out of gift tags at 11:59pm Christmas Eve! Be honest... I've used scrapbook alphabet stickers stuck directly onto the package, a rectangle of wrapping paper folded in half and written on (but the 'pages' don't lay flat - they curl into each other unless you iron them. And yes, I did), brown paper grocery bags cut with my pinking blade rotary cutter, magic marker directly onto the wrapping paper...very classy. Then one year I designed some gift tags in EQ and printed those out, even though they weren't Christmas-themed. They're available Here. Maybe if I can find a few minutes I'll put together some Christmas ones before...well...Christmas. 2012, more likely.
BUT! Look what else I found!

Gift tags designed by Jim Shore! They're free (yay!) downloadable, and already formatted for stick on labels. Or you could print them on cardstock, cut 'em out, punch a hole in the corner and tie them to your packages. Check 'em out on his website, Here
Break-time's over - back to quilting!

Printable Gift Tags

I've had downloadable 'quilty' gift tags on my hobby website for many years, and since I'm planning to phase that website out by the end of the year, I'm slowly moving some of the things over here. 

These tags were designed in Electric Quilt and I've updated the fabric scans and changed the block patterns. You'll find 4 blocks on each sheet with your choice of fabrics from Mark Lipinski, Jo Morton, Amy Bradley and Marcus Brothers' Aunt Grace and Metro Blue.

A group that stayed at the retreat last week had printed out the Aunt Grace tags and the organizer had written their names on them and glued a pinback on so they could have cute little nametags - like this:


They're in separate Word documents that you can download and personalize before printing them out. I recommend card stock or heavy color copy paper, but regular printer paper will work fine, too. Click these links for the fabric tags of your choice.
Amy Butler
Mark Lipinski's Katmandu
Metro Blue
Jo Morton's Civil War Repros
Aunt Grace 30's repros

These have come in handy at my house when we have a gifting emergency and all we can find are the 500 Christmas tags I bought last December 26th.