A Little More Christmas

 I am really starting to feel the Christmas season. It gives me a warm glow inside. I want to do all the seasonal things. We started last weekend by watching the entire Macy's Thanksgiving parade. I haven't watched the whole thing in years.

Here is the picture of our fully decorated tree that I promised to post. In addition to the birds, there is a Kansas City Chiefs snowflake ornament and my Santa that I made a couple of years ago from the pattern by Mmmcrafts on Etsy. I also hung my glass icicles that I bought quite a few years ago from Crate and Barrel. 

Here is an old wooden Santa ornament and new garland I made. The pompoms are from Benzie. You can find them on Etsy or at Benzie.com. They are so much fun to string.

I have a sort of addiction to bottle brush trees. I now have well over 100 in various sizes and shades of green. Last year I added a couple that have teeny tiny lights on them. I love those especially.

I decided to set them all up on top of the china cabinet this year. A couple of years ago, I got tired of them falling over all the time, especially the smaller ones. I had a bunch of old wooden thread spools which I wound baker's twine around, and I hot glued the bases of the trees to them and I love the look. The two tiny ceramic houses are a new addition from last year. Not bought as Christmas decor, but moved here to be in the trees for the season. Found them on Etsy too.

Also new this year, I am working on a Christmas quilt. I have been wanting to for a couple of years at least, but never got motivated in that direction. I finally pulled out all my Christmas fabrics.

I first decided to make strip sets and keep it to the mostly red and red and white fabrics. Then, I found some that the design was oriented the other direction. So, I made more strip sets with just them.

Then, I decided it needed something for visual interest. I needed to break up all that red and white a bit. So I pulled out my tomte patterns from Moss and Lotus that I bought a few years ago. I made the tiniest tomte in the bunch. And I love it.

This is going to be a great Christmas quilt for sure. I am hoping to get it done by Christmas, but we'll see. I don't really feel as stressed by the season this year. No deadlines to worry about really. I am trying to just enjoy the season. So far, so good.

The last thing on my list for today, is these pot holders. I have been meaning to make some for awhile now, so I decided to make these Christmas ones for now, and I'll make some every day ones real soon.

These are just made from scraps I had from other projects. I love having holiday pot holders. I hope you are all well and enjoying the season. See you soon.

Finally a Showing

I made this quilt for my brother's daughter. It was a surprise, and so I couldn't show it to you when it was finished. But now that she has it, I can.

 Many ideas were contemplated, but I finally landed on the Ohio Star for her quilt. I made nine stars that finished at 12 inches and 4 that finished at six inches. And then, just for fun, some small 4 inch stars in pink ombre fabric, for a pop of surprise color.

Here it is, all quilted. I decided to do an all over square grid on it and the texture came out perfect.

 And, it's tough to see, but the centers of the stars are quilted with another star.

A fun backing completes the quilt. It was very well received.

I found a shot of the stare within a star quilting so you can see it better. And that's a wrap on Christmas quilting. Happy Friday my friends.

Christmas Crafting

Hello there. I know it's been awhile. Some secret sewing going on, plus, just a bit of laziness on my part. When you get out of the habit of blogging, even for a few weeks, it's hard to get going again. Right now I am working on some Christmas stuff. What I have to show you today is not gifts, so no big secret.

Remember this fabric from 2016? Cotton and Steel? Well  bought some because it was so cute. And then I didn't use it. Until now.

 Well I carefully fussy cut these cuties out, and stitched them together and stuffed them.

 And then I bought some small wooden letters at Michael's. I drilled the holes and painted on the year to make them into ornaments for the grand kids. I just strung the Santas together and tied them to the bottom.

 As I was stitching and stuffing the Santas, I was keeping them in an Altoids tin. I love how cute they are all together in here.

One more for J. I also had some tiny jingle bells left from another project a few years back and put them on the bottom. Can't have Christmas without jingle bells.

 My other project is a table runner for my oldest daughter. We will be there for Christmas this year, so I wanted to make a new festive runner. I bought some yardage of Swell Christmas with her in mind. She loves vintage looking things like this.

 It took me awhile to come up with something that would really show off the vintage look. I drew this out and ended up paper piecing it to make it work.

 Then I found this red in my stash that had the perfect color and the perfect vibe to be the border.

Some more Christmas fabric from a few years ago for the back, a label and it's done and ready to go.

Kinda hard to photograph since it's 84 inches long. But I am happy with the result. I know she will be too.
Until next time, happy Friday.

What Was in Box Number 3?

So I know I should have posted this over the weekend since box #3 arrived Friday, but I have been busy. Anyway, I am here now to show you what was in the box of fun.

 These cute Lucy tunics were in the box. I know I already blogged them.

 Miss N has already worn one and it is as cute as I imagined it would be.

This blouse for my daughter was also in the box. I already blogged that too. But I also had a couple of other things in the box. I couldn't just send goodies to the girls. I had to come up with something for the boys.

I

 So I made another shirt for V. I got this fabric on sale and I extended the body of the shirt as well as the sleeves so it would fit better. It's a good pattern from Oliver + S, but the shirt was too short for him.

I ordered the buttons from Amazon

This is B's shirt. Made from Two Charley Harper prints in my stash

I didn't have enough of either one to do the whole shirt.

This is the back of V's shirt. My computer is giving me fits today trying to write this post.

This is the last dress for N...for now. It is the Geranium dress with long sleeve, made from a knit fabric.

 And here are the buttons up the back. I also used an extended waist on this dress. It really changes the look of the dress.

Not in the box, but just finished, are the Christmas ornaments for the Grandchildren. I found this tutorial on line last year and bookmarked it. These are Scandinavian stars. Just google it. Not hard to make. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will be back here soon.

Merry Christmas

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I am going to take a break for a few days and I will be back. For anyone keeping track, this is post number 397. When we hit 400 there will be celebrating.
And now, a few Christmas pretties:

See you soon.