Even More Christmas Stuff

 I have more Christmas things to share this morning. I have been very busy, sewing and stitching and baking. More baking to come, as I am making Stollen today. The dough is in the kitchen rising even now.

First of all, my Christmas quilt top is done!!! It came out measuring 61 x 63.5 so a good lap size. I think I know how I want to quilt it and I am busy getting the backing together. The backing will be a Christmas Washi Tape fabric that I got from Cindy at Live a Colorful Life last year when she was destashing.

There are these adorable tiny tomte on the green strips. The pattern if from Moss and Lotus on Etsy. She has many cute tomte patterns. These littly guys finish at 2 1/2 inches.

I finished this stitchery from BeCo Productions.  Hers was  all green in ombre fashion. I decided to do the french knots in red and the stars in yellow and I am very happy with how it turned out.

Another picture of the tomte. I alternated one tomte and then two on each of the green strips you see in the quilt.

This is a mini quilt I made a few years back with the tiny tomte pattern. In this one each little tomte is wearing a different pattern. The tiny trees I drew up myself to fit the spaces. This is all paper pieced, but oh so very easy.

This is my French hen from the twelve days of Christmas patterns by Larissa at MmmCrafts. I haven't decided how many I'm going to try to make this year. So far I am happy with all the birds, as that is how I've chosen to decorate my tree, with most all bird ornaments.

I had some blank gift tags, so I am sewing scraps to them to customize gift tags. This is a very easy project. You can cut your own tags and use up some of those Christmas scraps.

Last one, the back side of the French hen. Those little chicken feet just slay me. So, I'm off to bake and sew some more. Have a great day and a wonderful weekend.

We Need a Little Christmas

I was listening to that song just the other day. "We need a little Christmas, right this very minute!" Now, I have sort of a weird relationship with Christmas. I can't call it love/hate. That's too strong. But, when I'm feeling it, I am all in. When I'm not, there is nothing to be done but to fake it as best I can. The last few years have been more fake it than anything. Now, there are a few moments here and there that I feel good about it, but few.

This year, I seem to be all in. Part of it is just being home again. North Carolina is home and it feels right. The other part is being in our own apartment, with no other family member living here except the two of us. We see the kids regularly, but this is our space.

 This is a first for us. A small, 4.5 foot tree, artificial. It seems that we are finally ready to be done with the messy mess that comes with a live tree. To be sure, we miss the smell, but we plan to get a wreath for the door that is live, so that will help. An, I set this baby up before Thanksgiving. I have NEVER done that before.

I put just the white lights on it, and left it at that until after Thanksgiving. I had my hubby get down all the Christmas stuff, so I could go through it all. I had already given the girls all their ornaments collected over the years. But still, I have a lot of decorations. I spent several days pulling out an ornament here and there. I wanted to keep it simple.

I started making the MMMcrafts twelve days ornament series. I bought the pattern last year.

                                         This is the front of the Colly Bird.

And, of course this is the partridge and the pear. I put these on my tree first, and little else. I started going through and finding all the bird ornaments. I found quite a few. I decided to do a mainly bird tree.

I apparently forgot to take a photo of the full tree, but I added the bow from my Advent calendar to the top of the tree. I will get a photo and include it in the next posting I do. Much more Christmas to come.

Happy weekend.

A Wee Bit of Christmas Prep

I am not one to rush the season. In fact, I hate that. But now that I live 3000 miles away from my sweet grandchildren, I have to do things like making ornaments, much sooner so I can mail them in time. I make the kids an ornament almost every year. Some years I have bought ornaments, when I can find something unique that I like.

Last year, I bought a pattern from Sue at Moss and Lotus. She created a collection of patterns for Tomtes (Christmas gnomes) and I bought the pattern bundle. It was way too late to make any of them in time for Christmas last year, but I pulled them out the other day and got reacquainted with them.

 There was a free bonus pattern for a mini Tomte. It makes the cutest little ornament! It finishes at 2 inches square. I put a bit of batting in it for body and attached a ribbon and Voila!

 I made four of them for the grand kids. They are all the same, except for the fabric on the back, where I wrote the year and my name in Micron pen.

 The nose is a wee little french knot! These were so super simple to whip up using scraps! I plan to tackle the larger Tomtes soon. They will finish at 6 inches square.

The other thing I have done for Christmas is this adorable Santa ornament. The pattern can be found at Mmmcrafts. If you've never seen her stuff, you need to go right now. It will amaze you.

This is the picture from Larissa's pattern. I saw it and fell in love and had to have it. It is the first in a series from The Night Before Christmas ornaments she is creating.

And this is my little Santa ornament. he doesn't have all his accessories here. The pattern is so well written and I found it easy to follow.

 Here he has his accessories. I had such a blast making all these little pieces and then assembling them. I took my time and did it over the course of a week, to give glue time to dry, etc. But I love them so much, I have already decided that this will be the grand kids ornament next year.

My plan is to start now and slowly work on them until they are all done. Each one will be a different color too. I hope you have enjoy this wee bit of early holiday prep. Talk to you soon.