Christmas!

Wishing you a

happy, holy, blessed,

joyful, peaceful, wonderful

Christmas!

Christmas in Williamsburg

It's been such a warm and lovely December here in Virginia that I decided to go down to the part of town known as Colonial Williamsburg to see the decorations. All the buildings there have been restored to how they might have looked in the 1700's, and you can take tours inside some of them.

The Christmas decorations are understated compared to our bright and shiny modern displays; everything here is made of natural elements.

Almost every building has a wreath (or three)...

This double wreath is really unusual.

The wreath below caught my eye because it is wrapped with strips of fabrics.

This next one is so charming, with the wooden spoons, cookies and cookie cutters!

Even the signs are decorated (the center of this one is a cluster of pomegranates.)

After walking all over CW (as we locals call it), I felt like this squirrel, so I went home to rest for a while!

Winter Trees

With Christmas less than six weeks away, my thoughts have turned to holiday crafting...and I've gotten a head start by participating in the "Ho Ho Ho" craft swap on Craftster.  For this swap we were to make one large item and two smalls, based one one of our partner's three themes.  I chose to go with alwaysinmyroom's theme of "trees" (her other themes were "birds"--which was tempting--and "elves", which wasn't speaking to me...)

She said that one thing she would really like is some sort of centerpiece for her table, with room in the middle for a candle.  Here's what I came up with:

It took a lot of thinking to figure out how I was going to make this!  I finally realized the best base would be a 10" wooden embroidery hoop (just the inner piece), with wooden spools glued to it, and dowels for the tree trunks. (I sharpened each dowel in the pencil sharpener to get them to fit into the spools!)

I have a LOT of wool felt, so I was able to use a nice variety of greens for the trees. I drew four different tree shapes, and simply cut out the paper drawings to use as my templates.

I sewed beads or buttons onto both pieces of each tree, then hand-stitched them together, leaving an opening at the bottom for stuffing.

After painting the hoop and spools white, I glued them together, and glued the dowels in place. When everything was dry, I slipped a tree onto each dowel and secured them with glue too.

Don't you think these trees, individually, would make great Christmas ornaments?  If you used red or white felt, they would really pop against the green of a Christmas tree!

I love this winter wonderland!  I hope my partner does too (she should be receiving it today!!)

Halfway to One Hundred

I'm slightly more than halfway to my goal of 100 hearts for the charity Christmas tree for The Giving Heart in December.  But 100 is actually my "safe" goal--that's the minimum number I think would be enough for the 7 1/2 foot tall Christmas tree.  My true goal is 200, but it's too soon to tell if I will be able to reach that mark.

Here are the first 51 hearts:

I love how colorful they are!  Now I'm off to my sewing room to start on the next 50; each of those hearts will feature the name of one of the organization's volunteers.

Did Someone Say "Christmas"?

I know it's early to be thinking about Christmas, but if you are making things to sell, you need to rush the season a bit.  I am done selling what I make...EXCEPT for one final customer, Dale, of Dale's Floral Design.   My exit from the retail world caught her off-guard, so I agreed to make a few more bags for her store.  I want to show you this one because I LOVE the fabric so much!  It's such a different Christmas print; it has elements that are both modern and traditional.  I bought it from eQuilter a couple of years ago, but there's no information on the edge of the piece of it that I have left, so I don't know who made it.

Front:

Inside:

Back:

I might have to make one of these for myself--I don't have a Christmas bag!

Christmas Stockings

Before the decorations all get packed away, I want to show you my family's Christmas stockings!

This is the one my mother made for me when I was very small, in the early 1960's.  She made it from a kit.  The top is felt, the body of the stocking is velvet, and the lining is something silky.  The decorations on the front were pre-cut felt.  The materials are all very good quality, and this stocking has stood the test of time!  I can remember putting my foot into it and walking around the house with it on when I was little!

 My mom spent several hours sewing on all Santa's sequins by hand.

I think the color of the little tree has faded over the years.  You can see that some of the details of the deer were pre-printed.

Flash forward to the 1980's.  When I got married, my husband needed a stocking, so I used mine as a pattern.  I used what I had on hand, and I was going for a "crazy quilt" look.  I don't really love the body of the stocking...

...but I think the counted cross-stitch is great!

After my son was born in 1990, my stocking-making improved!  The body of this stocking is quilted by hand.

I love this counted cross-stitch Santa and message!  I think I found the pattern in a magazine.

Last but not least, this is the stocking I made after my daughter was born in 1993.

This one is all cotton fabric, except for the felt gingerbread boy.  He's holding real cinnamon sticks, but they have lost most of their aroma!

 Every Christmas when the stockings are hung on the mantle, my daughter looks at hers for a while, and then declares, "I got the best one!!"

Merry Christmas 2011

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!
Luke 2:14

(Thanks to Diane K. for making me this sweet ninni angel tree topper.)

Show and Tell: New Bags

Most of the time when I am sewing purses to stock my booth at the local store called Country Treasures, I go about choosing fabrics somewhat haphazardly--I have a handful of designs that sell well, but I don't want to limit myself to just those, because then the booth looks boring; so I try to find new fabrics that I think will have broad appeal.  Sometimes they sell immediately (like the single Halloween purse I managed to make this year!) and sometimes they sit, and sit, for months before the right person comes along to claim them.  Sometimes that person is me!

I like it when I get a special order for a purse (even if the order is unusual, like the solid black bag and  solid brown bag I've shown you before) because I know it will will go straight to its new home and will make someone happy.

I know the holidays are approaching, because I recently got an order for this bag:

Red and green and holly--this purse's owner will bring the holiday spirit with her everywhere she goes! 


This customer also ordered a bag as a gift for her daughter, a school teacher.  This is the front:

 and this is the back.  I love the graphics on these bright fabrics.  The cursive writing fabric, near the bottom on the front, and at the top of the back pocket, was an unexpected gift from my awesome friend Susan (aka, The Sloppy Sewer).  It works so perfectly with the theme of this bag.  Thanks, Susan!!

I love the fun print on the home dec fabric I used for the lining.  Yes, that's a pocket on the inside, too.

Debbie, I hope you and your daughter love your new bags!

Happy Plushies Wreath

This year on Craftster I've made and swapped a lot of plushies; they were starting to take over my house, so I've been looking for ways to put them to use.  I've already told you about using some of them in toy drops for The Toy Society, but a lot of my plushies have button eyes or other parts that might not be child-safe, so I can't use them all that way.  I'm not sure where this new idea came from, but last week as I was thinking about decorating the house for Christmas, I suddenly knew what to do:  put them on a Christmas wreath!  One stop at Walmart was all it took to get the supplies I needed for my project, and here it is, in all it's glory:

I LOVE my new wreath!

By the way--the green plushie on the center left and the red plushie on the center right are Hungry Monsters--the very ones chosen by Natasha at Serenity You as one of her top-ten handmade Christmas gifts this year!

You can make a wreath like this too!  Here's what I used:
--a large artificial wreath
--sparkly red ribbon, and lots of it (I started with a 15 foot roll, and ended up using almost twice that much)
--green string (in the picture the string is red--oops!)
--small sparkly red ornaments
--scissors
--handmade plushies

It's simple, really.  Start by wrapping the wreath with the ribbon.  Ribbon with wire in it works great, because you can shape it as you wish, but it isn't necessary for wrapping the wreath.

When you return to your starting point, tie the ribbon in a knot.

  I made a separate bow, by looping ribbon in a big circle, then gathering it together at the center and tying it in place with the ribbon trailing from the knot on my wreath.  I used wired ribbon for the bow so it would hold its shape well.

I TIED the plushies and ornaments to the wreath, so I could move things around if I wanted to (which would be much harder if I had used glue!)  I sewed the string through the back of each plushie using a big curved needle.

You will want to play with the placement of the stuffies and ornaments to get everything looking good; that's what took the most time.

I'm hanging this wreath on the inside of the front door, where I can enjoy it!  I have a more traditional wreath for the outside of the door, so visitors will think we're normal.

I have a few plushies I haven't used for anything yet...this is what I think I'll do next:



JUST KIDDING!!!!

Hungry Monsters--For Christmas!

Natasha, a blogger "mum" in the U.K., has compiled a list of her Top 10 Handmade Gifts for Christmas this year.  Coming in at #2 are the Hungry Monsters we swapped recently at Craftster!  Remember them?

You know, making these for the children on your gift list is a great idea!  Why didn't I think of that?  Go to Natasha's blog, Serenity You, to view the whole list and get some more great ideas for your handmade Christmas gifts.  (And you can click on the blue words "Hungry Monsters", above, to go directly to the tutorial.)