HST Baby Quilt

Quite a while ago I started a baby quilt from half square triangles.  You can see it here.

Now it is all completed.  I found an interesting orange batik for the inner border, then a light blue by Harmony Art for the outer border.

I really love the fabric I found for the backing.  It was a very lush, fairly large-print yellow and orange floral.  When I bought it, I remember that I loved it so much that I absolutely had to have it.  Then, after a year or two went by, I started thinking, "What ever will I use this fabric for?!?"

But that fabric found a perfect spot to live, on the back of this quilt!

I had the usual struggle with how to quilt it.  After I looked through my Leah Day quilt books, I decided on this design, which she calls a paisley.  It went pretty well.  I am not the most experienced or the most proficient machine quilter; I prefer to say I'm still learning and getting better each time!  This design was very easy for me to do, and I quickly had the quilt covered in stitches.

When it came time to bind this quilt (I used the same Harmony Art blue as the outer border) I decided to try a new method.  I had seen a video of the Sharon Schamber method of binding and was so excited to try it.  Here is a link to her website, where you can find the video.

The method basically uses glue and an iron to secure the binding, instead of pins.  And she has a few other really good "tricks."  Yes, it does take a little longer to do, but the results are great.  I won't be using this method for every quilt I make, but I will definitely use it for my best quilts.  I think what I liked most was how great the mitered corners look.  I didn't take photos while I was doing it, but here are a couple photos of my corners.



Don't these corners look nice!?!

Not quite sure where this quilt will find a home.  I think I'll hang onto it for a while and see what kind of need arises.

Another Afghan

I finished another baby afghan (and am well on my way with another one).  This one was fun to make. I used a variegated yarn of peach, yellow, white, and light orange.  It was fun to work with.

Here is a close-up of the stitching.  I crocheted a single crochet into the back loop.  I like how it looks.

Then I finished it with a yellow scalloped border all the way around.  I like how that sets it off.  The afghan is on its way to a new baby.  Hope she likes it!

RePurposed Christmas Cards

With Christmas over, I was doing some cleaning up and came across a bundle of Christmas cards we received in 2011.

These Christmas cards were so pretty, and I decided I would keep some of that prettiness to use again.  So I cut out parts of the cards to use as gift tags for next year.

Here are some close-ups.

Cute kittens and silver snowflakes.

Love the one that looks like a quilt in the photo above.

I got out the fancy-edge scissors for some of them.

Now all they need is a hole punched and ribbon or string tied onto them.  

One fortunate thing I found was a card with a nice circle on the front of it.  So I was able to use that to draw circles on the cards and cut out round tags.  It would be fun to use some other shapes, too, wouldn't it.  Like maybe a star or a Santa boot or a stocking.  And I just remembered that I have a tag-shaped punch which I could use, too.   I'll have to remember these ideas for next year!

Embroidered Ornaments

Last year I made a set of these ornaments for a dear friend.  This year I made another set for Dear Daughter-In-LawStitches.  She was so happy to receive them.  And they are such fun to stitch.  

Here is the set of four.

The first one is the creche scene.

Creche.

 The second one is Santa flying over the rooftops.

Santa over rooftops.

Then there is the Christmas tree.  Looks a little like Charlie Brown might have chosen 

this one, doesn't it.

And finally, the snowman, complete with carrot nose.

Snowman.

I made these using tea-dyed muslin, from a Bare Roots pattern.  I like how well the white snowman stands out against the darker background. 

They are quite small, the square ones being about 4 or 5 inches square, and the larger ones about 4" by 6".  Maybe one of these days I'll make some for myself.

Christmas Ornaments

I guess I've probably won the Bad Blogger Award, for having let so much time go by since my last post.  Sorry 'bout that.  Let's just say that the holidays kind of took over my life!

Since we travelled this Christmas, and weren't at home, MisterStitches and I didn't have a Christmas tree.  But I wanted to display some of my tree ornaments, so I found this nifty ornament holder at Crate and Barrel.

It worked very well for my purposes.  See, it has a little "scalloped" edge where the 

ornament hangers go.

I put a lot of hand-made ornaments on it, and filled in with some simple Christmas balls.  My goal is to have only hand-made ornaments for this display.

Following are two precious ornaments brought home from school by my two kids, many years ago.  The one with DaughterStitches's photo on it says 1989, so she would have been 7 years old, probably in first grade.  Now DaughterStitches teaches in her own classroom, sometimes first grade, sometimes second, sometimes both. 

I believe these two ornaments came home the same year, so SonStitches would have been 5 years old, and in Transitional Kindergarten.  I love these two ornaments.

This next ornament is one I started a long time ago and just finished this year.  I found a picture of it on the internet and made up my own version.

One year I made several little mitten ornaments from felted wool.  Some of the wool came from an old pleated skirt of mine (not this red one!).

Several years ago I blogged about this reindeer ornament made from a wine cork.  I think he's awfully cute, don't you?

A Christmas tree ornament made from a kit a few years ago.

The following two ornaments are ones I made when we were on a trip to Hawaii.  The first is a sea turtle (honu).  They are both made from luahala leaves.

What fun ornaments have you made in your life?  Or which homemade ornaments do you have that you treasure?