Christmas Ornaments, Already!?!

Yes, I'm making Christmas ornaments.  I'm working on some embroidered ones (like I've made in previous years, like these), and also made a couple little spool ornaments.  

I love wooden spools!

For these ornaments, I simply used a blue sparkly fabric to cover the spools.  (No real explanation or how-to needed for this, I think.  Simply turned under edges and glued to the spool.)

Then I looked at the ends, and they looked rather ugly.  There were no labels, but unattractive glue residue.  I didn't really want to bother with painting, but I wanted those ends covered.  So I grabbed a silver sharpie and that did the trick in no time.  

Then I glued plastic snowflakes (bought for use in making cards, which I've done) on the ends, before finally adding some silver ribbon for a hanger.

As you can see, I made one in the horizontal direction, and one vertical.  I'm pretty sure I'll be making some more, in other Christmas-y colors.

Christmas Ornaments

In November and December I was busy again sewing Christmas ornaments.  I've made quite a few of these over the years, like here.  Most of the ones I made this (actually last) year were for my quilt guild  to sell at the Festival of the Trees fundraiser at Gualala Arts Center.  I'm already working on more to sell this coming year!

Here are some close-ups of the individual ornaments.

I especially love this simple snowflake.

And this cute little tree!

The pattern is Happy Holidays by Blueberry Backroads.  I've bought four of their Christmas ornament patterns over the years, because they are all so cute!

Electric Snowmen!?!?

I made a few of these cute little guys yesterday.  Aren't they funny!  I found the idea on Pinterest, that vast wealth of space that sucks up way too much of everyone's time!

Obviously, the snowman's face is a battery-powered tea light.  A short piece of decorative "pipe cleaner," two little pompom balls and a small bow are all attached with a hot glue gun.  Then I drew dots for his "coal" eyes and mouth with a permanent marker.  (That's about as far as my drawing ability goes!)

Then he gets hung on the tree and doesn't he look happy!

When he's lit up he really glows!  I love this little snowman!

Fun With Paper Piecing

I had some great fun sewing Christmas ornaments this past week.  I really think paper piecing is fun, and I love what small "pictures" can be created, with such precision.

The three above are Carol Doak patterns, available free on her website.

Look at that tiny candle above with its itty-bitty flame.  The flame measures 5/16" tall.

I liked the zig-zaggy strips at the middle of this ornament.

Mr. Snowman still needs some work (embroidery) to give him a face and some buttons.

I love this tree.  And with so few pieces, it's very easy to put together. 

* * *

And then I made a couple more, that were not paper pieced.

This one took a little fussing, but in the end turned out well.  I think the second one will be a lot easier.

And here is a teeny tiny Christmas quilt!

I love making Christmas ornaments.  My goal is to have a tree with nothing but hand-made ornaments.  

"Made in the U.S.A."

Christmas Ornaments

Last year I subscribed to Shiny Happy World's Christmas ornament club.  It was so much fun that I decided to do it again!  I bought the felt fabric bundle and signed up for the patterns.  I'm now on my third week of twelve ornament patterns.

The first pattern was for a snowman sweater.  I actually made two of them.  This was fun to do.  The pattern didn't call for it, but I cut a piece of thin batting a little smaller than the sweater and put it inside, just to add a little fullness to the sweater.

The next week came a pattern for a cute little dachshund puppy wearing an adorable Christmas sweater.  I have a friend who used to have dachshunds, so this ornament makes me think of her. 

Last week's pattern was a cute teddy bear.  I added the Christmas ribbon to give him a little flair.

I wonder what the other ornaments will be this year!  I'll keep you posted.

Giants Spring Training 2014

Once again, our family headed south to Arizona to go to Giants Spring Training.  It is located in Scottsdale, so we enjoyed the warmer weather and sunshine.  And once again, I had to get a lot of hand-sewing ready to keep me busy for the long car ride.

Here I have yarn for two different projects, English paper piecing hexagons and my sewing bag, a few quilts that just needed labels and/or bindings sewn down and/or hanging sleeves sewn on.  I even had a few embroidered Christmas ornaments that just needed a little work.  I was really prepared this time!

At one of the games we attended, we got to see a preview of Tim Hudson, a new pitcher for the Giants.  Fortunately, MisterStitches was able to get us seats in the shade.  These games can be really brutal if you have to sit in the sun.

I got some more hexagons basted, and ironed them in the hotel room.

I managed to get quite a bit of work done in the car.  I finished the bindings etc on the quilts I took, finished up the little bit to do on the ornaments, made a lot of progress on my hexagons, finished one baby afghan and started another.

The cacti were just beginning to bloom!

Embroidered Christmas Ornaments

I have been quite busy the last couple months sewing Christmas ornaments.  The pattern I used is by Sara Hardwig for Blueberry Backroads, and I found it at Bear Patch Quilting Company in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

There, now I have all the legal business behind me!

Here you can see photos of several of the many that I made.  Silly me!  I didn't take a photo with anything to show you the scale.  They finished at 2 3/4 inches by 3 1/4 inches.

These tiny ornaments don't take very much time to finish up.  I ended up making 25 of them for my guild to sell at our annual Festival of the Trees, which is our major fundraiser.

When I was done with all of them, I started in on some more to put in with Christmas cards to give to some of my family.  It was suggested to me that they could also be used for gift tags.  Easily done by writing the name on the back with a fine point indelible marker.  Then the recipient also has a nice ornament, too!

I set up a sort of assembly line to make the embroidery bases.  I first cut out 1 1/4 in strips from various green and red fabrics.  Then I cut out the small muslin rectangles (2 by 2 1/2" pieces).  I randomly chose a red and a green fabric to sew around the muslin.  Next came cutting up the batting scraps to put behind the "frames."  And finally, I cut pieces for the backing for each one.  

I used my "light box" (paper and fabric taped to a window) to trace all the patterns with my Frixion pen.  Then I proceeded to stitch away.  I embroidered quite a few, maybe a dozen, then sewed them to the backing fabric (adding the gold braid for a hanger), turned them right side out, and stitched closed the opening.  All that was left to do then was sew the simple little quilting line around each "frame."

I encourage you to go to Blueberry Backroads and look at their selection of nice patterns.  Or shop for them at your local quilt shop, which is what we all really like to do.  I know that I want to try some more of her patterns in the future!

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?