glenn's quilt

Remember that quilt I needed to have done before Christmas? Here it is and I'm happy to report, I made the deadline. Didn't even have to sew binding on Christmas Eve. Not that I've done that before... ; )

I'm sure many of you recognize the Lush line of fabrics. I added another polka dot to have one more print and, as you can see, many solids. The solids were generously given to me by a woman in my quilting group who will be downsizing soon and wanted to reduce her stash.

This all started because Glenn asked me for a fleece blanket for Christmas(he'd seen them rolled up at Target and Walmart). Seriously kid, you don't ask your mom, the quilter, for a cheapo fleece blanket for a gift. At least don't assume she'd actually buy one. Instead, I finally pulled out those gorgeous fabrics (also spurred on by Jacquie's Common Threads quilt for her son made with the same line). Jan came over for a last minute consultation before I began cutting and gave me reassurance that I could get it done - I started the cutting on the Sunday before Christmas. To give Glenn the softness he wanted, I backed the quilt with faux minkee. (I say faux minkee because it's not the actual brand. I bought it at Joann's. Their version isn't as plush or stretchy which worked to my advantage.)

Spray basting held it in place very well during the quilting process. In fact, the only place where I had a few tiny puckers was on the front of the quilt. All that's left to do is name it and put a label on the back. In the meantime, it's being put to good use on his bed.

He's happy, I'm happy.

night tree

Our street, like many others in town, has a tradition around the holidays where the homes display a live tree on the front lawn. Many are lit, but without an outdoor electrical outlet on our home, ours can't have lights.

We started a new tradition this year based on a favorite holiday book, Night Tree by Eve Bunting. In it a family drives to the forest on Christmas Eve to decorate their favorite tree with treats for the animals. We don't have the same diversity of wildlife here in the suburbs, but I'm sure we made the local squirrels, raccoons, skunks and opposums happy.

Trixie demonstrates the proper technique for spreading peanut butter on the pinecones. (I attached lengths of yarn to each before this.)

Glenn rolls them in leftover hamster food. (Sadly, we have no hamster to eat it anymore.)

Ellie's the expert bow tier of the three of them.

I like these better than lights anyday.

gingerbread girls

I did say that the holiday decorations were put away, but I've still got some holiday crafting to post before I can put the whole thing to bed. Humor me while I catch up.

No stripey Hanna pajamas for all three this year. Glenn was a sport for a very long time, but I didn't even bother to ask this year (or last as I remember).

Instead, I bought the girls fleece nightgowns from the Lands End outlet and embroidered them.

I'd planned to trace a cookie cutter, but like Goldilocks dilemna, the first was too big, the other too small. I sketched this one to make it just right. Once I had the pattern I liked, I cut it from the paper and traced it with a water erasable pen (the blue kind). Due to how thick fleece is, I used perle cotton in a stem/outline stitch so it wouldn't get buried in the fabric.

I should explain that I have a thing about the girls in matching pajamas on Christmas Eve. Growing up my dad would hand out presents to my mom, sisters and me the night before Christmas every year. Inside them were matching nightgowns to wear to bed. I'd have to go through our old pictures to figure out how old I was when I refused to go along anymore (I was the oldest), but I'm going to go with it around here as long as the girls will let me get away with it.

the series

The Christmas decorations are put away, but I managed to snap a few photos of the other Beatrix Potter Christmas pillows I've made over the years before they were stored until next December.

This one was stitched on linen - with an uneven weave. A bit of a mistake in fabric choice. It would have been fine for a smaller piece, but I thought counting all those threads would make me insane before I finished. Note that all the others are done on aida cloth. The two I've yet to make will also be done on an evenweave fabric.

My favorite so far because of the pinafores. Animals in clothing. What's not to love?

A little harder to see (I had to take the photos in the evening), but all the shades of green look wonderful on this one.

While all the colors in each of the designs makes for a lot of work - the one I just finished had 30 colors, most of which were some shade of brown - I think they all capture her watercolor shading beautifully. Sadly, I could find no name on the pattern to give credit to the artist that translated each of these paintings to stitchery.

Merry Christmas

As promised - the cross stitch that I've been working on for far too long. All those weeks that I had nothing to post - this is why. Those of you needlewomen out there will understand the time involved in this. There have to be 100 hours of hand stitching in this pillow.

It's one of 4 that I've completed from A Beatrix Potter Christmas cross stitch book. Two more to go. I started it a few years ago and would just get overwhelmed and put it away for months and months. I pulled it out again in October when I was feeling too sick to work on my machine. (Nothing feels as nice as sitting under a quilt on the sofa with the tv on in the background, hot tea or coffee on the end table and some needlework in my lap when I'm getting over being ill.) I guess I'd gotten just far enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And it was a long tunnel - there are approximately 10,000 cross stitches in this. Knowing I was at least past the halfway point kept me going and I was determined to finish it up before the holiday this year.

Details - Done on ivory 16 count aida. It measures about 10" X 10". The fringe is chenille, but I don't remember where I bought it. Found it in the stash and I'm all about using what I have right now. Before sewing it into a pillow I backed the aida cloth with muslin.

Hope you all are having a lovely holiday!

mei mei's quilt

It's not the big quilt for Glenn (the good news is that I finished that and just need to run it through the wash). This one's for Trixie's doll bed. I'd like to believe it's for her baby, Mei Mei, but the reality is a stuffed dog will probably be tucked in under this.

It's a miniature version of the quilt I made for Ellie's bedroom when we first moved into the house. Now that Ellie has moved to her own big girl room downstairs, the room and the quilt in it are Trixie's. The trim was done with a ruffler attachment for my machine. The twin size quilt and draperies in the room are also embellished with it. When I was working on those I just made yards and yards to be sure I wouldn't run out mid project. The scraps are finally being put to good use.

The free motion quilting was done using the book, Free Motion Quilting Made Easy, as a quide. I've done a lot of this type of quilting before, but I highly recommend this book. It gave me a lot of ideas and also spells out a lot of tips that I found helpful when I was first learning this technique ten years ago. (One tip that really works is to practice drawing your design on paper before you begin quilting.)

I tried an heirloom technique on the little pillowcase using a wing needle and a decorative stitch on the machine. The wing needle has blades on either side that actually cut the fabric, creating those little holes, and the stitch stabilizes the design. (I also used tear away stabilizer when sewing it.) Had the fabric not been drapery weight, the holes would have been more obvious and a little prettier.

I still have two more gifts I made Glenn to post, but those just aren't going to happen until after the holiday.

Tomorrow, we bake.

crafty gifts

More things for under the tree. Today's are for Ellie.

I've been on a roll with felt this year. She's getting a colored pencil roll with a matching set for her American Girl dolls. When she's a little older and takes better care of her things, I'll make her a quilted holder like one of these. In the meantime, this went together super fast and it's pink - one of her favorite colors.

The tiny pencils are from the dollar section at Joann's a year or two ago. There were 18 in the set, but a roll that large wouldn't work in a miniature size.

She was also mesmerized by the cross stitch apron that I worked on this season. This will be wrapped up as a kit. The transfer is from an Aunt Martha's pattern set. I picked a thicker perle cotton out of the stash because it'll stand out more on the fabric and hopefully, cover the printed lines better if they don't wash out well. The design was ironed onto a pale pink quilting cotton that'll be sewn into a pillowcase when she's finished stitching.

The beauty of her getting older? I can give her a present that she makes herself rather than killing myself to make it before the holiday.

I'm saving that sort of insanity for the quilt Glenn is getting. Started sewing on Sunday. Tonight I'm hand sewing the final step in binding it. I never learn. At least I'm not sewing the binding on Christmas Eve like I was doing two years ago.

barbie's new wardrobe

The girls are entering the Barbie phase. Finally, I get to make clothes for them!

These are from a vintage pattern one of my quilting friends gave me. It dates to my childhood.

This combo is for Trixie.

And this one is for Ellie.

Trixie specifically asked for pajamas for her Barbie.

These were made with a vintage dotted swiss and a reissued Vintage Vogue pattern:

That teeny yoke has a lining. Gah. I hope the Barbies like these pj's because they aren't getting another pair.

(There are snaps hidden under the plackets on both the pj's and the dresses. I'm not crazy enough to attempt buttonholes that small.)

mail's here!

I've been busy with a lot of elfin activity this week.

Trixie made some big leaps the past 6 months with learning to read and she's now very much into writing notes to all of us here at home. You might remember some mailboxes we made last Valentine's Day. They didn't survive terribly long, but were popular with the girls. For Christmas this year, I decided to make something a bit more lasting for Trixie.

Her official letter carrier bag:

The body is navy felted wool, originally sold as a "skirt length". The letters are wool felt with twill tape trim under them. The bag is bound with double fold bias tape and has a cotton webbing handle.

These are the mailboxes she'll deliver to. The grommets will hang on 3M hooks on our bedroom doors. They're all made of wool felt. I used a regular business envelope as a template, but enlarged it by one inch each way to accomodate larger mail. I also added two inches to the height of the flap so it could be folded over to make the portion that supports the grommets. "POST" was satin stiched on the machine and the the bottom portion of the envelope was glued together since I couldn't get it on the machine without sewing through all the layers.

The last part of the set is a cigar box filled with all the stuff we get sent from charities: greeting cards I'll never use, stationary, return address labels and Easter Seals to use as stamps. I even have some preaddressed return business envelopes from credit card companies in there and leftover envelopes from old boxes of valentines.

I think this mail will be far more fun to open than the usual bills.

3 little mittens

The kids' Christmas ornaments are done.

The patterns are by JBW Designs - Red Mitten Collections I & II.

I didn't look carefully at the sizes when I decided to make these as ornaments and very quickly figured out they'd be larger than I would want for the tree. I rethought the plan and instead of doing them in the traditional cross stitch size, used the pattern for petit point on linen going over one thread. The quarter will give you a better idea of size. (Done as recommended in the pattern, they would finish up around 3" by 4 1/2".) These are probably the last thing I will ever do in petit point. My eyes can't take it anymore.

This one is Trixie's. I picked the pattern with words to commemorate her learning to read this year.

Ellie's was chosen for the script since she'll learn cursive in 2nd grade.

Glenn's was the most masculine of the lot.

There's a darling fourth pattern that I might make up in a larger size to display framed.

They're all backed with this scrap from my stash. I crocheted a chain with a strand of embroidery floss for the hanging loops. When backing them with fabric, I used a tiny stitch length to be sure all the linen threads were caught. The tops were left open for turning and then hand stitched closed after folding in the raw edges.

If my kittens lose these mittens, having no pie will be the least of their worries.

hung by the bookcase with care

I've decided that I want to get all of the Christmas stuff posted by the end of the month, so please bear with me. Only a few more things to go, I promise. (Would have been nice to have it all posted by the end of last year, oh well.)

This was a commission from Mike's girlfriend. Made of wool felt with pinked edges. The name has been machine embroidered with a very dense zig zag stitch. (Change the settings on the stitch to make it as wide as you want and reduce the stitch length to just below the buttonhole setting - or as tight as you desire it to be. Use a stabilizer on the back and just sew on your marked lines.)

gifts from the kids

I think this is all of it for the holiday season. At least as much as I'm going to put up for this year.

Ellie used her looper loom to make potholders for the grandmas. I remember having only nasty nylon loops in garish colors when I was little(and I walked 10 miles to school - each way - uphill). The looms I found thrifting had a ton of nice cotton loops which made for thicker results, but we found that they aren't as easy for little fingers to use.

Glenn used a Klutz book on bottlecap art to make sets of pushpins or magnets for some of the people on his list. He tailored this set to "Uncle Monkey" who writes for a living.

Friends and relatives with cats received toys for their pets. Glenn designed this fishing pole toy using bamboo stakes from our garden supplies, fishing line and feathers out of the craft bin.

Ellie decided to sew some felt mice and stuff them with catnip. According to one auntie, the cats love them.

Getting the kids started on this stuff earlier should go on my list of things to remember next year.

trying to catch up

I did a bit of sewing this weekend, but can't post pictures until the items have arrived at their destinations. I have a leftover Christmas project or two to post as well and am just not in the mood for that. The last two days were spent labeling every item that Glenn took on his outdoor education trip that started today(he gets home on Friday). Once that was done, he had to learn how to pack it all himself and roll his sleeping bag properly. Believe me, it was a project for sure, but not something I want to post pictures of.

So to keep to my promise to myself to post at least every Wednesday, I give you - Soap Mice.

The project came from Angelina Ballerina's Christmas Craft Book. It looked simple enough in the directions - grate bars of ivory soap(one per mouse), mix the flakes with a bit of water and mold the stuff into balls to make the mice. Add a few cloves for eyes and some twigs for arms. It looked like a great project for Basia to do with the kids. I set it all up(including grating the bars of soap), gave her the gist of it and took off to run errands. Upon my return, she told me that she did not care to do that project ever again.

I may not listen to her though. Look how cute they turned out.

gifts for Trixie

Okay, I admit it, the first of Trixie's gifts is a bit of cheating. I didn't make the dress(it came from the thrift shop), but I added a few flower shaped yo-yos with some vintage buttons in the centers. The angle of the photo doesn't show that the dress' buttons are also flower shaped. And the colors are a bit off here, but it looks pretty cute in person. She likes anything that requires the wearing of tights -the better to be like her big sister.

Here's the other quilt that I should have started when I actually bought the fabric (months and months ago). Let's just say I was waiting for inspiration to strike - a few weeks before I had to wrap it. Like the Dick and Jane quilt, this one was all about the fabric. Fortunately, the large prints were available in a wider width(54") and I didn't have to piece the backing. That's actually what determined the size of the quilt. Again, this one only has a few pieces on the top - nine. The sock monkey came from a kit and was actually finished in early December. Don't care to make another of those. Hand sewing knit fabric isn't high on my lists of enjoyable crafts.

The rick rack came out of my stash and was added after I had finished the top. It wound up giving me the answer to how I'd quilt the border. I drew a template mimicking its shape and free motion quilted some rick rack in the border. The center portrait fabric was quilted on the black lines with mono filament thread.

Merry Christmas to my little monkey.