Best Wishes to You

 

Three of my favorite little elves and I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas.  We are having lots of fun with the holiday and are so excited for Santa’s visit… 

 

…really, we are ☺

ribbon tree tutorial

Wow, two posts in one day.  But I was asked how my ribbon trees were made.  So I thought I’d share how I figured it out…

I cut a piece of ribbon about 19”.  With a fine tip marker made a tiny dot 2” from one end to mark a starting point. 

From there I made dots along the ribbon spacing them apart at: 2 3/4”, 2 1/2”, 2 1/4”, 2”, 1 3/4”, 1 1/2”, 1 1/4” and 1”.  (The spaces between get smaller by a quarter of an inch). I also gathered some pearl beads and large seed beads.

I inserted my double threaded needle through the beginning dot, a pearl bead and a seed bead.  Then came back through the pearl bead and ribbon to secure the bottom of the tree.

I added another bead and went through the next dot again and again…

 

Until there were four loops on each side ending with a pearl on top.  I threaded through another seed bead and back through the pearl and ribbon to secure just like at the beginning.

Finally I went back up through both beads again and tied a knot at about an inch or so to make a hanging loop.

 

Clipped the ends of the ribbons to where I liked them and touched them up with Fray Check…

and Voila!…a ribbon tree!

It’s beginning to look a little like Christmas…

    I’m just being busy crafting and doodling around in my sewing room…and singing Christmas songs in my head while I work.

tis the season for keeping secrets

I’ve been very busy at my sewing machine…but it’s that time of year when you just can’t post about what you’re up to.

  Isn’t making surprises so much fun?

My Quilty Christmas

This was what I was doing just days before Christmas:

But they were finished just in the “St. Nick” (ho ho ho) of time for Christmas day!

And there were “I spy” quilts for the little ones.

Then Mr. Sunshine surprised me with EQ7 under the tree…

 

…and a featherweight machine that is just so tiny cute! 

  Looks like it’s going to be a very fun…

Holiday Wishes

This is a busy week…that just got busier this morning when we discovered that our stove is broken…right in time for all the Christmas baking and as we are planning on having the whole family here for Christmas Eve dinner.  Yikes!  But Oh well, I know it will all work out somehow…it always does. 

Very soon now I will be able to post all those projects I have been working on secretly the past while.  I am especially excited for those I love to finally receive them. So fun!

I hope you are all having a beautiful, wonderful Christmas. 

Look what I found!

I climbed into our little attic room to get out the Christmas decorations and came across a forgotten box filled with these felt ornaments.  I had to bring them down and have been playing with them.  So many good memories!  I stitched these up 31 years ago for our tree.  It was our second Christmas together.   

They came from a book by Sandra Lounsbury Foose.  I loved her designs back then and over the years have collected five of her books.  They are all out of print now so I feel lucky to have them.

I’ve also finished two more blocks for my little applique quilt.  Each one will finish at 5 inches square.

No peeking…well…maybe a little one

There are so many things I’ve been working on but most of them I can’t share just yet.  This is the time of year for secrets you know. 

But I can give you a peek at this miniature house block that’s a part of a bigger project.

The little window is only 1/4” square. 

I used part of a Carol Doak pattern for the house and added one of my favorite little quotes.  It’s all going together nicely, I think.

And these pretty pieces are part of a stack of fabric on my cutting table awaiting their turn for the next project.

It was Wonderful!

Christmas is over and it was wonderful!  Family, friends, smiles and laughter, gifts and giving and delicious food.  Lots of work and lots of joy. 

Tons of thanks to Teresa for the Advent Swap.  So many pretty fabrics and fun surprises.  And the best of all on Christmas morning….a beautiful sewing case to keep threads, scissors and needles.  It is just amazing to look at.

 

I finished my Schnibbles for December and they became gifts…

And now the cleaning up and putting away.  It puts me in the mood to straighten and organize.  I’ve been busy rearranging my sewing space.  It will be nice to have things ready for a Happy New Year of projects!

Last Minute Things

I’m still opening my gift a day from Teresa.  I keep the tags and line them up on the bookcase shelf.  The days are going by so fast…

…maybe too fast.  Yesterday, Mr. Sunshine and I worked on making a last minute gift and now its ready.  Then I got busy on my Gail Pan’s “A Christmas Wish” little quilt and finished it just in the nick of time to put up for this season.  I didn’t want to wait clear till next year to use it, so I buckled down and sewed till the wee hours.  It is pinned over an existing wall hanging for now.

We’re almost ready.