Christmas wall quilt

 I made a quilt years ago to hang on my wall at Christmas when I was first learning to quilt. However as time when by I decided that I really didn't like the fabric used around the blocks. Same fabric was used for the backing. To me it was starting to look on the tired side. 

So a couple years ago when I came across some Christmas fabric that I liked I knew it would be perfect to remake the quilt. A couple weeks ago I carefully took the old quilt apart so I could reuse the blocks I had made. Took a little time to get all the hand quilt stitches out but so worth it. 

The paper piece tree came from McCalls quilting magazine as did the bird house and snow family. The snow family was a family of 4 but as I had 4 children I added another girl and boy to the family. 

The angle came from the internet as did the paper piece northern star. The star was by Carol Doak. The  ginger bread block came from a woodworking magazine I came across in a store and was easy to convert to an appliqué block.

The middle picture is the backing and the last picture is of the quilt remade and ready to be hung this Christmas. I machine quilted between the blocks and around the blocks. I than hand quilted in the blocks.

The fabric around the blocks is swirl with tiny little red hearts.

Tree skirt

I decided to make myself a new tree skirt. The last one we have been using since the children were little and had a child type theme to it. Now that the children are having children of their own and even they are getting older I figure it was time.

The skirt is made of two panels of Sleigh Ride 58 by John Sloane for Wilmington Prints, 2015. It is made with two panels both exactly the same.

 

 

Little more paper crafting

The above paper flowers came from a Daphne's Diary magazine along with the cute little tea pot in the picture below. I have some little daisy's that I think will look cute in them.

 The little mouse gingerbread house is from Little beehive.com.au. Thought it was the perfect little container for DGD lip balm gift.  We give her  mother  every year the holiday gift set either for her Dec birthday or for Christmas--2 days apart. So we give DGD one as well so she doesn't run off with her mom's.

Paper crafting

I made some little stockings to hold some little treats for the grandchildren. The pattern is from Skip to my Lou. I enlarged the pattern. Using glitter card stock and stickers from Dollarama. There was three designs in the pkg. of stickers but by turning the silver one I was able to get four different looks. 

Decided to do a little decoration to hang above my sewing table. Idea along with the spool/thread holder pattern came from a card making magazine. While I was at it I decided to make one to hang in there in Sept. to remind me that Christmas is on it's way. I when on line and found the spools/thimble clip art online. 

For the Christmas thread I used some metal cording and for the other one I used embroidery floss. 

 I decided to made some according cards to send off to a couple ladies who I knew could use a little uplift. 

The stickers were a dollar tree fine and the saying inside the card came from I should be mopping the floor blog/website.

New jewelry

                                                I decided to make me some jewelry. 

The blue bead/white wire one I have had the supplies for a while and finally decided it was time to get it done. The kit is from knitca.com and is called the Zenobia Bracelet. The kit didn't come with a clasp as you are to sew the two ends together when done but to make it easier to get on and off I added one. 

The bracelet on the right I just made because I found the beads while picking up some batting and thought they were cute/summer colours. The large bead and the three beads on each side of the large one came from a travel/shopping time in the USA. The other beads were left over from other projects.

Christmas countdown

 

Below is the number of days till Christmas from time of posting. It will be here before I know it.

For the grandchildren ornaments this year I decided to make them a Christmas countdown calendar.

I purchased the wooden calendar block sets.  I painted the blocks light buttermilk. For 5 of the six sets I used the red Christmas print paper and as I ran out of it the sixth set got the blue star paper, along with white paint. Picked up the paper on my last visit to the states at Hobby Lobby-last fall

The black numbers are made from vinyl sticker paper I picked up at Michaels and some dies I had.

I used my label maker to do the wording.

Instead of gift wrapping the blocks I decided to make little gift bags for them.  A couple years ago a quilt shop--Sew sisters quilt- did a 12 days of Christmas where she held specials each day that you could order. When I got my order she included a little extra gift. A panel with 4 different sayings. I took two sayings per bag-different saying on each side along with the green fabric under the blocks and made the bags. I also used the same green for the lining. I used green ribbon for the handles and ties to tie the bags shut.

I

Birthday card and some more mask

Had some fabric left over from the quilt top I completed is I thought I would make a couple more mask to have on had. First picture is one side of them and the second is the other side.

 Here is the front of the b-day card I made for my DD who's birthday was towards the beginning of July. I used stamping ink for the stencil design along with a gel sparkle pen for the dots around the other edge of the stencil. A punch and markers were used to make the flower in the centre.