Handmade ornaments

Two new handmade ornaments were just added to my Christmas tree. I finished the counted cross stitch ornament with a simple binding.  It has folded fabric star points for a little dimension and is about 5 inches across.

This little felt button ornament was a project from our Sew Vintage group this weekend. It's so cute and was easy to make. Some circles of felt blanket stitched together. The holes were punched so we could add the "thread" to make it look like a real button sewn on.  Thanks Pam for helping us with this little project.

Favorite Christmas ornaments

I read a wonderful blog post from Wyoming Breezes yesterday about treasured Christmas ornaments from her childhood. And she recommended that I post something similar. My only childhood Christmas ornaments are the 2 little angels you can see in the photo. Both are made of cardboard, pipe cleaners, and other mysterious bits and pieces. But I do love them and hanging them brings back lots of great memories from childhood holidays.

My ornament collection is HUGE and pretty eclectic, and our tradition is to add something new every year to our tree.  Most of the ornaments have some special connection to places, or people, or events. And hanging those every year is a fun way to remember.  Some of my other favorites are these 2 photo ornaments from the 1980s when my girls were little.  I have new ones this year for grand-kid photos but I need to print smaller photos to fit before I can hang them.

I have given my girls each a new ornament every year since they were born, and now I'm doing the same with the grand-kids too.  This has been a tradition that I've enjoyed and I hope they get some enjoyment from it as well.  This year we've NOT hung many of the special ornaments because so many are fragile - and we'll have 2 toddlers and 2 crawlers at our house for Christmas. So we mostly kept the fragile things put away for another year and that is OK. But I had lots of fun looking at them as I sorted through ornaments. 

Do you have any favorite ornaments?  I would love to hear about them.

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care

Don't you just love the cozy feeling you get when the house is decorated for Christmas?  Even the cat seems to like it.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in my house

A small Christmas runner for my kitchen counter.  Red, green, and grey is a different color combo than I usually think of for Christmas, but I like it. See the little silver Santa figure hiding next to the centerpiece leaves?

Christmas stocking circa 2004

I'm retiring this appliqued Christmas stocking this year.  I made it several years ago to replace my oldest daughter's stocking the year she "took" hers to hang in her own home.  This one is a little small, so I'm replacing her stocking again this year with something slightly larger. 

When she was a baby I made her a cute counted cross stitch stocking with her name on it. Of course that stocking was hung every year at our house, even after she moved away to college and had her own apartment.  But once she bought a house of her very own she decided she needed to have her own stocking.  So - I made this stocking to replace that one at our house.  And now it is going to find a new home somewhere else.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

Sunday was spent decorating the house for the holidays. I have always enjoyed that task, although it was more fun when my girls were around to be part of the fun.  But I have a wonderful ornament collection that is full of great memories of Christmas, so decorating is always enjoyable for me.

We decided to move the Christmas tree out into the living room this year so there is more room to sit in the family room when everyone is home.  Our big tree takes up a lot of space.  So I bought a new tree for the family room that is tall and skinny and doesn't take up as much space.  It is pre-lit and I haven't hung any decorations on it yet, but I like it already.  I am thinking it might just get some big red bows to keep it simple.

What is your favorite decoration that you enjoy every year?

60 Degree Runners

My body clock is messed up.  I am NOT a morning person and normally am perfectly happy to stay in bed until at least 7:30.  But I went to bed early last night and was wide awake at 5:00 am this morning. 

It is amazing what a person can accomplish during those hours when normally asleep.  I made my coffee, put in a load of laundry, and then headed to my sewing room.  The cat even had to come down about 7:30 to demand breakfast because I lost track of time.

These 2 new 60 degree runners are ready to quilt and bind. I still have a couple more of these cut and ready to sew together. It is really one of my favorites and make terrific gifts.

Plus I made another self-binding baby blanket, add 4 more rows of little half-square triangles to a scrappy project, and made a Christmas block that is going to become a mug rug for a gift.  And it's not quite 11:00 am. 

UFO finish - finally

OK - this UFO has been very patiently waiting to be finished.  It was a Christmas themed friendship exchange that I was involved in - back in 2009!  There is a green ivy fabric that was used by everyone in their blocks.

I made my blocks that spring and summer (13 of them) - and we got together to exchange them in September 2009. The 13th block went into a charity quilt we donated locally.

In late 2010 I finally decided to set the blocks on point with a simple sashing and cornerstone layout.  Then Carly quilted it for me. 

In the fall of 2011 the binding was stitched on, but then I didn't get the hand sewing done on the binding before Christmas. So I set it aside. What was I thinking!!  So close to a finish.  I'm happy to say to I dug this out and finished up that handstitching  on the binding over the weekend.  The only thing left to do is to is write on the label.  I guess I'll have to put 2009-2012 on it as dates to remind me it was a LONG time getting finished.  But it feels good and is on my sofa to enjoy through the holidays this year - finally.