Ho, Ho, Ho

This is a new Santa wall hanging I using wool felt and cotton.

 

The background, Santa and tree are wool.  The applique is done by hand.  Santa's pompom and beard are a furry fabric.

 

Beads and gold rickrack trim the tree.  The night sky is sparkling with crystals.

Christmas Block Exchange

At the Millington Quilt Club Christmas meeting, we exchange 12.5 inch Christmas quilt blocks. I received two beautiful blocks in the exchange. In the first exchange, I was lucky to get this nativity scene appliqued by Vivian.

In the second exchange, I got another beautiful block, this one made by Sydney ...so many triangles meeting perfectly!

 















                                               

Each year I make an extra block for myself. This is the paper pieced Santa I made for the exchange.

Oven Mitts

I made my friends oven mitts for Christmas.

Amy has a basset hound so I used some Christmas dog print in her mitt.

 

Linda likes ladybugs.  I had bought a cute fat quarter this summer with her in mind, so I used that in her oven mitt.

 

Last year in our Christmas gift exchange I received four coordinating fat quarters from Elaine.  I used them to make four more oven mitts for Cheryl, Pat, Elaine and Dena.

 

I practiced stippling on the last four mitts.  The pattern was altered as I went.  Of course every one's hand is a different size, so I probably still don't have a perfect pattern.

Fabric Challenge

My friends and I had our second fabric challenge. We all received the same pieces of fabric and had to come up with a project using some or all of them.

This is the mini-table runner Elaine made.

 

Linda made a set of place mats.

 

Amy used some of her fabric to decorate some towels.

 

Dena made each of us a tissue holder.

 

Dena also decorated a kitchen towel for me. :)

 

Cheryl used a kitchen towel and the fabric to make an apron.

 

Pat made a Christmas quilt block.

 

I made a tea cozy for my teapot.

 

This is a top view and the pattern I used.

 

It was fun to see different projects made from the same fabric.

Quilt for Skylar

My nephew, Patrick and his wife, Amber are expecting a baby girl any day now. They are going to name the baby Skylar Jade. Her room is painted jade green and blue.  Skylar's grandmother painted a tree on one of the walls and the rug has modern art trees on it.  The quilt I made for Skylar should coordinate with her room.

The quilting was my first attempt at stippling.  I need more practice but the quilting looks OK.

The binding is a striped fabric and the pattern on the back is overlapping dots.

Upside-Down Applique

At the October Millington Quilt Club meeting, one of the members, Jan, showed us how to do upside-down applique.  In upside down applique, you stitch the applique from the back of the project.  After the applique fabric is stitched down, the extra fabric is cut away and the top is finished with a satin or blanket stitch.

I wanted to try the technique but didn't want to spend a lot of time, so I just made a simple snowman.

 

I framed the finished applique.  The picture was embellished with  hand embroidered snowflakes, iron-on crystals, buttons and a yoyo.

Hand Carved Pin

Today is my birthday. One of the presents I received was a hand carved pin from my daughter, Jenny.

Jenny and Angie spent two weeks this summer at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. They took a class on making wooden jewelry. Jenny carved this flower blossom pin out of a block of black African wood.

She drilled holes into the middle and then set a wire in each to make the center of the flower.

I wear a lot of pins and this is already a favorite.  Thanks so much, Jenny :)