One of the Christmas traditions in my house is stockings filled on Christmas Eve.  I made stockings a few years ago using velvet & upholstery samples for my parent & brother.  My new sister-in-law misplaced her childhood stocking in a move and hasn’t found one to replace it.
I volunteered to make one for her and I finally got it finished last night (who me, last minute panic?)

I used a border print for the body of the stocking, kasha satin for the toes and used a piece of hand-made lace to trim the top.  Of course, my DH still doesn’t …read more

My mom received a beautiful set of origami envelopes in the mail the other day and they inspired me    I love taking origami patterns and reworking them in fabric.  I’ve made envelopes from fabric before, but never for Christmas presents before.  I always make candy & baking to give as gifts during the holidays, and I thought this one might work nicely as a gift bag.
I used this pattern and a 16 inch square of cotton fabric, ironed onto heavy weight fusible interfacing.  I pinked the edges and ironed all the folds really well.
Here’s how it turned out:

I’m …read more

My DH & myself got our tree up last night – I have to admit, I’m like a little kid at this time of year   Want to see how we decorated?

Here’s the igolochkoy ornament I made earlier:

Of course, it’s not Christmas at my house without a yo-yo garland on the tree:

I’m a big fan of reusable fabric gift bags too

I really do need to sew up a proper tree skirt though…
I made these reindeer several years ago as a display project for a fabric store.  I made my stocking from velvet & upholstery samples.

And last but …read more

 My mom made a Christmas request for her spool-knitted & carved doll, Tottie Tomato.  She asked for accessories or other things that she could use in photographs with Tottie.
I’ve been thinking about different things that I could make, embroidered pillows perhaps?  Or even an eensy weensy little yo-yo quilt – but I decided on a machine embroidered doll house carpet.

It’s a great way to use up smaller scraps of fabric or to experiment with different embroidery stitches.  I used long strips of fabric, machine embroidered onto a base of heavy-weight interfacing.  Each strip of cloth has a different color of …read more

I loved Advent calendars when I was a child.  My mom made beautiful hand-made ones for my brother & I – and of course, my parents then had to fill a pocket with a little goodie each morning
I’ve been looking for a free pattern online for an Advent calendar, and I’ve found a couple!  Here’s a flat, tree-shaped Advent calendar from HobbyCraft:

Or how about this charming Advent stocking garland from JoAnns:

There’s also this lovely felt Advent calendar from HGTV:

There you go – enough easy Advent calendars to keep the kids in your life happy until Christmas!

There are a lot of busy bloggers this month!  I’ve put together a link round up of some of the best Christmas Gift posts from November

Mary Emma from Quilting & Patchwork continually discovers unique ideas for Christmas gifts and gift wrappings as she explores other blogs.  Take a look at Jen’s idea for making gift balls with fabric scraps!

Noreen from Hankering for Yarn has been crafting up a storm and has a bunch of great ideas for Christmas presents!

Cyndi from Layers Upon Layers has made a lovely art quilt and she says “Now is a good time to …read more