favorite things

I think my singular favourite thing about the holidays is tradition.  It is the repetition of acts, from year to year, generation to generation, that I hold the most dear.  And nothing makes me happier than when my children see the value in those things as well.  This year, as we scanned our very over scheduled calendar to try and find a few hours on a weekend when we were ALL free to go to the country to the usual tree farm to get our fresh tree, there was no time to be found.  When I suggested we instead just pick up a tree in the city, the kids protested.  Together, they decided to make some sacrifices, skip some activities- ringette, hockey, dance classes- and MAKE the time to maintain our family tradition.  And so we did.  Sure, it was literally -40 degrees on the day we chose, but we bundled up and still merrily chose our tree, went on a sleigh ride, and drank hot chocolate as we do every year.  

It was magical.

I also love digging out the Christmas decorations every year.  Ornaments the kids have made, pictures with Santa, and some of my favourite Crafts of Christmas' Past.  

Like the Best Tree Ever hoop and Merry hoop.

My quilted tree wall hanging made by my friend Cherie.

My hand quilted star table topper.

My Retro Christmas Quilt!

 (to name a few).

Whatever the holiday season means to you, I hope it is filled with love and joy.  I recently asked LBNL if she knew the "true" meaning of Christmas.  She replied, "Of course!  It's about baby Jesus, friends and family!"  May your holiday be filled with all of those…and maybe throw in a few fabric presents ;)

See you in 2014!

love and marriage

I wanted to make a little something for a sweet couple who recently were married in Mexico.  It had been awhile since I had played with my hoops (you can see some of my faves here, here, here and here) and I was itching to be stitching, so embroidery it was.

Unfortunately, it seems I only took this one crappy iPad photo, but you get the idea.

I used this pattern - and I used her pattern transfer tutorial, too.  I happened to have one of those Frixion pens and it worked FANTASTIC!!  I shrunk the pattern down to 70% to fit my hoop, then added my own personalization in the centre.

I am really happy with how the floral part came out, it was my first time doing something like this, but I used too many strands for the lettering, so those are not as perfect as I would have liked.  But, overall, I am really happy with the quaint feel of this.  I must get back to more needlework!  So relaxing.

sunshine

A good friend of mine just had her very first baby, a sweet little girl. I have a few things on the go for her (of course) and thought I would share one of them. While she was preggers, my friend didn't want to give away the sex of the baby so she referred to her as "Sunshine." What could be more cheery than that? So naturally I have had THAT SONG in my head for the last 9 months...you know the one :)

Now that Sunshine has arrived, and bears the name of Esther Mae after her great-grandmothers, I thought I would make a little something for the nursery as a nod to that special time.


I had so much fun making this. I used a bunch of scraps from my favourite fabrics and appliquéd them onto linen, then topstitched in black thread. Then I hand stamped the words using fabric paint.


Some sun, a cloud, a rainbow, and then I hand stitched some rain.


Stretched it all on a wooden hoop and added some pink ruffled ribbon for hanging. I forgot to photograph the back, but I used some Rainy Days and Mondays umbrella fabric (perfect!) and personalized it with Sunshine's name and mine.

Wishing you a life full of sunshine, Esther Mae!


Linking up at Canoe Ridge Creations and Quilt Story :)

Christmas inspiration

In terms of crafting, Christmas is really just around the corner. Looking for some inspiration for some fun Christmas crafts?


The folks at All Free Christmas Crafts have put together and eBook of some of Holiday crafts. It is a free download and can be found here. They have included my Mini Monet Christmas ornaments :) They also have a slew of other free Christmas crafts to try on their site.

Ho ho ho!

p.s. speaking of inspiration....happy birthday today to the best dad ever! You inspire me every day, Dad!

Gifts revealed: More Christmas Hoop-lah!

I know what you are thinking- enough with the hoops already! I promise this is the last you will see of them for a bit. I have to get my quilting mojo back to finish (I mean START) my son's quilt in time for his birthday in, umm, 2 weeks! But here are a few hoops that I gave over the holidays that I thought I would share with you.
First up, a 10 inch wall hanging hoop with a scrappy Christmas tree. I cut the strips on the bias, adhered them to linen with Heat and Bond Lite, then top stitched them by machine with black thread. I added red felt circles topped with green buttons as ornaments, and a sparkly gold button on the top of the tree.
I made a few, and hand stitched a different word on each one- "merry" or "believe."
I ended up having to make one to keep- it looks so cute up there on the wall with my best tree ever hoop!

Made a couple more styles of Christmas tree ornaments in addition to the Mini-Monet ornaments and the stitched snowflakes.

A little tree on a snowy slope, under a snowy sky with the North Star shining in the night. Inspired by this ornament. Used some crystal beads to add some shimmer. All done with hand stitching.



Some pretty presents tied up with bows. This version was done by machine, including the script (need some practice with that).

Love the twine bow best!
I made a few copies of these to give to some of my girlfriends for the holidays :-)

Using the same basic premise, I made a 6" hoop for my partner in the Holiday Traditions Exchange at Sweet Bug Farms this year (one of 2 Christmas swaps, second one to follow once it is received!). It is a simple, lovely exchange where you share a handmade Christmas ornament, a recipe, and one of your holiday traditions with your partner. Lauren has 2 sweet children, so I appliqued 2 gifts onto linen, tied them with bows as on the ornaments, but added a tag to each with their first initials. Then, I hand stitched "love is the greatest gift."




I think I made over 20 hoops over the Christmas season...it was fun! But time to move on...we will see what 2011 brings in crafting inspiration!

Birth announcement hoop

Since the wedding announcement hoop I made for Kelli turned out so well, I decided to give the concept another go! This time, it is for a sweet baby girl of old friends of ours. As they live out of town, I hadn't had the chance to meet Julianna yet, but will be seeing her over the holidays so I wanted to make a little something special.

I was inspired by this mini quilt on Flickr. I used some scraps for the clothes on the line and for the little birdy, then outlined them all by machine in black thread to make them pop. I included a red polka dot dress on the clothesline, as I also bought Julianna one of those from the Gap!


I did some hand stitching as well, for the clothes pins, the bird's beak, and for the sunshine.

Used 2 layers of fabric for the sun, and my pinking shears were perfect edging! Added some orange along with yellow for some contrast.


All stitched onto some crisp white linen, the stuff that I picked up at the thrift store for under a dollar for a yard (just had to brag about that again). I ink stamped Julianna's name and birth date onto the linen with black ink, though this linen didn't absorb it quite as well as the natural linen had, and therefore is a bit lighter than I would like, but I still like the fun informal look of this addition! A little blue bow to finish it off, as opposed to the typical pink, and voila! A sweet little keepsake to hang on the wall. Almost makes me want another baby.......HA!

best tree ever

One of our family Christmas traditions is to bring home a fresh Christmas tree. The first year we did this was 7 years ago, when I was pregnant with Big G, and we joined some friends having no intention of getting a tree for ourselves. Now this tradition is one of the favorite parts of our holiday. We go to a place just outside the city that has sleigh rides, bonfires and hot chocolate. Invariably, every year we leave saying, "This year we found the best tree ever!" So, inspired by these collective moments, I made this:

Can you see us? We are all tucked into the Monaluna minivan there, cold, tired and happy. My husband is feeling like Paul Bunyan after the kids cheered as he chopped down the biggest and best tree around. We are belting out Christmas carols as we drive. Our cheeks and noses are rosy, but our hearts are warm!
I am loving the hoop ornaments of late (have you noticed??). Blame it on pilli pilli and Three Red Apples. I have a bunch more I have been working on for holiday gifts, but those will have to wait to be revealed :-) Some are tree ornaments, 3" and 4", but this one is 6" for the wall, and is staying home with us! I appliqued the Monaluna fabric to some linen with Heat and Bond Lite, then hand stitched all the details using a combo of embroidery thread and Perle 8. My favorite detail is the red bow that holds the tree to the car!
I added a couple black buttons to serve as tires for our "minivan."
And again, those famous words.....
Here it is with our tree, which remains half decorated....I guess Mom's too busy sewing costumes!

And here we are in "real life," as we picked our tree this year. Life is good!

In Review... Sew and Tell Friday Roundup!

I am linking up with my friends at Sew and Tell today, and since there hasn't been one for 2 weeks, I thought I would do a review of what I have been up to. Looking back, it seems I am on crack or something....cranking things out in my Santa Sweatshop!

1. Hand stitched snowflake ornaments. Want to read more? Click here.

2. Cute little Scottie dogs for Christmas gifts. More to share here.

3. A gift for my friend Kelli's wedding. See more here. And woo hoo! I just won her wedding giveaway!! I guess that is fabric karma :-)

4. Sweet tote bags for my little ballerinas for Christmas. Like 'em? Click here.

Phew! It's been a busy couple weeks. The Sweatshop pace continues....I need to crank out 7 costumes for my youngest daughter's preschool Christmas concert by early next week, and have also been continuing my fascination with embroidery hoops.... More to come :-) Happy Friday!

Stitched Snowflakes

I spent some time curled up on the couch, fireplace lit, hand stitching these little ornaments.

I used some off-white embroidery thread on linen, and included some crystal beads to add some sparkle. Framed in wooden embroidery hoops, with a little bit of lace to hang on the tree. Just nice, soft colors.

Guess you could say I have been a bit inspired in the snowflake department, lately!



Happy December!