Rich

Mom

Brendan (notice his Halloween pajamas)

me

Jeanette

Jeanette and I worked up a sweat passing out all those presents! Jeanette read the Christmas story in Luke, Rich said a prayer, and then the wrapping paper flew. Not really–we took turns, oldest to youngest, opening our gifts to prolong the fun and to see what everyone received.

Brendan got an awesome reindeer ornament made of shotgun shells from Jeanette.

Brendan's new ornament

Mom bought this awesome $1 DVD of a fireplace for my stocking. I can choose a “roaring” fire or a “flickering” fire. Brendan is warming his hands.

check out the roaring flames

I hope everyone’s Christmas was filled with joy and love.

Love,

Tiff

For family, coworkers, and friends, I made little bird ornaments with a pattern found here. The website talks about stitching them by hand, but I used my lovely friend Kenmore 15408 to sew 74 of the little birds. I used some scraps from my quilt and other projects and I bought some fat quarters for the little birdies.

74 birdies!

a closer view

Some of the little birds have eyes (extra beads that were used to embellish my wedding veil about four years ago), but most do not. It seemed to be hit or miss in whether or not the birds looked better with or without eyes. I happily opted out of that extra step.

To make so many, I ended up doing it assembly line style.

cut birds

partially sewn birds and ribbon loops

my assembly line

last step - slip stitching the tails

Christmas tags

tagged and ready to nest in someone's Christmas tree

This chipper little robin is one of my favorites. I have a soft spot for robins since reading The Secret Garden as a little girl.

little robin

This gentleman is made from scraps from my quilt. I love that blue fabric.

blue bird

This bright little bird is made from fat quarters that I bought specifically for this project. I love the burgundy color and little “watercolor” spots.

watercolor bird

I kept 11 of the birds for myself (I couldn’t help it, I love them so much). Our tabletop tree is much too small for them, but I will gladly save them for when Brendan and I have a house and can get a full-sized tree.

For Jeanette, the best little sister a girl could ask for, I made a roll-up pencil case:

roll-up pencil case

I got the idea from a few website tutorials and winged it pattern-wise. The plaid is perfect for Nette and I love that the dusky rose color fabric is almost like burlap. Nette really isn’t a pink girl, so the industrial texture strikes a perfect balance. The colored pencils are decorated with little snowflakes in pink, green, blue, and purple. I thought they’d be perfect for winter.

ready for pencils

extra space for Batman pens?

all rolled up!

Next year, I hope to make more of my Christmas gifts. Considering this was my first year sewing, I think I did a decent job with handmade gifts.

I received several Christmas cards this year and hated to throw them out or keep them forever in a box where they won’t often be seen or ever used. Happily, however, I came across this craft.

Christmas card ornament

So today, Jeanette and I sat down with all of my Christmas cards.

do you see your card?

We traced circles on all of my cards.

traced circles

Jeanette tracing her template

We cut all of the circles out. (Aren’t my gingerbread man scissors awesome?)

all of our circles

close up of circles

We then chose twenty of our favorites for each ornament.

20 "chosen ones"

Jeanette's 20

On the back, we traced an equilateral triangle and folded along the lines.

triangles

Glue the circles together.

all glued together

Brendan came back from the gun store in time to help us.

Brendan "helping"

Add a ribbon before the final circle is glued in place. They are now hanging on Mom’s tree.

all done!

I think that these are a nice way to keep the cards for a practical use. I’ll write 2009 on them. Maybe some day I’ll have enough to decorate an entire tree with Christmas card memories.

In hindsight, Brendan did help by providing some eye-candy.

so handsome

This year, I wanted to make an advent calendar, but I wanted something a little more sophisticated and something that would last for years to come. With my new hobby of sewing, I thought an advent calendar of fabric would be perfect. I surfed the web and found several ideas and inspiring designs.

This is what I ended up with:

Advent Calendar Wall Hanging

I bought the cute mini ornaments from Jo-Ann Fabrics.

mini ornaments

The ornaments had ugly gold threads. I cut them off and hot glued ribbon loops on the backs of the ornaments.

ribbon loop

glue gun magic

new loops!

ornaments with beige ribbon loops

I think the ornaments look happier!

I wanted to use my Hobby Lobby Christmas music fabric for the background, so I laid out the ornaments and buttons to figure out how large my tree would need to be.

ornaments in tree-shape

close-up of the cuties

Based on the size of the ornaments, I cut a Christmas tree shape out of wrapping paper.

tree pattern next to ornaments

My pattern!

tree pattern

I pinned the pattern to my beautiful Jo-Ann Fabric’s material and cut it out.

pin pattern in place

cut out pattern

Now, I should have sewn the buttons on the tree, but I like to make things difficult and appliquéd the two sides of the tree on the music fabric first. :}

I pinned the tree to the background.

tree pinned to background

detail of pinning

This green fabric was really difficult to work with (I have a knack for choosing tricky material). I had to garment hem the edges and then appliqué the tree. The garment hem kept the fabric’s weave from falling apart with the slightest tug. I ended up going around the edges twice when appliquéing.

two sides are appliquéd

detail of appliqué

After I appliquéd the tree, I positioned the buttons and pinned them in place. I ended up using more than 24 so that I can switch up the placement of the ornaments from year to year.

positioned and pinned buttons

detail of pinned buttons

All of the buttons are sewn and make the tree look festive even if it is void of ornaments.

sewn buttons

Next, I stuffed the Christmas tree to give it some body and added interest.

stuffed and appliqued shut

I needed to “quilt” my stuffed tree so that the stuffing wouldn’t settle at the bottom of the tree. I chose really tiny jingle bells and stitched them in alternating rows.

quilted tree with bells

detail of mini-bell

I liked the bells so much, I had to add them to the tips of each branch. They make the cutest jingle sound!

detail of branch bells

The pockets for the ornaments took quite a bit of time and they are the reason my advent calendar couldn’t start on December 1st this year.

I cut out two sets of of rectangles for either side of the tree (ornament pockets). The dimensions are 13″ X 5″; 10.5″ X 5″; and 8″ X 5″. I garment hemmed them all. The final pocket (#25 for the star) is 9.5″ X 5″.

cut and hemmed rectangles

I then pressed them in half (“hotdog” style). The 25 “trunk” of the tree is a “hamburger” fold.

pressed pockets

I used a disappearing ink fabric marker and wrote each number for the pockets. I then embroidered the numbers with bright red floss.

embroidered pockets

detail of embroidery

The pins indicate the pocket size. They are approximately 2.5″ in length. The pockets are pressed so that the backside of the embroidery is covered by a length of fabric and thus protected from ornaments snagging it.

I then pinned the pockets to the music fabric.

pinned pockets

detail of pinned pockets

Next step, appliqué the pockets. Once the pockets are appliquéd, I straight stitched the pockets.

appliqued and stitched pockets

The ornaments are ready to go!

backside of pockets

After all of the pockets were done, I quilted my advent calendar.

qulit sandwich

My backing is green flannel. After pinning the layers, I quilted around the tree and pockets. I then used red binding and added a “sleeve” so that my advent calendar could hang on a curtain rod. I did not include quilting instructions because I am clearly a novice, and there are many wonderful tutorials currently on the web.

finished product!

Since this project took me so long, it’s already the sixth day of advent.

see the ornament loops?

I can’t wait to pull the star out of this pocket.

pocket #25!!!!

Happy countdown!

Love,

Tiff

Hobby Lobby has all of its fall items on clearance. I purchased some leaves and a few spools of ribbon. Viola! Ornaments that will remind me of my favorite season:

fall tree

I used a stick from the copse of trees near our apartment and one of my mason jars to display the ornaments for the pictures. I think they look quite pretty against my living room wall. Perfect blue “skies” for my leaves.

Orange Leaf

Green Leaf

The green guy might get lost in a green Christmas tree.

Red!

Not only was Hobby Lobby’s fall stuff on sale, but some Christmas things were too. Brendan said I audibly gasped when I saw the red one:

pretty Christmas ornaments!

silver mule

if only they were a size 9...

Two of my greatest loves: fall and shoes! I have the ornaments sitting on our coffee table so that I can see them and smile every time I walk through the living room.

I’m really excited to trim the tree this year!

Love, Tiff