Christmas in July crafting...

It certainly is high time I got back to posting here! I don't have anything great to share today, but did want to post a photo of the progress on some cross-stitched Christmas ornaments. This pattern came from an old Country Handcrafts magazine. I made one of these ornaments as a gift back when the magazine was new, probably in the 1980s or 1990s. Ever since then, I have planned to make a few more, and am finally getting around to it.

The top ornament is stitched on what is called Basic Cloth. It's something I've had around for years. I believe the color is called cornmeal. I love the way it looks -- sort of like miniature burlap -- but I don't love stitching on it. Because I'm not that pleased with how this one came out, I'll keep it for our own tree.

The second ornament is stitched on Fiddler's Cloth, and I like that much better. You can see that I didn't use exactly the same colors on each ornament -- I'm just using what I have and like the looks of. At the bottom of each ornament I've backstitched a family name, such as "The Smiths".

As you can see, I have a third one started. When the stitching is completed, I'll cut them out, glue to cardboard with a hanging loop in between, and frame them with twigs. I am hoping to find some birch twigs to use.

And that's my Christmas in July crafting so far!

Some more crafting for Christmas...

Here are a couple of things I've made lately. First of all, two more hot pads. One of them -- the one with the cows and the wintry scenes -- is just "winter" while the second one is much more Christmasy. I loved that fabric and bought it with no clear idea of how I would use it. I just liked the motifs. But it works well as a hot pad, I think.

This is the "Silver Skate" ornament I've been working on. I apologize for the blurriness of the picture. This ornament is from a pattern in a 1968 McCall's Christmas Make-It Ideas magazine. It is supposed to be made from red corduroy, but I decided to try making it up in red felt first. This whole ornament is just an experiment. I didn't enlarge the pattern as much as specified, because that would have produced a larger skate than I wanted. I think I will make subsequent ones a bit larger than this, however. I do have some corduroy I want to use, and think that sewing and turning the skate will be easier if it's made somewhat larger. (I have some red/black corduroy in a tiny windowpane check which is from a vest my dad always wore at Christmas time, and I have some blue corduroy from an old robe of my mother's. I thought those might be nice to use to make each grandchild an ornament.)

The cuff is supposed to be fake fur. I couldn't find the stuff I thought I had, so used some jumbo loopy chenille I had on hand. The lacing is supposed to be white yarn. Again, I didn't have any so used some silver-gray cord from my stash. (It would have worked fine if my fingers were less rough and my fingernails not split.) I'm not sure, for the future skates I make, if I'll use yarn or decorative cording. The blade was to be white felt with silver glitter glued on (remember, this was a 1968 pattern. 40 years ago they didn't have all of the wonderful craft products we have now). I just brushed on some slightly diluted silver glitter paint. Glitter glue would work, too. All in all it was a fun project and I think the experiment was a success. It definitely showed me what I would change next time to come up with a better result.

Christmas tablecloths

Today I finished a couple of simple projects toward Christmas 2009. I made two very simple Christmas tablecloths, one small and squarish, the other larger and rectangular. I have had these fabrics in my stash for years and had never found just the right thing to do with them. When I bought them I was thinking of table runners, but the prints were both slightly uneven and I thought table runners might call attention to that a bit too much. Here is the larger cloth.
And here is a closer look at it:
And here is the square cloth:

I like the stenciled look of these motifs.
After Christmas this year I was going through fabric to use for making the pieced runner I featured here earlier, and came across these prints again. I decided to just narrow-hem them and use them as tablecloths or table toppers for the various tables in our dining and living areas. They are not perfect by any means, but I still like the prints just as much as ever and will greatly enjoy using these on our holiday tables next year. I feel rich just having these pressed, folded, and waiting in the linen closet!

Show & Tell Friday for February 6

For Show & Tell Friday today, I want to share photos of the pieced table runner I just completed. As regular readers of my Christmas blog know, I like to work on Christmas projects all year round. I also have a huge collection of Christmas magazines dating back to the 1950s. Each year I spend time looking through some of these for ideas of things to make.

I found this runner in the December 1980 issue of Decorating and Craft Ideas magazine. Apparently I was interested in stitching it even way back then, 28 years ago, because I found that I had enlarged the patterns via photocopier, and they were ready to use now, in early 2009! I cut the pieces out just after Christmas, using remnants from my stash of Christmas fabric, and have worked on the runner in spare moments ever since. I must hasten to add that I am not a quilter and am not even a very proficient seamstress. I just followed the instructions and the runner came out looking much like the magazine photo, so I'm happy with that.

Here is the runner. Sorry for the perspective in the photo, but taking it from this angle was the only way to fit the whole runner in the picture. Our table does have one more leaf which we add in to seat 12 around the table, so the runner will still be a fine length for that.

Here is a detail of the back of the runner. I wanted not to have to buy any fabric for this. I had a lot of this green gingham on hand as I had bought it with the idea of making valances for the dining room windows. I think I still have plenty left to use for that.

And here is a closer detail of one end of the runner. I think it is so pretty.

There is also a place mat pattern, in the Dresden plate design, which coordinates with the runner. I'd like to make a bunch of those, maybe a dozen, to go along with the runner. A future project!

To see what others have shared for Show & Tell Friday, head on over to There is No Place Like Home

and check out the links. Happy Show & Tell Friday, everyone!

Three little green trees

After I had taken down some of my Christmas decor for the season, I got to thinking that I should have taken more photos. So I hung these little green trees back on the chandelier just long enough to take a picture of them. Here's how they looked during the Christmas season:

In addition to the trees, I hung bows of wide plaid ribbon and little gingerbread men from the chandelier. The gingerbread men are just made from recycled brown paper bags. I pressed the paper after cutting the bags apart and then cut gingerbread men shapes from it. I stitched them together on the sewing machine with a layer of batting in between 2 shapes for each ornament. I added details with shiny dimensional paint.

I made these little trees quite a few years ago. They were made from a kit someone had given me -- a kit they had bought for themselves and never got around to use. It was an ornament kit from Yours Truly, a company based in Atlanta, GA. The bright green calicoes have a retro look, and the trees turned out taller than I was expecting them to.

The first Christmas after I made these, I did put them on the tree, but I really didn't care for them as tree ornaments. For quite a few years they were just relegated to a box of ornaments and not used. Last year I noticed their nifty retro look and thought they would look neat hanging from the chandelier. I had first tied on the plaid bows, then the gingerbread men. I thought the trees might add a nice touch, and was pleased with the way they looked with the other items.

Making Christmas ornaments

I simply love crafting Christmas ornaments. I've been making them for years. One ornament particularly stands out in my mind. I crafted it from felt years ago from a pattern in, I think, a McCall's Christmas Make-It Ideas. The ornament was either two or three hearts of varying sizes strung vertically on a thread. It was pink -- not the best color for a Christmas ornament, I'm thinking now -- but how I labored over that creation. Each size of heart was cut twice, and then the thread sandwiched in between the two, which were glued together. The effect was like that of a mobile, in that the hearts swayed and turned on the thread in the air currents in the room. I made this project when my children were very young, and as I recall it took me an entire day. Another project I did back in those days was crocheted ornaments I found the pattern for in a newspaper. A Christmas tree was one of the designs I made. These were crocheted from dark green yarn and then colorful French knots were added for lights.

As my kids grew older, I was always on the lookout for ornaments they could make. For a few years I taught art at a Christian school, and made countless ornaments with the students there at the Christmas season. In later years I made many ornaments for an annual October craft fair at my daughters' school. It was always fun, as Christmas drew near, to look at my stash of Christmas magazines, as well as the new issues, to decide what ornaments I might make. Oh, the fun of sending off to Home-Sew for the makings for some of these -- Christmas ribbons, cords, laces and trims! It was truly a special and wonderful part of my Christmas season.

Now I often look back on ornaments I have made and wish to make more of them. But there's never enough time. This year, I plan to work on ornaments all year round. One project I hope to do this week is to sit down and plan what ornaments I will make and to locate all the patterns and instructions. Then I will take note of any materials I might need to buy. I believe I can probably make a good many ornaments just with materials I already have on hand. How inspiring that thought is!

More on gift tags from old Christmas cards

Last year, I posted on this simple idea, but I thought I would publish this again and add to it a little bit, along with a photo of some of my tags.

One of the most obvious and easy ways to use your old Christmas cards is to make gift tags from them. There are a couple of ways to do this.

Sometimes you can use the entire front of a card as a tag, if it has enough blank space to write the to/from information. These are especially nice for family members -- for example, you might have a card front that says "Merry Christmas to a Dear Granddaughter." This is a natural to paste to the top of your granddaughter's Christmas present. These can add a real decorative element to a package wrapped in a solid color like red, green, blue, silver, etc.

The other way is to cut shapes from your old cards to make tags. You can make simple shapes like rectangles, squares or circles. Current, Inc. sells a set of tag templates which work very nicely and has quite an assortment of shapes. A book of children's Christmas stencils would also work well. Of course, you will want to make sure that your design elements from the Christmas card are centered or otherwise placed strategically on the tag before you cut it out.

Once you have cut your shapes, you may want to embellish your tags with glitter glue or dimensional paint, or you can brush white glue over them and sprinkle with glitter. Another thought is to use some of the lovely glitter glazes available. They come in varying colors and some have little glittery shapes like stars in them. I found these in the same aisle with crayons and markers; at least that's where they are in my Wal*Mart.

Next, you can punch a hole in each tag and add some red or green string or gold cord to make a hanging tag. If you embellished the tags, you will want to make sure the glue (or glaze) is dry before adding the string or cord.

Here are a few of the tags I have made in the last couple of years.


This simple project is a fun way to keep your kids busy on snow days -- and I personally find that doing a project like this, even all by myself, is very relaxing and a great stress reliever. Have fun with this idea!