Christmas crafting timeline

Finally I have some progress to report on my Christmas crafting timeline. Last week I sat down and figured out just what I want to finish making for handcrafted gifts, and how much time I theoretically have left to work on them. I would like to have all of the handmade gifts finished by November 30, except for certain food gifts which may need to be done closer to the time. I would then have December to do fun crafting like ornaments and decorations.

So I divided the remaining time into 15-day increments, with "due dates" of September 30, October 15, October 30, November 15, and November 30. Then I divided up my projects, making most of the quicker, easier ones due sooner, and the long-term ones (which are already in progress) due near the end. Life is hugely stressful right now and I really have no idea how much, if any, crafting I will actually be able to accomplish. But I felt I needed to have a plan in place.

Last night I was able to cross one project off my list, this cross-stitched Christmas hand towel.

I am thrilled to have something else completed!

This morning I got out a couple of the kits for other items on my list and began getting my materials organized for those projects. It's good to see even a little progress.

Completed sampler ornaments

Here, at long last, are the completed cross-stitch sampler ornaments. I have covered up the family names so the recipients won't see their gifts ahead of time! As you can see, two of the ornaments are a bit larger than the middle one.

This middle one is made with Basic Cloth in the cornmeal color. The pattern didn't call for this, it was just evenweave I had on hand and I liked the look of it. But it was hard to stitch on. I am not sure of the thread count; it's probably 18.

And the other two are made with Fiddler's Cloth, 14-count.

They were much easier to do. Even though I prefer the look of the Basic Cloth, I preferred the ease of working on this. I had some difficulty finding twigs of the right diameter and in fitting them around the stitchery, but in general I am pleased with the way these ornaments came out. I was aiming for a rustic effect and achieved it.

The third little angel

Here is the third and final felt angel. As I mentioned before, I made the first of five angels from this kit over 20 years ago -- 1988 to be exact! I evidently made some changes in those first two and of course, all these years later, I wouldn't have remembered what I did. The parts and pieces that were left in the kit for this last angel were quite an assortment! This particular angel was supposed to have yarn hair (sewed to a felt backing) and be holding a lamb. The backing for the hair, I inadvertently messed up while making the fourth angel, so I had to do something different with this one. There were also hearts to make into a garland which were supposed to go with one of the other angels. (I have no idea why they hadn't gotten used before.) I decided I wanted this last angel to hold a garland of hearts rather than a lamb. This meant I had to redesign the top part of her dress (which wouldn't have showed if she was holding the lamb) and do her hands differently. All of that worked out fairly well. In the end I decided to stitch up the little lamb too, just because it is so cute.

And this next photo shows all three of the finished angels and the lamb. I just need to add a gold thread for hanging to each one of them. I am glad to have these UFOs out of my stash and ready to be used.


Now, on to finishing the cross-stitch sampler ornaments...

Another little angel

Here is the second little felt angel (out of three). I started the third one last night. Because I made the first two angels in the kit many years ago, I can't remember what I did, but I evidently changed some things around on those two. The leftover components that I have to work with for this fifth and last angel are going to mean some changes in her appearance... but she will still be cute and festive!

One little angel

Last night, I finished the first of three felt angels. This one is holding a duck. I'm not sure how I like the abundance of green ribbon on the angel's braids and around the duck's neck, but that's what the directions specified and the ribbon was included in the kit, so I went for it.

Two more angels to go...

Another gift idea

Today I was glancing through a Gooseberry Patch Christmas in July booklet. I came across a quote which a friend of mine would absolutely love. Two ideas merged into one as I thought about the little journal I mentioned yesterday.

Wouldn't it be a lovely idea to fill a journal with inspiring quotes and verses, to share with a dear friend or someone who needs encouragement? One could use fancy lettering, one's best handwriting or printing, or even calligraphy, to write the quotes, and then embellish the pages with simple drawings or leafy, vine-y stickers. I am definitely going back to the dollar store and buy several more of these!

Here are a couple of quotes to get you started in your thinking. These came from a calendar and no author was given for them.

"Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending."

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tomorrow."

Once you get started on this project, I guarantee you will see wonderful quotes everywhere you look. There are whole books of quotes available. You will find quotes in the things you read. You may have special quotes from people in your family. Bible verses are good to include, too.

Hope someone else has as much fun with this idea as I'm already having!

Found at the dollar store!

Last week I found some neat things in the dollar store (Dollar Tree) that would make wonderful additions to a gift basket.

Soaps are always a fun item to add to a "pampering basket" or to include with a crocheted washcloth or pretty hand towels. Our local Dollar Tree had many, many of these nice Yardley soaps (which can sell for much higher prices elsewhere!). I picked up two of the English Lavender ones and one Oatmeal and Almond. There was a third variety at the store -- think it was Lemon Verbena with shea butter.

I also found this sweet little journal labeled "Thoughts" which would be a wonderful addition to many different types of gift baskets. This dear little book is about five inches square.

As you can see, it has pretty endpapers.

And even the pages are faintly printed with roses. A nice little find for $1.

I want to go back and get more of these. It's fun to think of different ways I might use them in gift baskets. No one would ever guess they were found at a dollar store!

A find in my needlework stash

The other evening I noticed this partially finished ornament in with my needlework stuff.

I had purchased this kit years ago and evidently had made up two of the five ornaments. I know I gave one as a gift, so probably did that with the second one as well. The third one was left in progress, as you see above. And the last two are not even cut out.

Here is what the completed ornaments are intended to look like. I've taken the kit out of storage with the intent of finishing the ornaments this summer. They really are cute and will make a lightweight, portable project. They might make nice package tie-ons for my granddaughters' gifts... except that I have 4 granddaughters and only 3 ornaments. We will see!

Maybe this will inspire someone else to glance through their needlework stash. What do you have already started (no matter how long ago you may have started it) that you could work on right now with an eye to Christmas?

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!

Foldable fabric baskets

Here's a project I've made several times and thought others might like to try also. You've probably seen baskets similar to this in gift shops in varying prints and sizes. We see them often in gift shops here in New England and I always admired them, but would often tell myself, "I could make those...". I came across some instructions for these in an old magazine, but have tweaked them quite a bit.

The baskets are great to hold lightweight gift items or a set of coasters or napkins for giving. They also make a nice serving basket or a container for napkins on a buffet table.

Here's what the finished product looks like. I love the vintage-looking fabric on this one and how the background looks like birch bark. The fabric is not actually old; I bought it at Jo-Ann's several years ago.

To make a foldable fabric basket, you will need:

2 11-inch squares of fabric
8 5 1/2-inch lengths of 3/8” ribbon* in color to coordinate with fabric
1 5 1/2-inch square of plastic canvas**
4 pieces of plastic canvas**, each cut 2 1/8 x 5 1/2 inches

Here's what to do:

1. Fold and press under 1/2 inch on all sides of the fabric squares.

2. Pin the fabric squares together with the WRONG sides facing.

3. Pin the ribbon ties in place between the two layers of fabric. Position two ties on either end of each side of the square, placing them 5 1/2 inches apart.

4. Topstitch close to the edge on THREE SIDES ONLY of the pinned fabric squares.

5. On the fourth side, topstitch only through the ties, leaving the 5 1/2 inches between the ties UNSTITCHED. (This is so you can insert the plastic canvas reinforcements into the basket.)

Here is a very rough sketch that shows how the ties should be placed.

6. Insert three of the smaller plastic canvas pieces to form three sides of the basket. Stitch to enclose these pieces.

7. Insert the 5 1/2-inch square of plastic canvas to form the bottom of the basket. Stitch to enclose this piece.

8. Insert the last small piece of plastic canvas to form the fourth side of the basket. Topstitch to close the opening on the fourth side.

At this point, the basket looks like this:

9. To form the basket, tie the ribbons on each corner into a bow.

* Instead of ribbon, you may prefer to use a similar width of bias tape or even make your own matching fabric ties. Ribbon is easiest.

** I think the folding baskets you can buy are reinforced with cardboard, and you could certainly use heavy cardboard if you prefer. I use the plastic canvas so that the baskets could be washed if necessary, or at least spot cleaned more safely.

Have fun with this idea!

Mini flour sack dish towels

A few years ago, I made embroidered day-of-the-week flour sack dish towels for my 2 daughters and my daughter-in-law. They went over well and I know that one of my daughters uses hers all the time. They are decorative and also work very, very well for drying dishes.

This year I got to thinking about my granddaughter who has a toy kitchen, and I came up with the idea of making some mini flour sack dish towels for her. Then I thought a little more about it and realized she would probably want to actually use them for helping Mommy. And likely, her big brother might want one, too. So I made some.

For the regular flour-sack towels, I buy them in a multi-pack at Wal*Mart and then cut each one in half and hem the cut edges. For the mini towels, I cut them in quarters and then hemmed the cut edges before stamping on a transfer. I just used transfers I had on hand for these, and was very pleased with how cute they came out.

Do you have children or grandchildren who have a toy kitchen -- or who just like to help Mommy? These might be a fun idea for them!

Stuffing a stocking for a baby

In 2006, I crocheted five of these stockings for the five grandchildren we had then. In 2008, two new grandchildren were born who needed stockings too. Now, I didn't necessarily intend for these stockings to be the ones they would hang up on Christmas Eve -- the stockings are quite small (and stretchy too) and also the design has a lot of holes in it. I just thought they would make a nice decoration and would be something that they could always keep which had been made by Grammy. Two of my grandchildren are using these as their regular stockings, and that makes me happy too!

Anyway, for the new ones this year, I found myself in a hurry to get them stuffed and no good ideas for what to stuff them with. Last time I gave these to infants, I used things like teething toys, little slippers, etc. But this time I hit upon the bright idea of just buying a package of baby socks and wrapping each pair individually in tissue paper to stuff the stockings. I bought a package of 8 or 10 cute girly socks for the granddaughter, and the same amount of athletic-type socks for the grandson. This really went over well with the parents, who thought it was a clever way to stuff a stocking.

Maybe someone else could use this idea as well! It might even be a fun gift at a baby shower.

Happy New Year to all!

I'd like to wish all of my friends a very happy and healthy 2009! It's my fond hope that I'll be spending much more time here in my Christmas kitchen in the coming year. There are so many recipes I want to try, so many craft projects ongoing, so many Christmas ornaments I'd like to make... I'll get here as often as I can, I can say that for sure.

God bless you all, and Happy New Year!