It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We're having fun playing in the snow over here.

But I have a self-imposed deadline of tomorrow for finishing up all of the Christmas shopping, making, wrapping and sending. Ugh. I have so much to do!

So I'd better stop fooling around with my camera...

and get to work!

I'll share photos of a few handmade Christmas gifts once they're done. Nothing too elaborate, I'm afraid.

Are you making your Christmas gifts this year?

xoxo.

Snowed In

We're having a wicked winter storm in Chicago today. Eight inches of snow expected plus wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour.

So we canceled all of our plans and did this instead...

Afternoon plans include a popcorn party and a showing of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed-Reindeer." 

Bring on the snow!

Believe

Do you remember this feeling?

Can you take a journey back to when you were three, four, five-years-old? To a place where Santa was so real and December was simply magical? A snow globe contained a little universe and was the most beautiful and awe-inspiring thing you'd ever seen.

I love this picture of my kids and I get a little teary-eyed each time I look at it and think about what must be going through their minds at this moment. To me, this photo is exactly what Christmas should be about. Magic and wonder and faith are just a few words that come to mind.  

I'm trying so hard to pack my bags (they're quite heavy at age 35) and take the trip back to 1980 in my mind. It's not an easy thing to do, but I think you get better at it the more you practice. I hope you can take this trip for yourself this holiday season and remember what Christmas was like for you as a child. I promise it'll be the best trip you've ever taken.

Happy weekend, my friends.

Winter Hat with... Rosettes!

So I bought this little hat for my daughter in the dollar section at Target. It's really quite thick and nice and for $1.00, I couldn't pass it up.

And you probably know me well enough by now to know that I had a little embellishing in mind!

I took three 2" x 6" strips of scrap fabric and turned them into these sweet little rosettes (tutorial here). Glue-gunned them on and here's the finished product...

The best thing about this project is that it cost me all of about, what do you think?  $1.50? Probably less. Go scour those dollar bins! It's amazing what you can find.

Now if only I could get this little girl to keep a hat on her head! My son had to put on a full song-and-dance routine to allow me 30 seconds of picture taking time. Wish me luck as we head out into the single digit temps today.

Have a good one!

Free Tutorial - Fabric Scrap Rosettes

OK. I'm finally sitting down to write up a tutorial on fabric rosettes. It would be SO much better if I could share this with you on video but I don't think my personal video equipment is up to snuff, so a picture-heavy tutorial is the best I can do for now.

The thing is, there really isn't a right or wrong way to do this and honestly, it just takes some playing around and practicing. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions. I'm working on a list of all of the fun things you can embellish with rosettes. Would love to hear your ideas too or see pics of your finished projects. Here are just a few ideas. More to come.

Fabric Scrap Rosettes

Supplies Needed:

• One strip of fabric cut 2" wide and 8" long. (Adjust length based on the desired size of your finished rosette. The longer your strip, the larger the rose)
• Hot glue gun
• Iron for pressing fabric

Steps:

Start by cutting your fabric strip.

Now press each end toward the wrong side of the fabric about an 1/8 of an inch.

The object is to enclose all of the raw edges. Fold your strip in half (wrong side in) and press.

Now open and press each long end toward the center (like you would if you were making double-fold bias tape).

Now take your glue gun and run a very small strip of glue down the middle and finger press your strip together.

So we're just going to start rolling and folding this strip. You'll start with a small bead of glue on one end as shown.

Fold over about 1/4 of an inch.

While holding your rose bud, start by making one fold in a downward motion. Then fold up. You'll just repeat this process, using small beads of glue every or every other fold as you go all the way around.

When you get to the end, just place a small bit of glue on the end and fold down under the rosette.

Hold for a moment.

And that's it!

This is such a tough process to explain. Just give it a try. I think you'll get the hang of it as you go.

Enjoy!

Rosette and Ribbon Necklace

OK. I'm back to my obsession with rosettes. They are just so versatile!

Do you have any holiday parties coming up? Looking for a unique accessory? Why not make a ribbon and rosette necklace? It'll take you all of about 20 minutes and I can guarantee you'll be the only one wearing such a unique piece of bling.

For this project I simply took some black satin ribbon and decided how long I wanted it. I happened to have some shiny gold fabric in my stash (not sure why) and I made two small rosettes out of it. I glue-gunned the rosettes to the ribbon and tied around my neck, allowing the ribbon ends to hang a bit.

This necklace would look MUCH better on a younger model! :-) But you get the idea. 

Yet another great use for a very current trend. And you didn't have to spend a bunch of money on something that may be out of style by 2011.

I'm almost ready to share a tutorial for rosettes. You can find lots of rosette instruction online but I'm going to post my own (no sew!) method in the next day or so. Stay tuned.

Updated: rosette tutorial can be found here.

Tutorial - Word Ornament Pillows

Remember this little pillow?

I finally typed up a tutorial for you. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail. Enjoy!

Word Ornament Pillows

Supplies Needed:

• Color printer (inkjet or laser)
• One package of printable fabric appropriate for your printer (I used June Tailor for inket printers)
• One 25" length of grosgrain ribbon
• Two strips of fabric 2" x 4" and two strips of same fabric 2" x 6 3/4" (I used a home dec fabric but quilting fabric would be fine)
• One 6 3/4"square of fabric (either the same as your strips or contrasting) 
• One package Wright's bias piping in a coordinating color
• One small bag of poly-fil
• Hand sewing needle and thread to match your fabric
• Ruler
• Fabric pen
• Sewing machine and basic sewing supplies (pins, scissors, etc.)
• Fray Check (optional)

Here's What you do:

Start by designing your text in Microsoft Word or some other word processing program. I printed two words on each 8 1/2" x 11" piece of fabric paper. The font I used was french script - 80 point. But play around and find a font, size and color you like.

Take your printed fabric to your work surface and using your ruler and fabric pen and draw a 4" x 4" square around each word. 

Remove the backing sheet carefully and cut your squares out.

Now you're going to make a basic quilt block by sewing your two small strips of fabric to the top and bottom of the text square, then sewing your longer strips to each side. Press seams open.

You should now have a 6 3/4" quilt block.

I like to apply some decorative piping to the edges using my zipper foot. I didn't take any photos of the piping process but it's very simple. Just align one end of your piping to your quilt block (right side up). Leave about an inch of the piping unsewn and then baste the piping to the block notching and pivoting at the corners. Once you've gone all the way around, simply overlap your piping edges and finish sewing, backstitching a couple of stitches at the end. You can see a few photos and more specific instructions in my Dad's Shirt Pillow Tutorial.

Now take your 6 3/4" square of fabric and place it right-side-up on your work surface.  I wanted to tie these to my staircase banister, so I attached my ribbon with the folded end up and loose ends free (as shown).

Alternatively, you could create a loop if you wanted to hang these on your tree or on a doorknob. You would just want to place your loose ends at the top instead of the folded edge.

Now place your quilt block on top (right sides together) and pin all the way around, being careful not to catch the loose ends of your ribbon with your pins.

Sew all the way around (getting as close to your piping stitch as possible) but leave about 2" open (not on a corner) for turning (I usually leave my opening on the bottom toward the middle). Backstitch at both ends.

Turn right-side-out and press with a dry iron.

Now for the fun part. Using small clumps of poly-fil, stuff and plump to your heart's content.

The last step is to hand sew the opening closed (on the back) using a few small stitches.

Tie to a banister or even onto a limb of your Christmas tree. It never hurts to apply a small bit of Fray Check to the ends of your ribbon.

Hope you like!

** Linked up to the Christmas Craft Link Party at Centsational Girl