Handmade Christmas Gifts

I wanted to show the handmade gifts we recieved for Christmas this year. I love to get handmade items for Christmas, especially sewing and embroidery creations. My sister made me this pillow for my bedroom and I love the colors and the patchwork style.

My daughter loves to bake and my sister made her this very cute apron. The fabrics are great and my daughter loved them. She loves dots...

My stepmother does beautiful quilting and embroidery and I was so excited when I opened this gift, hand embroidered pillow cases. Her stitches are lovely and neat and wonderful colors. She made us a quilt several years ago with burgundy colors and these match the quilt. Very happy Christmas, hope you had a good one too.

Patchwork Scrappy Fabric Bookmarks and Scottie Dog

I've really had the bug to sew lately and have been making bookmarks. I love to collect bookmarks and now make them. I finished the little Valentine Scottie Dog embroidery pattern and photographed him. I've yet to get the pattern ready, hopefully by the new year. I really enjoyed working on that project, for a big reason - I love pink. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas weekend.

Dress Forms, Winter Branches and Table Quilt

This little mosaic collection of photos shows what I've been working on this week. I am planning a new cross stitch design featuring hats on hat stands with lots of flowers spilling about and I received the floss from DMC this week. I love looking at all the colors together. I sketched one of our flowering plum trees in the back yard that still had four papery thin leaves and a handful of shriveled plums left after our wonderful snowstorm. Sunday afternoon I got out my fabrics to see if I needed anything new and realized I wouldn't need anything new for a long time unless I got busy making something so I chose this little quilt. I have an on again off again interest in quilting. I am thinking it is because the measuring has to be precise or all the pieces don't match, especially triangle pieces and the whole thing looks skewed and I am not a precise person at all, it stresses me I think :) Anyway I decided to tackle this little project using some Moda charm pack pieces I had. Not too many moments of frustration, in fact I felt like I really challenged myself with the diagonal piecing and trianges and it worked out fairly good. Not all my pieces match up and it isn't precise, but I feel good about it. I should be able to finish it this weekend and I will show it complete next week. Great colors for January decorating on my table. Quilts make the home seem so cozy. The dress form embroidery hanging has quilting I can handle. Simple rectangles and straight lines and embroidery, that is my favorite part :) Have a very peaceful weekend. P.S. Just started Jeffrey Archer's "A Prisoner of Birth" - a modern day spin on "The Count of Monte Cristo" and have a hard time putting it down. Have you read it?

Valentine Scottie Dog and Christmas Snow

Thinking ahead a little bit to Valentine's Day I was wanting to do a new design for this holiday of love. A little black scottie dog inspired me surrounded with bright red roses and floating hearts. I had a great piece of the lightest pink floral fabric to stitch him on and am using Gentle Art Sampler flosses, which are some of my favorites. They done in are very soft shades and great color variations. He should be done soon, I really look forward to working on him everyday.

I've chosen Mirabilia's letter C fairy to stitch right now since I've finished my Autumn design of hers. Instead of Crescent Colors floss I used Weeks Dye Works floss and matched the colors fairly well. Lots of small 1/4 stitches in this pattern, which I'm not used to. I like simple whole cross stitches, so this is a challenge project for me and that is good.

We've had one of the heaviest snowstorms in our area for a very long time and we sure needed it! Since we are not used to this amount of snow and the roads were very bad the kids got two snowdays and were very excited about that. It has been very cold since and it is still around, hopefully it will stay until Christmas!

I had to share this picture of our cat, he is a sweet guy and he loves to hide under the tree. He bats the ornaments around a bit, but doesn't get too caught up in it thankfully....

I thought I might start another Mirabilia for my 2010 project and I can't decide which. I should be done with the letter fairly soon, it is not a huge project. Which do you think? I guess it depends on how ambitious I expect to be, the "Ashley's Roses" is very big....

Hometown Art Fair Weekend

Our artist's co-op had an Art Fair over the weekend and it was wonderful. It was held in the refurbished post office, which was the perfect place. The building has great charm, wood work features, and wonderful light. Several local talented artists participated and we had a great mix of art to display and offer for holiday shopping.

Wonderful upcycled art that was very creatively done and so popular. Aprons were a hit and added so much color to everything. The items were all arranged by color and there were so many lovely shades of each color it made the room really lively and welcoming.

Lots of paintings and photographs, many of our area from different perspectives. Unique pottery pieces and colorful scarves.

Ornaments made of gourds, stained glass and upcycled glass pieces, charms and lots more decorated fun and cleverly made Christmas trees.

This was one of the best and most unique shows I've participated in and so enjoyed. What a great time.

Dress Form Flower Embroidery

Hand dyed silk flosses are irresistible for their colors and softness. The silk absorbs the dyes wonderfully and the colors are incredible. They are great to work with for embroidery projects.

Definitely needs pink... I think I will do this for Valentine's Day, I need more decorations for that holiday. How many people decorate their home for Valentine's Day? I haven't, but may start.

Inspired by sewing and antique dress forms and a few flowers I decided to begin this pattern. I love the issues of Artful Blogging and Somerset Studio for inspiration. Lots of great color and fun glimpses of personalities and snippets of lives. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.