Christmas crafting and sewing

 Although I haven't been able to blog during December (until now), I have done a bit of Christmas crafting, sewing and quilting that I can now share with you. 

I enjoy crafting with my grandson and we did several crafts together. To practice his cutting skills (he loves to cut paper into tiny pieces), we made an octopus and a santa (no photos of the santa.) 

We also did some Christmas crafts for presents. Our dear friend Ruth had my grandson and me over for a craft morning. We went out to collect pine cones at a local park and put together these pine cone wreaths. 

So much fun!

At Mormor's Christmas workshop, we made these handprint ornaments for gifts.   This idea was found on Pinterest.

Besides crafting with my grandson, I did a bit of Christmas crafting, knitting and quilting on my own. As hostess gifts, I made these gnomes 

and these little quilted gnomes.

My daughter asked if I could make a pacifier holder similar to one she found online. I searched to see if I could find a pattern but couldn't. So I decided to try to make my own pattern. I used the double stockinette stitch so that it would look the same on both sides. This stitch is a bit complicated when it comes to increasing and decreasing but with a little research, I figured out what I think results in the neatest look. So far I've made 2 of these and my daughter is pleased with how they turned out. I used organic cotton for these but may get some merino wool to make another.

I also made my grandson a reading pillow which I forgot to take pictures of. It went along with his new Christmas book and PJ's. 

Finally and in the nick of time, I finished the December step for the Macaron Mystery QAL. 

Here are my square in a square blocks.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Looking forward to the New Year and all the hope it brings.

Today I have a couple of new finishes!

 I finished the Snowflake quilt by ModernHandcraft. The pattern is based on 3" blocks but I wanted it for a wallhanging. I used 1" squares so the finished size would be 20" x 24".

I used Christmas fabrics in my stash that were donated to me. All the fabrics have gold in them. I also quilted the snowflake with a gold metallic thread. The background was FMQ with swirls and snowflakes in green thread. I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Peacock Party @Wendy's Quilts and More, Friday Foto Fun @Poweredbyquilting and Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts

I also knitted this little gnome that I found on Pinterest to add to my collection (red hats). 

I do love to craft for Christmas! 

My grandson has the right idea for 2020...

The perfect ornament for 2020!

More Christmas and December sewing

 "The stocking were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there." excerpt from The Night Before Christmas.

Now that the stocking are finished with all 9 names embroidered on the cuffs, they adorn the mantel waiting for them to be...

as my grandson says, "fill them up!"

Other fun Christmas crafting has been making Scandinavian woven hearts with my daughter. We strung them on ribbon to make a garland.

We made 4 different designs!

Here we started to line them up to see how big the garland would be. We finally strung them onto ribbon leaving extra ribbon so they can be adjusted in length. 

I forgot to snap a picture of the final garland.

These are a gift to my youngest daughter. 

I also made this cute little gnome (or Christmas nisse) using a sock and a cotton mop head! A wooden bead became his nose.

Linking to Creative Compulsions @My Bijou Life

It is starting to look a lot like Christmas here! 

Our Norwegian Christmas tree with flags and wooden beads!

I love seeing my grandson in our Christmas tree!

Another vignette embracing our Norwegian heritage is my gnome collection! I call them my red hats!

I hope decorating for the holidays bring you joy...much needed during this crazy year!

One last note, I finished the December step for the Morewood Mystery Quilt. I'm all caught up until 2021!

Can wait until we start putting this all together!

What happened while MIA?

For just about the last quarter of 2017, I went MIA from my blog. I keep saying that I'll get better at posting to my blog but I can't seem to find a time that life isn't busy! School has been busier this year from the start. 

I was doing a pretty decent job of keeping up with challenges and QAL's until November, then I was fell behind on all of them. 

However, I did get some quilting and other projects done during this time!

I did finish my 15 minutes of play quilt which is now named 

Thank Your Lucky Stars. 

In my last post, I had started quilting around the 20 different colored blocks and star points. I finished that quilting and started the negative space quilting. 

I quilted a swirl inside each star block and a braid between the blocks. 

The backing is a multi-colored print I found at Joann's. 

The binding is scrappy. The finished size is 54.5" x 68".

This quilt will be gifted to someone special.

I also made a gift for our nephew's baby boy. This traveled to Norway and was well received!

The blanket is fleece with a crocheted edge and the bib is made from a recycled men's shirt. The bowtie used scraps from a previous quilt. The pattern is found here. 

I spent a week in Austin with my daughters and SIL for Thanksgiving. My hubby and our oldest daughter flew down on Wednesday. It was fun to all be together. 

My DD2 has been learning indigo dyeing. Together we did a batch of tea towels and napkins. This is a fun but bit complicated process. I'm thinking of trying to do some fabric dyeing come summer and warmer temperatures.

Here are the folds we used.

My napkins.

My daughter's tea towels.

It was night by the time we finished the dyeing.

Christmas was around the corner and I needed to make my ornaments for the year. Based on a log cabin kit we bought while in Vancouver, I made these from mini wooden logs I found at a thrift store. 

I also made some hoop quilts for 2 special sister friends in my life. 

 The pattern for the gnome was found here. I made a slight adjustment to eliminate the ears. Hand embroidered, God Jul! (Merry Christmas in Norwegian)

I shrunk the pattern and added the tree from here. 

Another quilt that I made and gifted to a good friend was Flight.

This is a wall hanging quilt. Size 13" x 20.5"

The pattern is found on Craftsy.

I quilted around the plane and then I added some night sky constellations.  

And finally, yesterday I worked on my little spools for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and the last stars for the Milky Way QAL.

Blacks and browns!

All the little spools, neat and orderly...arranged by color. 

Acrux star in peach.

Deneb star in gold.

9 Milky Way stars!

I added a scrappy star with fabrics from some of the previous stars. 

I like this a lot however I ran out of the gray background fabric. I need to go and look/shop for a gray that will match. I don't remember if this was a Kona or...? 

I still have a few blocks to finish for Grandma's Kitchen.

Linking up to ScrapHappySaturday over at So Scrappy.

Thanks for reading to the end! I know it was heavy on the pictures and words but that what happens when you go MIA for a couple of months. 

In the next few days, I will be contemplating what projects, QALs, and challenges I will be doing in 2018! 

What will you be joining! I'd love to hear! 

Hope everyone will have a warm and prosperous 2018!