And The Winner Is...

What a fun week of blog hopping! But now it's Sunday morning and time to announce the winner of my Quilting Gallery 4th Birthday Blog Hop give-away. Hueisei, all the way from Penang, Malaysia is the winner. As a final stop on this whirlwind tour of the quilting blogosphere,  stop by her blog Love it Sew it for even more inspiration. Hueisei said, "Crisscrossed bag is my favorite." so maybe that is the pattern she will choose. But as promised, she can select any of the more than 25 patterns listed at my Etsy.com shop.
Tomorrow it's back to your regularly scheduled holiday activities and perhaps a break from the computer. As for me I'll be doing quite a lot of hand work on the couch for the next week. Our faithful dog, Lady is scheduled for surgery to remove a small skin tumor on Tuesday. That means lots of spoiling to come, and doing whatever we can to keep her calm and not fussing at her stitches until she is healed.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

A New Ornament; A New Technique

As long time readers know, each year I design and make a new ornament to give away as a party favor for guests at our holiday party. Today I'm going to share my 2011 holiday ornament with you. But first, a word about the inspiration. Back in late October I recieved a copy of American Quilter, the bi-monthly magazine of the American Quilt Society (AQS). In it I found a section on the winners of the 2011 AQS Quilt Show in Knoxville. As I flipped through the pages, I stopped stunned at a photo of Leah Day's Winter Wonderland.  Here is a link to her website and better images of the quilt. The snowflakes are made with a technique she calls reverse shadow trapunto. I knew as soon as I saw it I had the idea for this year's ornament. You already saw a quick preview of the finished ornaments in this post.

The best part of this one is that I already had all of the materials I needed on hand - though of course I bought more of everything!

Following the technique Leah outlined in the article, I cut out a variety of snowflakes from paper (I used plain old computer printer paper). Do you remember how to do that from grade school? Well I had to re-learn how to fold the paper, and if you do too, here is a simple tutorial for you.

Once you have your snowflake shapes, cut out squares or rounds of fabric that are big enough to hold your snowflake plus a bit of border. I cut 4 1/2 inch squares of red and green dupioni silk that I had on hand. You will need two squares for each ornament. At the same time cut out two pieces of white cotton batting in the same size for each ornament. I used warm and white because it is snowy white, lightweight,  and needled which helps it hold together better. Finally cut a square the same size out of something sparkly and transparent. I had some white sparkle organdy which really added something to the finished ornament.

Using a light touch with a pen, or invisible ink, trace a snowflake pattern onto the back of one of your fabric pieces. Layer that piece with a square of batting with the design showing, and stitch around the edges of the design. As you can see, I fudged a bit on my squares since I was using up scraps I had on hand. Once you have stitched all of the edges, turn the piece batting side up and using a sharp pair of embroidery scissors, clip out the design. This is painstaking, but worth it. 

Next, layer a piece of your sheer fabric on top and another layer of batting and finally silk on the back. Now you are ready to quilt your sandwich. For the large quilt Leah used dense free motion quilting around the design to make give the snowflakes dimension. However, due to the size of my project I decided to simply outline stitch around the snowflake. 

After all of the quilting was done, I used my circle cutter to trim the edges and make a nice round ornament. Finally I inserted a bit of ribbon for a hanging loop and satin stitched all around the edge to finish. 

If I do say so myself, I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. I hope you will enjoy this free pattern and that you enjoy a Happy Handmade Holiday. 

And if you love the quilt that Leah made as much as I do, check out her online quilt shop to buy this and other patterns.

And the Beat Goes On...

The blog hop organized by Michelle at the Quilting Gallery continues all week, so hop on over and check it out.So far it's been pretty amazing. I can't believe how many new folks have visited my blog as a result. But even more fun, I've been working my way through Michelle's list of nearly 250 bloggers that are participating with give-aways. What a treat to find so many talented quilters who blog. 
It's a good thing that it does go on all week, because it will probably take me that long to visit every blog, and the blogs of all the new visitors to my blog. One note: I should have mentioned this before, but I need you to provide a way to contact you if you are the winner. If you aren't using you google account (which will automatically provide a link to your profile) leave an e-mail address in your comment.


As for other happenings around my house, this was the weekend to put up the tree (still not finished) and to wrap gifts that have to head off to points North and West (still not wrapped). Sigh. 

But we did finally get all of the leaves up from the front yard. We mulched and composted bags and bags and still ended up with 10 paper yard waste bags at the street to go to the city's composting effort. 

At some point you really do have to admit that the composting pile is full and the impromptu pile in the middle of the garden has grown beyond reason :-)

On the other hand, living here in the south, the parsley is thriving, 

and this silly little rose just won't call it quits even though Winter officially starts next week.Too much news about the garden? Not to worry. Tomorrow I'll share a neat new ornament quilters can make with the stash they have around the house, so check back!

The Joy of Giving

Part of the real joy of the holidays for me is figuring out just exactly what will make someone's face light up. I try to be a good listener when friends and family are talking throughout the year so that I can surprise them with that one special thing they mentioned back in July. If it is something that I can make myself, so much the better.

I was thinking about this as I pondered a suitable give-away for Michelle Foster's Quilting Gallery Blog Hop giveaway. I wanted something that would appeal to everyone, that was easy to ship, and that didn't require me to start on yet another project during this busy time.

What is the one thing I have that's ready to go and gives you something you would pick for yourself? Why electronic patterns of course. I have over 25 patterns for items I've designed - both quilting projects and others - and they are all written up and ready to deliver because I sell them in my shop on Etsy.com.

Here is how the give away is going to work. Take a look around my blog. Come back to this page and leave a comment about something you saw here. On December 18th I will randomly select one winner from all of the comments made before midnight (EST) on December 17th. I will contact the winner and you can select any pattern from those listed on my shop on etsy.com. Full instructions will be included in the message. Sound fun? I hope so.

When you are done here, head on over to Quilter's Blog Hop headquarters to find the list of other participating blogs. With all these chances to win, this could really be a "Christmas to Remember"!

I Spy With My Little Eye...

Looking for a last minute children's gift? I found a tutorial for these adorable "I Spy" bags over at Craftiness is not Optional and quickly make them up for all the little people in my life. Similar in concept to the game we played as kids, each fleece bag has a few dozen small items buried in the pellets. As you read the items off the list on the back, the child will push the filling this way and that to make the item they are hunting visible in the see-through vinyl window.

We have a neat little store nearby called Richard's Variety where I found most of the items to fill the bags, but I bet the dollar store and your junk drawer (come on, I know there's a marble rolling around in there somewhere) would yield up quite a few. Best of all, it only took me about an hour to whip up three of these. So up and at 'em crafters. Still plenty of time to make a few of these for the kids, grandchildren, or as in my case, an "odd"son (sorta like a godson, but different), a great niece, and a great nephew. Happy Holidays!