Christmas Wall Hanging

November 22, 2014 by 1 Comment

christmas half square triangle quilt 9

I recently read Molly Hanson’s Free Motion Quilting for Beginners.   While I don’t consider myself a beginner (I’ve been FMQing for 16+ years) I found that reading this book gave me courage to break out of my quilting comfort zone – you all know what that is!  Mine is stippling and loop-de-loos!  I decided to try something new and try “pebble” style.  Beginning a free motion quilt pattern is like curling your hair – once you start you have to finish the job weather you like it or not!!  I am super happy with the way it turned out and my family was in awe at my creation!  You can check out the tutorial for this wall hanging over at the Therm O Web Blog!
christmas half square triangle quilt 7

christmas half square triangle quilt 8
christmas half square triangle quilt 10

Filed Under: Christmas, FEATURED, quilt, sewing, Therm O Web, tutorial

6th Annual Waffle Party

December 19, 2013 by 1 Comment
It’s our 6th Annual Waffle Party!  We look forward to this every year!  It all got started when there was a misunderstanding about a friend’s wassail party – waffle & wassail are very similar.  We love to set a fancy table and use all the good china and silver and eat a big breakfast for dinner!  We always invite the missionaries.

David cooked 3 packages of bacon and a Costco size package of sausage.

Ella and I made 3 batches of waffles.  Love the Pyrex!

 

We also have berries & whip cream, fruit salad, hash browns, and eggs made to order.  This dinner is messier to prepare than any Thanksgiving dinner!  But totally worth it!

Amanda

Filed Under: Christmas

Deer Ornaments

December 11, 2013 by 1 Comment
I found this cute tutorial for deer ornaments over on the According to Kelly Blog. Its a guest post from Traci at Beneath my Heart.  Click Here for her tutorial.  She has great instructions on how to make them.  Super cute!
I made 18 of them to give to friends.  They were super fun!  My deer stamp is a little different, its from a Stampin’ Up set.  I think my tinsel was slightly larger too.  A great glue gun project – I only burned myself 3 times!!

I kept one for myself to add to my woodland animal tree.  I LOVE this tree!  Nice hedgehog!

Raccoons, fox and owls….

 more birds & owls…

 I really love woodland animals!

Amanda

Filed Under: Christmas

St. Nicholas Day

December 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ever since I was a little girl my family would celebrate St. Nicholas Day.  My parents always made the Christmas season seem magical.  I love this tradition because it gives the children something fun to look forward to.  On the night of December 5th, you set out your shoes and St. Nicholas comes and fills them with little treats, small gifts and a new ornament for the Christmas tree.  I love that every year my children get a new ornament for their own little tree.  When they are grown, they will have a box of ornaments from their childhood to help them remember Christmas past.  I love looking at my childhood ornaments, they bring back such wonderful memories.

I think traditionally you are only to put out 1 pair of shoes per person, my children like to get out lots of shoes – I guess that means more treats!

This is where we found Richie our Elf this morning.  It looks like he wanted in the fun too.  He found some American Girl Shoes and got his own little treats!

Amanda

Filed Under: Christmas, Elf on the Shelf

Vintage Advent Calendar

December 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I thought I would post a few pictures of my advent calendar.  It’s a Christmas tradition that’s been passed down since I was a little girl.  Growing up, my mom had a Coke crate in our entry way and would wrap little ornaments in tissue paper, just like this picture.  Every morning we would take turns opening one.  It’s one of my favorite Christmas memories!!  Now my Children can’t wait to unwrap an ornament each morning!  I have also included a little piece of paper with a scripture on it that we read and a candy cane.  

Amanda

Filed Under: Christmas

Hip Holiday Retro Christmas Pillow

December 3, 2013 by 1 Comment

 I am so totally in love with this Hip Holiday line from Blend Fabric!  My favorite print is the retro cars with the christmas trees!  I had to make a throw pillow – surprising?  The tutorial is over on the Therm O Web Blog – check it out!

This pillow is featuring my new favorite way to finish a pillow – a zipper flap on the back!

Should I be concerned that I have a matching pink, white, green and aqua Christmas tree in my family room?

 So totally in love!

Amanda

Filed Under: Christmas, pillow, Therm O Web

Blue Jars, Bottle Brush Trees & Old Cars

November 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
These cute bottle brush trees in mason jars are everywhere in blog land!  I had to jump in and assemble a few for myself!  
My trees started out too green.  I sprayed a little Heirloom White spray paint on them and now they look like they’ve been lightly dusted with snow.
You can use fake snow for the snow, I used sugar.  Then place your little trees inside the jars.
I love vintage cars.  I didn’t want to spend $$$ on a replica car.  I was thrilled when I found this one in the ornament section of Target for only $3!

I bought these smaller trees at Michael’s in a package for about $1.  Use wire cutters to snip off the base.  Then place in your truck!

 I love it!!!  Makes me feel happy inside when I look at this nostalgic scene!

Amanda

Filed Under: Christmas, crafts, mason jars

Deer Friends, Christmas Deer Throw Pillow Tutorials

November 13, 2013 by 2 Comments
Do you like my new chairs?  I just ordered them from Amazon and they came in 2 days!  It was totally risky of me to just push a button and have chairs sent to my house, sight unseen!  But, I LOVE them!  They are exactly what I wanted and they are even comfortable!!!  The whole reason to buy new chairs is to sew new pillows, right?  I am obsessed with deer!  Deer throw pillows my chairs do need (a little Yoda verbiage!)
My friend and I got together and the children played and we sewed!!  An entire herd of deer throw pillows!
Here’s how to make the appliqué deer pillow: My pillow form is a 20″ square down pillow.  Down is a bit “squishy” so the pillows have a more casual feel. 
Appliqué Pattern, download HERE.  Print 2 of these and reverse one of the images.  The image is on 2 pages because it is larger than a piece of paper.
Print out the pattern and tape it together.  Trace the pattern onto Heat n Bond Lite fusible appliqué.  I used a wool blend fabric for the gray deer.  You can use any type of fabric.
Cut the chevron fabric 21″
Iron the deer to the center of the fabric and stitch around the deer.
I wanted a bit of an accent on the back of the pillow, so I put the zipper on the back with a decorative flap over the zipper….sounds hard but is super easy!!
To make the flap, cut your accent fabric 5″ x 20″ and press in half lengthwise.  
Cut your back pieces 4.5″x20″ and 16″x20.
Lay them out like this with your zipper placed as so (NOT invisible zipper)
I promise I ironed my pieces!!
Layer the top piece of the pillow back, the folded flap, and the zipper so all the raw edges align, like this:
Using your zipper foot, sew along the zipper.  For the other side with out the flap, sew the backing fabric to the zipper just as you would normally sew in a zipper.  Press the flap down to cover the zipper – super easy!!! Pin the pillow front and back with right sides together.  Make sure to open zipper so you can turn it.  Sew a generous 1/4″ seam around the entire pillow!

I couldn’t just have 2 deer pillows – I needed more.  This one is super quick!  It is for a 18″ pillow.

Cut the center deer fabric 10 1/2″ x 19″
Cut the aqua snowflake fabric (2) 4 1/4″ x 19″
Sew them in this order using 1/4″ seams

 I had this pretty light gray lace I top-stitched over the seams.  Now, cut the back of your pillow 19″ square and finish as desired.  I put an invisible zipper in the bottom.

Deer pillow #3 – this fabric doesn’t exactly have deer on it, but it has antlers atop the Cuckoo clocks!  And it’s teal!!!  Another quick pillow!!  This pillow form is 20″ but it is pretty floppy, so I decided to cut my pillow cover at 20″ so it would fit better.

Cut the teal print 15″ x 20″
Cut the gray dot 5 1/2″ x 20″
Sew using 1/4″ seams
Cut the back piece 20″ square.

Top stitch lace along seam.  Finish as desired – again another invisible zipper – those things are totally AWESOME!!!

Here are my friend’s cute deer pillows – she used a bolder chevron and a brown deer on an 18″ firm pillow.

I am so loving the zipper flap!
Sewing deer pillows makes me happy 🙂

Amanda

Filed Under: Christmas, decorating, pillow, sewing, tutorial, tutorials

Gingerbread Houses

December 24, 2012 by 2 Comments

 Gingerbread House-Making has evolved over the years for me.  Eight years ago I was baking my own gingerbread, cutting the house pieces with a knife, making hard-tack candy for stained glass windows, inserting a light inside the house, creating a door that really opened, made my frosting from scratch…..you get the picture!!

 Fast forward to 2012 and it’s pretty pathetic!!  Enter the pre-baked gingerbread house purchased from the craft store and the GLUE GUN!!

Yes, glue gun!!

 It’s only a few days until Christmas and my children are finally out of school.  They only care about putting candy on the house and I ran out of time.  It was lots of fun anyway – and NO STRESS!!  The glue gun worked amazing (I know you are all cringing, as am I!)

 The children got to create and mommy wasn’t hovering making sure they looked picture perfect.

 Ryan’s roof was made out of Captain Crunch Berries Cereal!

 They turned out cute and the children could not tell all the corners I cut!  Gingerbread House Making Day….check!!


Filed Under: Christmas

A Merry Front Porch

December 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 Here is a peek at my Christmas-y front porch.  I made another burlap banner only aqua and red this time.  (click HERE for the tutorial).

 I first put the word “Merry” on my door and it confused my entire family.  They kept waiting for the “Christmas” part of the saying to show up.  When I explained it was just “Merry” they seemed disappointed.  So, I added the “be” and now it reads “Be Merry”.  Confusion ended!

 I love changing what I hang in this old window every season!
 A fun little pillow made of different trims.

Filed Under: Christmas