Countdown to Christmas Tree

This tree was one of the most ambitious projects I made last year (with some help from Jeanne!) I participated in a Christmas ornament exchange. I decided to make a Countdown to Christmas Tree (advent calendar). I combined several ideas I found on Pinterest, and came up with this adorable decoration.

This is the finished product:

I started with all my supplies at the ready. I found the face patterns online and adapted them for my needs.

I used two different white felts. The plain felt was used for the back of the snowmen's heads. The sparkly felt was used for their faces. We cut 25 circles of each.

Using the face patterns as inspiration, I drew a unique face onto each sparkly circle. I then embroidered the faces using perle coton #8. On the head backs, we wrote the numbers from 1 to 25 in green sharpie.

I didn't have black perle coton in my stash, so I used this blue instead to sew heads together. We then cut 25 hats out of black felt using this paper pattern as our guide. We also cut 25 carrot noses out of orange felt. The noses were glued in place.

I used a cookie cutter to transfer the two star shapes onto some yellow felt for the top of the tree. I sewed the front of the star to the back with a buttonhole stitch, leaving the bottom open. Then I lightly stuffed the star. The star sits atop the tree with the point of the tree in the bottom of the star.

Once all the faces were embroidered, we aligned the faces to the backs, making sure that the top of the face was aligned with the top of the number. Using a buttonhole stitch, we sewed the face to the back, leaving a small opening at the top. We stuffed the snowmen with some fiberfill, then closed the opening while at the same time sewing on the hats. That was a little tricky, because we needed to hide the knot between the hat and the snowman's face.

Then we had to figure out how to attach the snowmen to the tree. That was trickier than I'd anticipated. We bought the sparkly tabletop tree at the dollar store. It was basically a wire form covered with a red garland. I ended up devising a thread loop with a very small homemade hook.

I started by threading approx. six inch piece of crochet cotton through the top of the hat.

I tied it in a small loop and cut off the extra.

Then using some 18 gauge wire, I fashioned a hook. I cut a two or three inch piece of wire.

I made a small loop on one end with the tip of some round-nosed pliers, placing the thread loop onto the wire before closing the wire loop.

Then, using the larger portion of the round-nosed pliers, I bent the other end of the wire into a very short hook.

Then I clipped off the extra wire. The finished hook was only an inch or less. I needed to keep it really short so that all the snowman heads would fit on the tree.

Here are all the happy little faces!

No two are the same.

The size, shape and placement of the noses and the jaunty angles of the hats put their personalities over the top!

Here is the tree with all the snowmen facing out ... the way you'd see it on Christmas morning.

Here's the tree with all the numbers facing out, the way you'd start it on December 1st. Notice that  we did not hang the ornaments in order. I wanted the snowmen to be turned over in a more random manner.

Merry Christmas!

Pinterest was the key to my inspiration. My Countdown to Christmas tree is a combination of this simple tree:

And this ornament kit:

And these faces:

Santa Tote

Continuing with another installment of "things I made for Christmas," Here's a tote bag I made for my friend Virginia.

I made the tote bag from a heavy-duty denim. I didn't use a pattern - just noodled it out. It starts with a basic pillowcase shape, then I formed the flat bottom much like this video.  I also topstitched each corner and the bottom edge of the tote to give it a nice rectangular shape.

I fused the stitchery onto the denim bag, then fused the satin ribbon around the edge of the stitchery. I had to do some minor hand-stitching at the mitered corners. Then I added the bamboo handles. I was able to sew them on with a wide, short zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine.

The stitchery is from a cross-stitch kit by Designs for the Needle. It's called Santa Peeking. I think it's an adorable design. All the threads came with the kit. I really like the sparkles in Santa's beard!

The reindeer peeking over Santa's shoulder is such a sweet addition.

Ho Ho!

Grumpy Cat Sleep Mask

For Halloween last October, Jodie dressed up as Grumpy Cat. You can find her website here:
http://www.grumpycats.com/

So for fun, I decided to make her a Grumpy Cat sleep mask. I saw a really cute one on Etsy that I used as my inspiration. I started with a simple mask from the dollar store.

Then I used felt to piece together a the grumpy little face. I sewed the felt to the mask using embroidery floss with a blanket stitch and the grumpy little mouth with a stem stitch.

 Jodie's face matches her mask!

Sweet dreams, Miss Jo!

 

I found this on Pinterest:

 

Floral Centerpiece

Last Christmas Eve, Julie spent the evening with her boyfriend's family. She was asked to bring a centerpiece. So she and Jodie and I dug around the house to see what we could come up with.

We used a silver-colored charger found in the linen closet for the base. A straw wreath form from my studio stash. Some artificial green garland and a strand of wooden red beads that we found with the extra Christmas decorations. Some berry sprays in my floral supplies. A tall scented candle we pilfered from the front closet. Two flavors of specialty Christmas candy. And cut some holly leaves from the back yard.

First we taped holly leaves to the silver charger. We wrapped the straw form first with the green garland, then with the red berry garland. We used another ring of fresh holly leaves on top of the wreath with the stems tucked under the berry garland. Then we poked the berry sprays into the wreath to give it some more height. The candle was inserted into the center of the wreath. Finally, the candy was placed on top, alternating the dark chocolate with the coconut, ringing the candle.

We were all very pleased with ourselves. Many a high-five was thrown. The entire centerpiece was put together in about 20 minutes. Word has it that the hostess was thrilled with her centerpiece.

Joy Balls

I did a lot of crafting over the last few months that I've yet to blog about, and hope to share them over the next few weeks. For 2014, I'm concentrating on finishing up some PILLs - Project In Long Lines. These are projects that have been waiting for years for my attention. I have all the supplies. I need to add the time and inclination.

Soon after the holidays, I processed our 2013 Christmas cards. I usually turn them into gift tags for next year's presents. But I've also been known to cut the designs into circles to make Joy Balls. This was a craft I learned to do as a child. Then I taught my daughters to make them when the girls were in elementary school.

We've decorated with five joy balls for most of their growing up years. The PILLs that caught my attention were the stacks of 20 Christmas card circles. There were enough already cut for thirteen more balls in four different sizes!

I admit that crafting these by myself with a hot glue gun went much more quickly than crafting with kid hands, white glue and paper clips.

But then, the joy of crafting doesn't necessarily come from how quickly a project is completed, does it?

And I welcome those not-quite-so-little hands back into my studio to craft with me any chance I get!

When Bubbles Collapse

The shapes frozen bubbles take as they deteriorate is nearly as interesting as the frozen bubbles themselves.


Some deflate

Some implode

Some slowly melt down

 Some shatter

Some form delicate, fragile bowls.

Touchdown

This is a second attempt at capturing a frozen soap bubble. This one froze in the air and landed on my scarf. It began to flatten and collapse on top. I like the star shaped crystals forming on the left and the reflection of the pine trees on the right.

Sparkle and Shine

This is the 5th and final snowflake in the series. It's astonishing to me that two tiny flakes that have fallen so close together can have such a different focus.

Gettin' Flaky

The 4th in my series of snowflakes taken this week.

Frozen Soap Bubble

There's a challenge going around online to capture photos of soap bubbles as they freeze. Folks in the mid-west were posting photos the last few weeks. But here in north Idaho, it's only been cold enough in the last few days to give it a go. Temperatures in the single digits work best for blowing soap bubbles, then catching their portraits as they freeze in the frigid air.

Here's my first attempt.

Spokes

Delicate Beauty

Another of the snowflakes I photographed yesterday.

A Different Kind of Cold

I've been fighting a cold - known lovingly around here as The Virus - for well over a week now. I've been so lethargic, that I haven't wanted to move, much less pick up my camera.

But this morning when I looked out the window, some big fat juicy snowflakes were falling. As my mentor says, when the time is right, you GO. So I grabbed my camera, the macro lens, and a black scarf, then perched myself on the frozen porch steps. Holding the scarf at arm's length, I caught some snowflakes. Then turned, set the scarf on the porch, and took pictures. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

The humidity and temperature were ideal this morning. It was warm enough for beautifully formed flakes to fall on the black scarf,  and cold enough that the flakes didn't melt quickly.

When my mind is so focused on the details of photographing snowflakes, the rest of the world falls away ... including The Virus ... and the very cold surroundings. Here's the first image I edited.

Steps Over the Columbia

Looking south from Stonehenge in Washington State.

Flash Freeze

From Fall to Winter

I left my car on the driveway overnight. Ice crystals formed on the windshield.

Looking Out My Front Window

Our neighbor's maple tree is gorgeous in the Fall

Artichoke

Veggie Treat

Time to Rake

In the Red

Stitching Blog Hop

I've decided to join my friend Stacy in a stitching blog hop. Answer a question, move on to the next blog, find out what other stitchers have to say. This week's question:

How long have you been cross stitching?

Wow. Tough question. I know I learned surface embroidery in elementary school. I know that in 1976, I got some pillow cases with stamped embroidery at the Ben Franklin store in Chicago. My grandfather used to own a Ben Franklin there. I know that in 1982-ish I embroidered a sampler for my dad that incorporated some cross-stitch, but it wasn't counted cross-stitch. Here's what the sampler looks like:

Hmmm. In the very early years of AOL is when I ran across a group of cross-stitchers online. I became a chat host where we talked about all aspects of cross-stitch. So I would say that for sure my addiction started in about 1996. I know I did counted cross-stitch before that, though.

OK. How 'bout you? Want to join the blog hop?

Crossed Stitches Blog Hop #1

1.

Studio Window

(Submissions close in 10d 13h 20m)

Link tool by inlinkz.com

To include the blog hop link on your own blog, here you go: get the InLinkz code.

If you would like to include the Crossed Stitches logo as part of your blog hop post, you can copy and paste the code below.

<center>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/crossedstitches.blogspot.com/">
<img border="0" src="http://home.comcast.net/~rjcsmc/xsbloghop.jpg"></a></center>

Sneak Peak

Something crafty this month comes ... [ shhhhhhhhh! ]

Treats and Treats and Treats

Three years ago I completed the stitching for these Halloween Treat Bags, and blogged about it.

In each successive year, I pulled out the embroidery intending to finish the bags for my daughters. But they just didn't get done. Back into the stash basket they went.

This year, I made the bags and managed to get them in the mail in time for my daughters to receive them for Halloween. It was fun to fill them with gifts tailored to each young woman's taste. I so love my daughters! Can't wait to see them all together at the end of the month.