Christmas in January

Christmas in July is so expected. That is when folks start their big projects for the upcoming holiday.

Christmas in January...now that's thinking outside of the box!

Truth be told, I made this above Christmas ornament for my darling niece back in December and forgot to show it off then. Cannot resist posting a picture of it for you to enjoy.

I used Jinny Beyer's book on patchwork puzzle balls and it was super easy.

Does anybody out there have Jinny's new book yet - Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns? I really REALLY want this book BAD.

And speaking of new books....Yoko Saito has just released a new book on basket quilt blocks. It is called Basket Made From Cloth.

Meanwhile, I'm still feverishly working on the crochet scarf that I mentioned in my last post. I will confess to you that I'm secretly really looking forward to wearing it.

Visions of Sugarplums

Gifts are wrapped.

Holiday meal was done a day early in order to catch friends going out of town, and was a huge hit.

Handmade ornaments are delivered to the beautiful kids next door.

All we need is Christmas itself now.

Please accept my humble thanks for reading along tonight as always, and have an amazing Christmas this year.

Warmest wishes,
Marisa

What are you wearing?

What are you out there wearing for the holiday this year? Found a perfect little top that is oh so very cute to wear on New Year's Eve?

I'm hooked on LAMade, Michael Stars (picked up a new top to wear on Christmas by him), Splendid (got my best friend a little jacket thingy by them for Christmas, thank goodness she doesn't read my blog), and Ogle (my New Year's shirt from here!).

As you can tell from the above, the hand made ornaments are almost done.

If you decide to make them too, and also want to start a tradition of making them every year - a couple of things I've learned along the way:

- Use at least 1 solid fabric, or some fabric with decent white space where you can write the name of the owner on the ball with your pigma pen.

- Be sure to write the year on there too. It's fun to look back at past years.

- Something I didn't do off the bat, but should have - if you are giving these to kids every year, then write their age on there as well, so they can pick them up in later years and say - wow, 2008, I was 3 years old back then!

- Make a note of how long of a silk ribbon you use on top, you'll want to use the same size next year so the collection looks good. If you give them all away, you might not remember how long it was.

Handmade Christmas Ornaments - year 4

For the 4th year in a row, I am making my own Christmas ornaments.

This year instead of making 5 of them, (kids next door, and my son) I'm making 6!

One for the new baby of course. I can hardly believe he is already three months old. Time is flying too quickly for me with this new baby.

If you want to see pictures/posts from previous years, please feel free to check them out.

I use Jinny Beyer's book on Patchwork Puzzle Balls, and include a silk ribbon on top to be the hanger on the tree. I only stuff them with 100% cotton which I also order from Jinny's web site. This stuff is great, makes the balls really firm, and stands up over time very very well. It works for anything you want to stuff actually, not just Christmas ornaments.

More photos soon of course when I finish them. For some reason, I'm obsessed with making all my Christmas quilt projects with 1930's repro's. I just love the antique look of them in combination with the holidays. It's a very different twist on Christmas.

This year I am even using some real 1930's fabric - feed sack - in one of the balls. Think the kid will appreciate that her fabric is almost 100 years old? Um...probably not. I do though.

Our biggest dinner

Last night we had 11 people over to Christmas dinner.

With only 12 sets of silverware, it was a decent challenge to say the least.

The meat was yummy, the sides where also quite good, the kids had fun, and the grown up company was incredible.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, I did finish the Jinny Beyer-style fabric ball ornaments for the kids this year! Hooray!

Hope you are all out there enjoying some time off work and some time spent with family.

Home made Christmas ornaments

The pieces of the 2007 Christmas ornaments are all cut out, and I'll be putting them together this weekend so stay tuned for finished pix (I hope).

My husband picked out the fabric this year, so they look a bit more lively, and I think the kids will really like them.

They should come together pretty quickly with any luck.

So I was reading Heather's blog, and it lead me to check out Trash Ties.

These look so cute and adorable. I really want some. I was about to order a few as stocking stuffers, but I am not sure the web site is processing credit transactions using the usual security method, 'https:' so I chickened out and will have try and find them in a store or something.

Any ideas where I can get some? What a cool looking product.

Jinny Beyer and my own holiday tradition

Every year, I make Christmas ornaments for a few important kids. It's one of the small but fun traditions we have around this time.

Our son is of course on this list to get one, as well as 3 adorable cutie pie kids that live very close to us. I want to expand the list, but we'll see how many I can turn out.

This is one of the ornaments I made last year.

I'm getting out my Jinny Beyer book on how to make these this weekend, and thinking about fabric choices for 2007.

For some reason I LOVE 1930's fabrics on Christmas projects. Maybe because that is the era that our house was built.

Do you have traditional things you make or do every year? We have a couple more, I'll have to save for a later post.

Oh, I got tagged too, so it will take me some thinking to find 7 facts about me...will chew on it a bit.

Putting away Christmas

These little ornaments were made for the 3 children that live next door to us. I make them every year, for these adorable kids, and one for my son as well.

They are all done by hand, and a cram them as full of 100% cotton batting as possible. Jinny Beyer's book on this is genius. I use silk ribbons for hangers.

I write names and dates on solid triangles w/ pigma pens....oh so cute. I seriously own like 20 of these in various sizes and colors.

This year I added my sister and her husband to my list of people I make them for, so the more the better. I'm an addict now.

At the end of the Christmas season, it is always sad to me to put away the decorations. Truthfully, if you have a baby that keeps you pretty busy, maybe it is easier to just leave them up all year.

Seriously, we are the last ones to celebrate Christmas on our street this year, w/ full icicle regalia haning off the eves. But, nothing wrong w/ a little extra spirit I guess when you don't have time to do much else.