Category Archives: Holidays

Saturday Snowmen and Santas, Part I

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This past Saturday, I spent an enjoyable afternoon paper piecing little snowmen and Santa blocks. I have a idea for a mini quilt for some of the blocks; for others, I may use them in a holiday swap. The blocks will be 3 inches finished once they are sewn together.

Here’s a little grouping of snowmen:

Snowmen Blocks

I really love the contrast between the dark blue sky print and the snowman. Plus, both fabrics appear to have snowflakes falling so I think it looks pretty cute together.

Here’s a closeup:

Snowman Closeup

I used small pieces of orange wool felt for the noses and appliqued them to the snowmen. The eyes and other details will be added after quilting is completed.

This block is designed by Carol Doak and is currently available in the Free Patterns section of her website!!

I made 6 snowmen, but I was only able to finish 2 Santa blocks. I will work on more a little later. These blocks also turned out pretty darned cute!

Santa Blocks

The Santa block is from Carol’s book, Easy Paper-Pieced Keepsake Quilts. I believe she also just designed another Santa block for those of us on her Yahoo Group so go check it out!

My plan is to work on my Snowman and Santa mini wall hanging idea this week so hopefully I’ll have more pictures to share with you soon.

Happy quilting!
~Jennifer

Honey Goat Milk Soap

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My aunt recently requested some more of my homemade goat’s milk soap. Goat milk is very nourishing for the skin and contains rich vitamins. Since this soap has a low pH level, it really helps protect dry skin. This soap is also great for sensitive skin or acne-prone skin.

I made a large batch of regular goat milk soap with a little added honey fragrance. The result is a slightly sweet and light soap!

Honey Goat Milk Bar Soap

I also created an extra batch using my gingerbread person mold for a fun holiday soap!

Gingerbread Man Shaped Goat Milk Soap

I will be placing just a few of each type – the bar and the gingerbread man – for sale in my Etsy shop today. These make great holiday gifts.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Finished Christmas Tree and Presents Mini Wall Hanging

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In my last post, I talked about making a little quilted wall hanging by using small blocks designed by Carol Doak.

The wall hanging turned out so cute! I used just 3 blocks, plus inner and outer borders to make the entire project. The finished wall hanging is approximately 14 inches tall by 10.5 inches wide. I used some pearly white snowflake buttons as accents, added some reindeer ribbon trim as hangers, and used a branch off my plum tree for the mini quilt rack. The end result is a rustic little Christmas Tree and Presents mini wall hanging that I will use as part of my holiday decorations this year.

Finished Christmas Tree and Presents Mini Wall Hanging

I did very minimal quilting using my regular sewing machine. The presents are the exact same size, but I used a dark brown print for a border around one present and a tan around the other. If I make this project again, I’d probably choose a different border for the first present to give it more contrast against the black outer border.

Little Reindeer Gifts

A few years ago, I found this fun reindeer printed ribbon at a local craft store. I thought that it would accent the little reindeer gifts pretty well.

Reindeer Ribbon

I found it pretty enjoyable to work on a mini project that I could finish in just a few hours! This project is a great one to use up some of my scraps.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer~

Funky Tree Christmas Block

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I’ve been thinking about making a small, simple quilt that I can put into a table stand to display during the holiday season. I really wanted to use a tree as the focal point with some accent blocks.

I got inspired by Carol Doak’s book, 50 Little Paper-Pieced Blocks. You can purchase this book directly from Carol’s website or from Amazon for about $10.

There are several different tree patterns in this book, but I opted to use the Funky Tree block on page 28. All the blocks in this book are small – just 3 inches square finished. For my project, I wanted a larger center block. I increased the block 200% so the finished block would be 6 inches square. I then added a small border to the block.

Funky Tree Christmas Block

As you can see, this block uses 5 different green fabrics to create the little tree. I’m keeping my color palette muted for this particular project. The background fabric is actually more cream colored than the photo shows with delicate little snowflakes. The burgundy red border also has a snowflake pattern.

Naturally, what should go under a Christmas tree but some cute little presents?

I used the Gift block on page 38, kept the 3 inch finished size, and added a small border.

Gift Christmas Block

The gift block uses a Moda print (Seasonal Gatherings Tan Burgundy 1068) that I fussy-cut so a reindeer would show on either side of the center ribbon. The center ribbon is a burgundy red print and the background is a Moda cream print (#30150) that perfectly complements both the gift block and the background of the funky tree block.

My next step is to create more of the 3 inch blocks to go around the tree block. Stay tuned for an update on this fun and quick holiday project!

Happy piecing!
~Jennifer~

Completed Happy Halloween Quilt!

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I added the finishing touches to my Happy Halloween quilt this week. This quilt is designed by Amy Bradley and you can read about my progress in earlier posts here.

I hand-stitched the binding to the quilt back over several evenings this week (while watching movies with the family). Once the binding was completed, I then hand-stitched on the button eyes for each character. I still need to create a quilt label and add it to the quilt back.

Here’s a photo of the completed quilt:

Completed Happy Halloween Quilt

And, of course, another photo with my outdoor “quilting” cat. He likes to supervise any and all outdoor projects, including the photographing of said projects. In this photo, he had just given his sniff of approval to the quilt!

Cat Approved Halloween Quilt

I hope you’ve enjoyed following my progress on this quilt! I’ve also been working on a Christmas block-of-the-month project from a different designer. I will soon post about that project as it’s nearly complete, but it will be really close if I finish it by this Christmas.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer~

Halloween Witch Cat Quilted Wallhanging Surprise!

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This past Saturday, while I was feeling a little under-the-weather from a cold, I trudged out to the mailbox. The sunshine and warm October weather perked me up a bit, but what I found inside really made me smile! My sister had made me a cute little Halloween quilted wall-hanging as a surprise and mailed it to me!

As her inspiration, she used a free cat-in-the-pumpkin pattern from Carol Doak. Then, she modified the cat so it now includes a body and a little witch’s hat. She added some yellow embroidery for the cat’s collar and the hat’s brim. The quilt is then accented with beautiful autumn colored borders and binding.

Isn’t this an adorable Halloween quilt? I’m going to display it all month long!

Halloween Witch Cat Quilted Wallhanging

It’s always great to get a surprise in the mail. What crafty item have you sent to a family member or friend?

Enjoy!
~Jennifer~

Werewolf, Death, Mummy, and Cat Halloween Quilt Blocks – the Final Row!

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Yippee – I recently completed the final row in my “Happy Halloween” quilt designed by Amy Bradley. This final row features 4 adorable little critters! They are without their eye buttons for now, but I hope to be able to get the whole thing quilted this weekend.

Go to this post for earlier pictures and details about this fun project.

Here’s Mr. Werewolf and Mr. Death’s up close photo:

Werewolf and Death Close-Ups

And the Mummy and Cat close-up photo. The black line detail on the mummy are actual stitching lines over a piece of white fabric!

Mummy and Cat Close-Up

Now that I have all the Halloween critters assembled, I sewed them together into one large rectangle with a “Happy Halloween” row separating the 1st character row from the 2nd character row.

Here is the quilt top before I added the borders. There will be a small black and white inner border and then a larger purple polka-dotted outer border.

Happy Halloween Quilt Before Borders

I will post again showing what the finished project looks like with the borders, quilting, binding, eyes, and other finishing details. This has been such a fun project for me and a great way to use up some of my Halloween fabric stash. All the different colors that you see in the various critters are little individual pieces of fabric appliqued onto a background block.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer~

Skeleton, Monster, Mrs. Monster, and Pumpkin Head Halloween Quilt Blocks!

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If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I’ve been feverishly trying to finish a quilt for this Halloween. But not just any Halloween quilt! No, I’m using Amy Bradley’s “Happy Halloween” pattern with plenty of whimsical characters!

My earlier posts are here and here and here.

Well, I have completed the 2nd row of characters – Skeleton, Monster, Mrs. Monster, and Pumpkin Head! Yea me!! Keep in mind that these characters will have button eyes and extra little embellishments after quilting is completed.

Here is Mr. Skeleton with his jaunty hat and fun skeleton-print fabric:

I had to take a photo of Monster and Mrs. Monster together. Naturally, my quilting cat helped me!
Don’t you just love Mrs. Monster’s white hair streak?

Monster and Mrs. Monster Halloween Blocks

Mr. Pumpkin Head came out rather adorable with his goofy grin and little vine on the top of his head:

The four blocks together with my quilting kitty supervising the layout:

Happy Halloween Quilt – 2nd Character Row

I’m now starting to work on the final row of Halloween characters. I really hope to be able to finish them this weekend and maybe even get to quilt it the following weekend!

I can’t resist one close-up photo of my great quilting cat:

Tiger, the quilting cat

Enjoy all your Halloween projects!
~Jennifer~

Spooky Haunted House – Halloween Challenge

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I enjoy creating projects using scrapbooking paper and embellishments. When I read that SVG Cuts is having a Halloween Challenge contest (grand prize being a new diecut machine!!), I thought I should give it a try!

I’ve posted my entry to SVG Cuts Facebook page. You can view the other entries and comment on them. They all look great so far!

For my project, I decided to make the haunted house from the Elmhurst Hollow SVG Kit. You can purchase this kit from the SVG Cuts website for $6.99. You will need to have one of the recommended cutting machines and software as posted on the FAQ page.

I’m so excited at how wonderful my Elmhurst haunted house looks now that it is completed. I’m now inspired to decorate for Halloween!

Here is the whole Spooky Haunted House with normal lighting:

You can see a slight glow from the flickering LED lights.

When the lights are out, you can really see the glow:

I added some fun embellishments to this project including ghosts, extra spiders, Halloween twine, glitter, spider webs, and a black cat. Don’t you just love the “BEWARE” sign across the front door? Too cute!

     

As I added these embellishments, my 7-year-old decided to help. He wanted to add his own special touch and came up with the idea of adding a yellow crescent moon with a flying bat. He cut the moon shape and colored it.

The backside of the haunted house faces a wall so it won’t be seen too often. However, Ian decided it needed a little yellow star with a pumpkin button that we made using my Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Tool and a round #14 bubble cap. It turned out cute!

The whole project took me about 3 hours, but I did take my time choosing papers and embellishments from my stash.

Hope you enjoy this early taste of Halloween!

~Jennifer~

Ghost and Witch Halloween Blocks, plus completed first row!

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In several of my earlier blog posts, I mentioned that I’m working on a fun applique quilt by Amy Bradley for Halloween. The quilt has different famous characters featured on each block.

I’ve completed the ghost and witch blocks! I’m having so much fun with this quilt because each block is so unique.

Here’s the ghost block. He has the cutest nose!

Ghost Halloween Block

And here is the witch block. Don’t you just love her hair? I also couldn’t resist fussy cutting fabric for her hat band so she could have several black cats.

Now that I have the first four blocks appliqued, I decided to add the borders and cornerstones before tacking the second set of blocks.

Here’s the completed first row with just the inner borders and cornerstones. There will be outer borders once all the blocks are completed.

Top Row of Halloween Applique Quilt

You may be wondering – what happened to their eyes? Yikes! Don’t worry – the eyes were only placed temporarily for photos. I’ll add the eyes and other embellishments once the quilting is complete.

Hope you enjoy!

~Jennifer~