Hanukkah wall hanging and stitching in the ditch

It's snowing outside.  My kids are thrilled!  

I've got so much going on this week, and in the weeks to come. School, kids, holiday parties, and all the sewing and  crochet that I need to get done before Christmas.  Yes, kids and my schooling need to come first, but I always try to find some time to craft during the day.  It's my "me" time; even if it's just 15 minutes.  This week I'm finishing up a Hanukkah wall hanging for my cousin.  I was hoping to have this out tomorrow morning, since Hanukkah starts on the 8th, but it's looking like it might be going out on Tuesday instead.

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I feel in love with this pattern from last year's December McCall's quilting magazine.  The pattern is called Dreidel Delights.  It's easy to work up and the instructions are pretty straight forward.  There was an error in the pattern instructions when they said to cut 9" strips instead of 7.5" strips, but thankfully I noticed it before I did any cutting.  

I'm almost done with the quilting and I wanted to share a tip with some of you that I just learned!  I usually do all my stitching in the ditch with my walking foot and then go back and do my free motion quilting.  This time, I used my edge stitch foot to do the stitching in the ditch.  It is soooooo much better since the center guide rides the edge of the seam, I get perfectly even and virtually undetectable stitches.  It's awesome.  It's definitely going on my favorite things list.

Cross your fingers and hope that I get this done by tomorrow!  Maybe then I'll have time to clean my sewing area.  Hey, don't judge! I thrive on creative clutter.

Diamond Snow Baby Hat

So just a little show and tell today.  I've actually been really busy creating a lot of stuff, doing school (yuck, yuck, don't tell my kids on me), and taking care of the family.  This is the crochet hat that I made up for my daughter using Patton's Canadiana Yarn in White.  I love how this turned out.  I'm calling it my Diamond Snow Baby hat.  At this point, I don't have a pattern written up for this hat.  I sometimes write out patterns, but usually I just freestyle it.  This hat is actually fairly easy to do.  It's a three part hat worked from the bottom up.  Start with the band (blsc), then the diamond pattern, and finally double crochet rounds (w/dec) to the top.  Make a pom pom and you're done.

Okay, I know that I could have been a lot more descriptive,  but if I make another, I promise to write the pattern out while I'm doing it.

I hope to show you a few more hats and other crochet items in the near future.  I've been on a crochet kick lately for Christmas so I've got a lot done.  Plus, I'm thinking about doing a de-stashing giveaway or an exchange.  

Quilt Festival in France

Patchwork Festival Fun!

While we lived in Texas, and the last time I visited America, I got to go to the Houston International quilt festival almost every year.  I admit that I have become a bit spoiled since the Houston Festival is just incredible   It is always a great time, and I love going with my mother (and sometimes even my sister), but it just wasn't happening this year.  Houston is great, but there are some incredible quilt festivals all over the world.  Because I live in Europe, I want to take advantage of at least some of the wonderful quilt festivals that they offer here.  This year, I got to go to the Carrefour European du Patchwork Festival in France.  It was a blissful two days filled with fabric, notions, vendors, and other men and women who share my love of all things sewing and crocheting.

It is an interesting show, because it is separated out between different locations in four different towns.  I started out in Sainte Marie-aux-Mines.  Each location featured a different category of quilts.

A church offered a selection of Canadian quilts, the geology museum featured mini quilts, the theater displayed antique quilts, the list went on and on.   You would walk to each location, and then could catch the shuttle to each different town.

I loved this quilt so much.  It's by Inge Hueber of Germany, and it is made with the seam allowance showing on the right side.  The way that she did the color wash here is just gorgeous.

I never knew that seam allowances could look so good.

The vendors were also amazing!  I even won some Aurifil thread!  And I might have picked up a few FQs and other little tidbits from vendors all over Europe and even some from America.  I also got to play with some wonderful sewing machines.  I'm still trying to figure out how I can save up for an HQ sweet 16 (just on the table not as a longarm machine).  I don't know how my hubby would feel about it if he knew how much one costs.  I'd better start saving my pennies now :)

This festival was really well done and worth the trip for anyone thinking about going next year!  If you want to see some more of my trip photos, feel free to visit my Flickr page.

Fabric bundle Giveaway at the Little Pink Rose

Marcia at The Little Pink Rose is having a giveaway on her blog.  There are many different ways to enter, and you could win a  Chevron Fat Quarter Bundle from Riley Blake Designs with 24 Fat Quarters.  Go and enter to win!!!   Giveaway closes at Midnight on November 23.  Good luck :)  

Fall Wreath & an update on past holiday wreaths

Wow, I have to salute all those dedicated bloggers out there who produce quality posts week after week.  It's just too easy to miss a few posts and before you know it, you haven't blogged in weeks or months.  I have been creating fun and pretty things for my family and for others, but I've neglected blogging about them :(  So now, a tiny update on my holiday wreaths.

I love making new wreaths for my apartment's front door.  It's one of the only things that I'm allowed to do to the exterior of my home, so I really enjoy changing them out every month/season.  Here are a few of the wreaths that I've made over the last few months starting from the most recent.

This is my Fall/Thanksgiving wreath.  My family collected tons of acorns for a project last month, and I reused the acorn caps to make this wreath.  I also re-used the Chinese lanterns that were part of a Halloween flower arrangement too.  I love getting two uses out of supplies.

      
To make this wreath, I first wrapped the form in garden twine.  Then I hot glued each cap on.  It took hours longer than I anticipated, but I really like the finished product.  I thought about adding a neat olive green ribbon at the top and not putting the lanterns on for a more modern look, but my craft store was sold out of all the nice fall colors so used a scrap of fabric that was in my stash and the color came from the lanterns.

Last months wreath was for Halloween.  I wanted to make something spooky for the kids.  So I wrapped the form in purple yarn and cut out a haunted house with a graveyard and bats from black paper and accented it with a cheap skeleton from the $1 bin.  I also had to add just a bit of sparkle with the silver ribbon.  It was a big hit with the kids and neighbors.

The last wreath that I going to share with you today is our back to school wreath made from crayons and paper.  I'm sure that many of you have seen crayon wreaths on Pinterest.  Instead of just choosing the crayons randomly I grouped them by color and then did a gradient pattern around the wreath.  I had the kids color and cut out some school themed coloring pages and my oldest made a kid chain portrait.  We glued it all on for a fun and fab September wreath.  Sorry about the picture quality on the crayon wreath, but in truth the carpet color is no worse than my door color.

I'm going to try to do some more updates on past projects in the near future and maybe post a few things that I'm working on for the winter holidays.  Wish me luck. :)

Jam and Jelly Time

This has to be my favorite time of year in Germany. The roadside stands are full of fresh local produce. My favorite are the cherries, but my middle child loves the fresh strawberries. He eats them by the bowl full. It's also the time of year to put some of this fruit by for the winter. Thus, I've been making some jams and jelly for us to have during the year, but I mainly can for friends and family. I love to make fresh bread to go along with the jams as Christmas gifts.
My first batch of jam this year was strawberry. It's nice to start off with a classic. We went out to the strawberry field behind our house and picked 2kgs of strawberries. I'm not sure what type of strawberry these are, but they were beautiful and very sweet.

I've never seen such blood red strawberries before this. They were that same true red all the way through the fruit.

So far I've done Peach and Strawberry fruit jams. I want to do some apricot, maybe blueberry, and some cherry pie filling too.

My favorite though has got to be the Jalapeno Jelly that I did yesterday. Love it! I found the best recipe from the Texas homestead blog. It is the best Jalapeno jelly that I have ever made. This recipe is a true jalapeno jelly and not one that is mostly bell pepper with just one token jalapeno. You can find the recipe at the Texas Homesteader site.

The only changes that I made were to use powdered pectin and half of a finely chopped red bell pepper (just for some added color). I added the bell pepper half way through the cooking process so that the small chunks wouldn't disintegrate. I also did not add any food color (really, I think the natural color is so pretty that it doesn't need any food color, but to each his own.

 This jelly goes great with meat like pork chops or chicken; It's also nice on a meat sandwich. I also serve it as an appetizer with cream cheese and jelly on crackers. Yum!!!

4th of July Wreath& wreath form tutorial

Happy 4th of July!!!

So today I found myself inspired by the many patriotic wreaths that I've seen on Pinterest lately.  I wanted to make something patriotic and fun for my apartment door to celebrate Independence day, but I didn't have a wreath form or any of the things that easily convert into a wreath form (pool noodle, big tube, pipe insulation).  I tried to buy a wreath form at some of my local stores here in Germany, but everywhere I went they were out of the light cheap kind that I wanted, and there was no way I was dropping 10 Euro on a metal form that didn't suit my needs!  I'm not much into power shopping so I admit to giving up the search after two stores and some subtle hints from the kids that they weren't digging the wreath form hunt.

Then inspiration hit me! I could make my whole project out of stuff I already had.  Actually, I took it as a challenge.  I knew that I had all that I needed, and more, at my own house.  No wreath form; No problem!

So, here is a little tutorial on making a Plastic Bag Wreath Form, and then the patriotic sparkler wreath.

Plastic Bag Wreath Form Tutorial

What you need for the wreath form:

Plastic grocery bags (any supermarket style bag will do.  You know that you have a ton of these stashed somewhere :)
Wire Coat Hanger
Tape
Pliers or strong fingers  

1. Bend your hanger into a circle shape.  It doesn't need to be perfect, but get it as round as you can.  Then, bend the hook over to form a loop.  This makes a nice hanger at the back of the wreath when you're done.

2. Grab your shopping bag by the bottom and tape the end around the hanger.  Then, begin to twist the bag around the hanger.  You don't want to do it too loose or too tight.  Once the whole bag is twisted around the hanger, tape the end to the hanger.

3. Continue adding bags around the hanger.  Slightly overlap the ends when adding a new bag.  Tape at the ends and at spots that don't want to behave as you go.  Continue adding layers around until it reaches the thickness you desire.

4. When you reach the loop you made from the hanger hook weave the bags through it for the first few layers so that you can get your finger through it. If you continue to add layers, like I did, just go around the loop without covering it too much.

5. You should end up with the nice sturdy wreath form. If at this point you think it's not quite round, don't be afraid to tug it into shape or add a bag in a spot that is not quite thick enough.

You can see in the last photo that I've already started to add my crepe paper to the wreath.
To make this 4th of July wreath (or your own variation) continue on.

Supplies:
Wreath Form
Crepe paper party streamers in Red, White, and Blue (1 roll each)
Stiff Paper for the stars
White Glitter (or Sugar) *optional*
Glittery ribbon in silver and gold (mine is the kind used for wrapping presents)
Wood Skewers
Black paint and White paint 
Blue and red ribbon (or whatever you have) to make a bow
hot glue

You are going to cover your wreath using little crepe paper florets for this project.  It's cheap and its easy.  I found it was easier to make a whole big pile of each color and then glue them to the form, but you can make the florets as you go.

1. Make the florets by cutting two pieces of crepe paper and crossing them over the top of each other (1). Don't make the pieces too long or they will stick up too much.  They should only be cut a bit longer than they are wide.  Pinch the center (2), and then twist them together (3) to form a little point at the bottom (4).  It's that easy.

2. Glue the florets onto the form in a flag style pattern as seen in the photo.

 
3. Cut your star shapes from some stiff paper. Paint them with white glue or white paint and shake on some glitter for sparkle. I didn't have any glitter so I used sugar instead. It worked great and my four-year-old thought it was super cool. Glue them to the blue field on your wreath.

4. To make the sparklers, paint the wood skewers black and then cut your sparkle ribbon into about 3.5 inch pieces. fold them in half and glue them to the tip of the skewer. I just had mine going every-which-way so they would resemble real sparklers. Then glue them to the wreath at a few points along the stick and where they cross each other.

5. Make a bow with your blue and red ribbon and glue it over the sparklers where they cross. This gives it a nice finished look. Then just hang your wreath and enjoy your holiday.

 Now go out and have a BBQ and enjoy the fireworks while you celebrate the freedom that we are so fortunate to have.