Advent Complete!

Did you finish?  I almost didn't make it.  Jared and I bought a X-box Kinect over the weekend and I have been busy trying to perfect the dance moves to Salt n' Pepa's "Push It."  I need a lot of practice.

It was 2 a.m. last night before I wrapped things up with the advent.  Here are my ornaments for this week:

Christmas light, gingerbread man, holly leaves, and a snowman (Oscar's favorite!)

Then I made an ornament ball for each member of the family:

When more kids come along, we'll have to switch some ornaments out.

All together now ... ta-da!

I bound the edges with white double fold bias tape and added red felt tabs for hanging.   The trick has been where to hang it.  I want Oscar to have access, but not too much access.  He really likes to stuff the ornaments in those pockets, so fingers crossed that they hold up over the holidays. 

Want to see more from the Flickr pool?

I love this Nativity Advent by sahm3:

Vivian from Craft with Confidence came up with some more great ornaments, including this slice of pumpkin pie.  See all of her ornaments on her blog.

And I can't leave out Katie of So Happy, everyone's favorite Advent Sew-Alonger.  Her ornaments from this last week are more beautiful than ever (more on her blog):

Perfection!

Be sure to check out all the Advent Inspiration in the Homemade by You flickr group.  Thank you so much for sewing along with me!  I doubt I would have finished without your support.

If you didn't sew an advent, there are still plenty of ways to celebrate Christmas everyday.  I am Momma - Hear Me Roar has a great idea for a Good-Deed Advent, with one act of service every day until Christmas.  She has the good deeds strung in super cute buckets, but you could just as easily put all the service slips into a mason jar and draw one each day.

My longtime friend, Ellen, makes Gingerbread Countdown Chains with her family every year.  It was one of my favorite holiday traditions growing up, because they always gave one as a gift to my family.  What better way to celebrate the season than with a delicious cookie?

And I am following Jordan's lead by adding a daily holiday activity to our advent calendar.  Today we are walking through the annual Holiday Market downtown.

If all else fails, go out and buy a $2 chocolate advent calendar from Trader Joe's.  Or if you are me, buy two so you don't have to share with your kids.  :)

advent sew-along: your ornament questions answered

I'm hearing a few common questions concerning the advent ornaments - how many layers are they? How do you hang them?  How do you sew a blanket stitch edge?  I don't know how to embroider - where can I learn the stitches?

Here is how I make them:

• Each ornament is two layers, because I like to hide my messy stitches and knots inside.  The top layer is decorated, and the back is a solid color, plus the thread loop.
• When I am doing little felt strips, like on this candy cane, I cut them much longer than necessary.  After they are sewn on, I trim the edges to fit.  This way, they are always the perfect length and don't get sewn on crooked.
• I am using a full piece of embroidery thread (all 6 threads) for my ornament hanging loop.  I simply tie a knot in the thread, make a loop though the back piece of the ornament, and tie a second knot inside to close it off.
• Embroidery is a valuable skill and just takes a little bit of practice!  Stitch School is an excellent blog to check out if you want to learn many embroidery stitches.  Here is a link to the blanket stitch, specifically.

One of my favorite parts of this advent project is I've been able to use this box of embroidery thread.  My mom brought it to me when Ruby was born.  It originally belonged to a much larger set of my grandma's thread collection.  She was an avid (and talented, I might add) cross-stitcher.  I love that I have a little bit of my grandma's supply sewn into every ornament!

advent sew-along: ornament templates

It's your lucky day, advent friends!  A very generous reader, Julie, emailed me with advent ornament templates that she drew herself.   Wasn't that nice?  So instead of waiting around for me to get my ornaments going, you can all benefit from Julie's artistic talent.  Thanks, Julie!   She based many of her ornaments off the Inchmark Advent, and came up with several designs herself.

Julie recommends saving the images and then importing them into a Microsoft Word document to print.  Set the layout of the page to landscape and then size the two JPEG images to 8.5 inches wide, and the ornaments should be just right to fit a 2.5 inch square pocket on the advent calendar.

I am also making a few different ornaments, so I'll post templates for those when they are ready.  This should give you plenty to work off of in the meantime!  Thanks again to Julie for sharing her work - you can check out her other crafts at her blog, Little Jack's Corner.

Also, many of you asked how large to cut your tree.  Mine is basically going to be about 17 inches wide at the bottom and approximately 17 inches at the tallest point.  The shape is still to be determined.  I like the simplicity of the Inchmark design, but am also drawn to this whimsical tree shape from Pottery Barn Kids:

image source: pottery barn kids

The beauty of sewing your own advent is your tree can be as big as you want, in whatever shape you want!  Go crazy.  Mix it up.  ;)  Can't wait to see what you all create.

advent sew-along: week 2

How's your advent coming along?  I just barely finished my week 1 assignment late last night.  Ruby has been trying to thwart my progress, but I learned this week that it is possible to hold a sleeping baby and embroider at the same time.  I couldn't fall behind in the first week!

This is what my advent looks like so far:

It is a little more colorful than my typical Christmas decor, but Oscar is thrilled (even though he has no idea what it is).  We're going to have a lot of fun with this.


I decided to cut my backing piece a little larger to have room for a bigger tree, so mine measures 22x36 inches.  I am also doing a double layer for the back to hide my stitches and give the whole thing a bit more weight.  Once all the details are sewn onto the front, I'll sew the two layers together.

Here is your week 2 assignment:

• Cut your tree shape
• Sew the tree to your backing piece
• Sew 8 ornaments

I'll have some ornament templates posted for you asap.   In the meantime, I'd love to see what you've been up to!  If you'd like to share, post your progress to the Homemade by You flickr group.

would you like to sew along with me?

I started my felt Christmas project last night.   Any guesses to what I'm making?

An advent calendar!  I've always wanted one, and I think Oscar will get really into it this year.  Last year I saw this advent calendar at inchmark journal and fell in l.o.v.e.  Isn't it beautiful?  I am going to make a very similar advent calendar, and it would be so fun to have you join me!

Here's the plan:  there are exactly four weeks until December first.  Each week I am going to do one post with an update and assignment.  I'll even offer an ornament template here and there.  You can join me in copying Inchmark's advent calendar, or come up with one all your own.  Submit your photos to the Homemade by You flickr group, and I'll showcase calendar ideas all along the way.

Want to join the fun?  Here is this week's assignment:

• Cut your main backing piece (I am cutting mine to 20x30 inches)
• Cut your felt pockets and embroider them with numbers 1-24 (my pockets are cut 2 1/2 inches square).  I am using a tight chain stitch to embroider my numbers.
• Sew the pockets to the backing piece

UPDATE:  Many of you have asked what kind of felt I'm using.  I love Rainbow Classic felt, which is made of 100% eco-fi (polyester made from recycled post-consumer plastic bottles).  It is a good thickness, comes in gorgeous colors, and very economical - hence, my favorite non-wool felt.  You can buy it in yardage at fabric.com, among other places.

oscar had a little lamb

Oscar has recently been picking up on animal sounds and is particularly smitten with sheep.  Whenever he comes across a picture of one, I hear BAA! BAA! BAA! over and over until I acknowledge that, yes indeed, that is a sheep.  It is pretty cute.

With that in mind, and since I haven't sewn in over a week (oops), I whipped up these lamb pillows during Oscar's nap today.  I'm sure you've seen the project before ... it was originally posted as a tutorial on The Purl Bee back in March.   Or maybe you saw Dana's adorable fleece version on MADE.

I also used fleece for my lambs for both the bodies and face/limbs.  It makes them very snuggle-worthy and will be much more washing-machine friendly than the wool felt (although that looks lovely).  I also turned the legs upside down because I liked the rounded end better than the pointed end.  Sometimes I get really wacky like that.  ;)

With only four weeks to go until baby sister arrives, it is definitely time to start crafting in double time.  I embroidered the kid's names on the pillows ... though I doubt that will stop Oscar from claiming both lambs as his own.  So to my dearest friend Megan, who said I would never make personalized crafts past my first baby, I say, ha!  Take this! (and also, I love you)

three more quiet book pages

Another quiet book ... DONE! Well, I still have to make a quick cover, but that won't take any time at all. So, without further ado, here are the last three pages.

First, a little something for Halloween:


boo! I love the friendly ghost.

Then, a bit of circus animal fun:

The balloon has a squeaker inside. Yes, I know that is not exactly quiet. But it is FUN!

My mom is in town for Oscar's birthday and helped me crank out these last two pages. She did all the little french knots for the popcorn. Doesn't it look delicious?




Serious progress was made on the playhouse today. So excited!

Audrey's quiet book

Remember how I'm supposed to be sewing a playhouse? I am nothing if not easily distracted.

My new friend Sonja is about to embark on a super long plane ride with her almost one year old daughter. Squirm city. We were talking about Oscar's quiet book, and I decided it would be a good idea to make one for their trip. Sonja came over and once I taught her the blanket stitch, there was no stopping us. Here's what we've got so far:









Is it totally sad that I might like this one better than Oscars? I'll have to add new pages to his book!

Also, I would love to provide templates for these pages, but I am under a major time crunch right now. I'll have them up in the nearest future that I can manage. :)

anniversary embroidery

Sunday was our 6th wedding anniversary, so I spent my recent hours in the car making this little embroidery for Jared. The pattern is from the Polka Dot Bunny, and I saw it on Craft's blog back in June. At that point I was leaning more towards an embroidered love note, but the moment I this frolicking squirrel and hedgehog, I knew this was the pattern I needed. Those of you who know Jared understand why. :) I added our wedding date and a bit of embellishment on the animals.

If you are looking for embroidery patterns, check out the embroidery roundups on One Pretty Thing. Here are some of my favorites found through the roundups:

matryoshka dolls at Blue Bird Studio
little dresses at A Print A Day
branch and leaf at BHG

Dishtowel Aprons

I made these two aprons using the dishtowel apron tutorial over at I Have to Say. Such a great idea! For this first apron, I actually used half a dishtowel (it was for my 2-year old niece).

I also have been itching to try out embroidery, and luckily came across a 5 week lesson series at Crafty Daisies. For this project, I just used the backstitch (which turned out to be quite simple) and I am excited to learn others.



I was having a difficult time at the store deciding between prints, so I bought two (the polka dots above and the apples/pears below). The apple/pear towel turned out to be so large that I thought it would be a quick and easy project for myself - a new apron in about 15 minutes! You can't beat that.