Jane's Quilted and Appliqued Christmas Wallhanging

My friend Jane is quite a quilter. She makes quilts for her children and her friend's children, and for fundraisers, and gifts and other occasions as well. I've worked on a few quilts with Jane, and it's always an adventure. Jane and I were at a little fabric shop together last fall when I was looking for Halloween fabric to finish off my Halloween apron, and she found the cutest pattern for a quilted and appliqued Christmas wall hanging. She purchased some fabric to go along with it while we were there, then she made it. I love how it turned out, so cheerful and cute and Christmas-y.

It's Santa and a pair of mittens! I love mittens, as you might have guessed by our family's version of 'stockings' hung by the chimney with care! The red background fabric around the border is so pretty and rich looking and I love the swirl designs in the green border fabric too.


Jane had never done an applique project like this before, but you couldn't tell that by her blanket stitches. She did a great job.

This mitten looks cozy enough to keep any little hand warm on a cold winter day!

Nice job Jane! Thanks for letting me show it off.

I neglected to ask Jane the name of the pattern and the designer, but I know she will read this and perhaps she'll be kind enough to leave a comment with that information in case anyone is interested in making this festive little wall hanging too.

Happy Stitching!

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Christmas charm squares from Sandi - and other nice things too!

Look at all the wonderful Christmas goodies Sandi from A Legacy of Stitches sent me - not for winning a giveaway or for a swap gift, but just because she is such a nice and generous person.


A wonderful and very colorful little package of beautiful Christmas fabric charm squares, plus two fat quarters of cheerful red and green.


I had to put the Snoopy charm on top because Peanuts is my all time favorite cartoon, and you have to admit, all the characters are just so darn cute and lovable.


Just look at all those wonderful colors and prints! But that's not all...


...Sandi also sent me all the necessary parts to make the same JOY stocking that she had made as a giveaway prize which I DID NOT win! Isn't she something? And they are all cut out and ready for me to have the fun of putting them together into a beautiful Christmas stocking.


If you want to see Sandi's finished stocking, just click HERE and take a look. While you're there, you might want to read the comments which were Christmas memories - one allowed each day until Christmas for an entry into the giveaway. You could learn a few things about me if you find my comments! And then click HERE to see who won the JOY stocking - you won't believe it! But make sure you come back because there's more!


Along with all that Christmas loveliness, Sandi tucked into my package two of her own patterns AND the wool to make them! She does such lovely work with wool making penny rugs, which I had never heard of until I found her website. I am very much looking forward to trying my hand at these little projects.

I envision the fat quarters and the charms becoming something fun and festive like maybe a table runner or a wall hanging of some sort. I'll let some ideas stew in my brain and maybe by next fall I'll be ready to pull them out and make something lovely from all this loveliness. Thanks Sandi!

This is my 499th post here at Hooked On Needles, so my next post will announce the winner of my 500th post giveaway. I'm not telling when it will happen, but I will say you still have a little time to sign up for it! Don't wait too long though because I do try to post something here every day! I'll turn off comments on that post when time is up. Good luck!

Happy Stitching!

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My Secret Santa had Very Busy Fingers!

The gifts are opened and the children are busy playing with all their new toys. Christmas was a wonderfully joyful time in our household yesterday, and will continue until January 6th when we un-decorate and return things back to ordinary. The last gift I opened yesterday was from my Secret Santa, Australian Rachel of Four Wise Monkeys. Rachel is quite the stitcher and spoiled me terribly with lots of beautiful handmade things.


This is what greeted me upon opening the pretty paper package that had been waiting under my tree since its arrival two weeks ago. I recognized those birds! I remember seeing them on Rachel's website a while ago and admiring them.


This lovely wall hanging is the first thing I looked at, and the more I look at it, the more I see in it. The detail is quite amazing and all the stitching is perfect!

Take a look...you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.




This star is filled with French Knots! Wow!


The big red heart hanging from the moon, and the red trim along this angel's collar and hem are also French Knots.


A wonderful thought for this time of year, and throughout the new year too!




And here's Rudolph complete with red nose, leading the way!




This is one tall tree!



Two little Christmas love birds!


Then there was this fabulous bag...how did Rachel know I like bags? Maybe I mentioned it here once or twice? Don't you just love the fabric she used?


And check out the button hole stitch around the flower petals...perfect!


I love the ric-rac trim around the top of the bag. It's lined with pretty fabric too! Just my kind of bag and the perfect size to tote a project along.


Under all the other handmade loveliness was this Melly & Me pattern for the cutest little stuffed bears, Bonzer and Beaut.

What a package! Didn't I say that Rachel spoiled me? Now you can see it's true!

Thank you once again to Rachel for all the beautiful gifts of stitchery, sewing, time and talent. Your thoughtfulness and generosity are very much appreciated!

And another thank you to Chookyblue for hosting this swap again. It's a lot of work for one person to undertake so that all of us can make new friends across the world and share our talents with each other.

Happy Stitching!

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Christmas Blessings to All!

Wishing Christmas JOY to you!

Happy Stitching!

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The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care...

There is a special kind of charm about family Christmas stockings sewn by someone special and embroidered with each person's name, hanging by the fireplace every Christmas year after year after year. My friend Kathy's family has carried on this tradition now for several generations, as evidenced by the remaking of Bumpa's stocking to be used by the new Grandpa of the family. Now it is time for the next generation to get their own stockings, and other family members as well.


Using one of the old stockings as my guide, I worked up pattern pieces and sewed five more stockings for this wonderful family. Here they are in the picture above, hanging on my fireplace where my own family's knitted mittens usually hang. If the names had worked out better, I might have thought about keeping them!


Each name is hand embroidered using 3 strands of DMC embroidery floss and my very favorite embroidery stitch, the chain stitch.


Donna's stocking got a little bit of a feminine touch with pretty light green organza ribbon, very sheer and has a little sparkle in it too.


Riley's stocking needed a little change from the pretty packages which are on the other stockings. Can you guess by the fabric and the quilting that Riley is the canine member of this family?


Using the very best free-motion quilting that I could muster with my walking foot, I free-handed the word "Woof" and a dog paw and a few dog bones on Riley's very cute red fabric with brown doggy paws all over it.


All the stockings have the same off white trim on the cuff and the toe, but the men got the ric-rac for a more manly touch.


And here is baby Paul's stocking, the first of the next generation, but hopefully not the last! God willing, there will be siblings, maybe even a new uncle or two, and some cousins who will be needing stockings in the future.


I decided to make Riley's stocking first, copying as best I could the construction of an old stocking that Kathy let be borrow to make the pattern. After putting it together, I decided that there had to be a better way to make the inside look more finished...


...so instead of layering the outside of the stocking with the batting and the lining before sewing the stocking together, I saved the lining to insert on its own, thus hiding all the seams and giving the inside of the stocking a much more finished appearance. I also used fusible fleece batting for these stockings, fusing it to the decorative outside stocking pieces, so I felt that quilting through all the layers really was not necessary. I was much more pleased with this outcome, and this is how I will construct any future Christmas stockings.

My Christmas preparations are well under way here, cleaning, baking, decorating, gift making, school projects, wrapping, all the fun of the season. I hope your stockings are hung by your chimney with care too, and that you have a very blessed Christmas season.

Happy Stitching!

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Secret Santa Christmas Swap gifts received!

Secret Santa arrived at my house today! George the mailman left a nice cushy package in my mailbox and it had the code I had been waiting to see written on the back...SSCS! It was all the way from Australia too...how exciting to receive something from someone so far away!


Here are the two gifts that were in the package - one clearly labeled to open at Christmas and the smaller one said 'ornament' which meant I could open it right away...so I did!


Isn't this the cutest hand-stitched ornament? And isn't it what everyone wants for Christmas too? I just love it! Can you tell red was the perfect color for the stitching...it even matches my tablecloth!


It also matches the ornaments on our living room tree! Whoever my secret Santa is did a good job picking this project for me...it is perfect!


Being the good girl that I try to be, I placed the other package under the tree to await the arrival of Christmas...just 2 weeks away! You can be sure I'll let you all know just what I find inside that lovely package, and who sent it too!

Happy Stitching!

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How to make a Tea Cozy for Christmas - or any other time of year!

Are you a tea drinker? I am, and I found out recently that my friend Kathy M. is as well. She is the one who asked me to remake the top of Bumpa's Christmas stocking so it could be used by her husband. While visiting Kathy's home to deliver the stocking, she mentioned her need for a new tea cozy since the one she had was quite old, and was just a little too cozy on some of her larger tea pots. So I made her a new one...




This tea cozy was made using the dimensions of Kathy's larger tea pot so that it could be put on and taken off easily and safely. The method I used to make this tea cozy is described very nicely by Beth over at The Rusty Bobbin, except that I did not use piping or machine embroidery on this one.


When I was finished sewing the cozy, I hand-stitched an M on the front using quilting thread and a simple running stitch. In this picture, you can still make out the purple ink that had not yet disappeared when I took the picture! I love my disappearing ink pen!

Kathy also wanted a tea cozy for her favorite Christmas tea pot, and I just happened to have my camera handy when I was making it. Here's a little tutorial on how I made a fancier tea cozy for Christmas time, still using the basic design from The Rusty Bobbin, but adding my own twist on it.

Using Beth's method for measuring the tea pot, I took those dimensions and figured the size of my pieces. I cut two pieces of Insul-Bright insulated batting according to my measurements and placed unbleached muslin and a strip of pretty Christmas fabric on top of one piece of batting so that when I stitched them together through all three layers and folded the Christmas fabric down over the batting, this is what it looked like...


This will be familiar to those of you who have worked with 'quilt-as-you-go' projects.


I made another piece exactly the same way for the other side of the tea cozy and laid them on my work table with the bottom edges lined up evenly against each other.


Using my straight edge and disappearing ink pen, I marked vertical lines one inch apart on each piece.


After threading my machine with gold metallic thread on top, I stitched through the fabric and the batting from the bottom edge of the Christmas fabric to the top of the batting, along the purple lines I had marked.


Here are both pieces after the gold lines were completed.


I brought the pieces back to my work table and trimmed the fabric to match the batting.


Using a strip of the Christmas fabric about 1 inch wide and 6 inches long, I made a small handle by just folding in the long edges, then folding the piece in half and edge stitching the length with gold thread.


I pinned one end of this handle to the right side of one of the quilted pieces with the longer end toward the middle of the piece...


...then I pinned red piping along the raw rounded edge of the piece and brought the other end of the handle over the piping to form a loop about 1 1/2 inches high. I machine basted the piping onto the quilted piece, also catching in the loop fabric.


After placing the two quilted pieces right sides together, I pinned around the edge and stitched through all layers just along the edge of the piping.


Here you can see the piping and the little loop handle in between the right sides of the two quilted pieces.


Using the quilted pieces as my template, I cut a double layer of unbleached muslin for the lining.


I stitched the rounded edge of the lining, leaving an opening of about 4 inches towards the top of the curve for turning.


Then I turned the lining right side out and tucked it inside the outer shell so that the right sides were together. I pinned along the raw edges and then stitched the seam.


After pulling the lining out of the shell...


...and pulling the shell through the opening in the lining...


...I stitched the opening closed.


Then I tucked the lining back into the shell and pressed the lower edge before pinning it all around.


Using gold thread for the outside and natural color thread for the inside, I stitched close to the bottom edge first, then stitched again about 1/2 inch higher to finish the bottom edge of the tea cozy.


Ta-da! Here's the finished product, still with some of the purple ink marks that had not yet disappeared. I can assure you that they all did disappear and this Christmas tea cozy will be the perfect addition to Kathy's Christmas tea service!

If you are a tea drinker, or if you know someone special who is, now you can whip up a tea cozy for every occasion. They can be plain and simple, like the homespun cozy I made, with or without a monogram or other design. They can also be quite fancy and special, like the Christmas one with gold trim and holly to match Kathy's very special Christmas tea pot. Be creative and see what you can come up with that would fit either the pot or the person...to a T!

Happy Stitching!

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