Twelve Days of Christmas: My Day!

I hope you have been following the Twelve Days of Christmas, each day there is a new tutorial or free pattern that you can make, just in time for Christmas. Thank you to Wendy for hosting the hop and all of the ladies who are participating. You can follow along each day by clicking on the banner.

I love to work with wool and I know most of you, love wool as well. I also love doing pieces with inspirational words and I think Joy is one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy my project and make one for yourselves to remember to keep Joy in your hearts, each and every day, this season.

I have given instructions, if anything seems confusing or you have a question, you can email me, anytime. The bells are about 5" long, but you can make them any size by enlarging or reducing the design.

This is  closer photo of the bells, the garland goes across my windows, with more bells and ties.

Have fun with the pattern, instructions are a guideline of how I made mine, but you can change it to suit your likes.

Instructions:

Materials:

Wool

floss

red berries (Beads, buttons or french knot.)

Rusty bell

2” styrofoam ball.

Red and green homespun 1/4” strips

Jute

Clothespins

Bells:

Cut out 3 bells, 3 bell backs, letters, candle, 2 leaves. Sew on the appliques with a blanket stitch.

Attach berries

Sew back and front with a blanket stitch, starting at the bottom and when you come around to the end, attach the bell with the same thread.

Balls:

Cut strips from the green homespun and wrap them around the styrofoam ball, until it is covered. Take a red piece and wrap it around the ball, twist around at the bottom and come around the opposite side, tie into a tight bow, leaving a few inches of the tail, to hang from the clothespin. 

You can buy pre-stained clothespins or soak them in walnut ink to age them. You can also have fun and paint them in christmas colors.

To make the garland, take a piece of homespun and a piece of jute and twist them together. Add  red ties if you like to fill in the spaces, and you can add larger rusty bells, as well. The length depends on how much you add to your garland and the size of your window, or area that you hang from.

Pattern Pieces:

Another fun thing to do for Christmas is baking treats that everyone will love. I have made these for years, they are great for parties and your guests who come to visit. They melt in your mouth and I haven't met anyone who didn't love them.

I hope you enjoyed visiting today and don't forget to follow along each day.

Americana Punch Needle!

No outdoor activity this weekend. I am still recovering from my last two hikes and Bill was on a trip, so perfect time for me to relax and make something new for the house.

The design is by Robin of Bird In The Hand Primitives. Her designs are fun to do and it really worked up quickly.

I used dmc floss, 6 strands, some as is, some of my hand dyes and a bit of scraps from my scrap box. The edging is done with red, white and blue yard of Twisted Cording. I tie my yarns onto a handle and twist by hand. I gave it a bit of walnut stain to antique it and put it with a few of my americana items.

The balls in the basket change color with the seasons. They were still red and green from Christmas so I changed the green ones to blue fabrics, by adding enough blues to cover the green. It is an easy way to change out your rag ball colors without redoing the whole ball.

The cute little mouse is a wonderful creation by Ragpatch Primitives, that I won, years ago. I guess I need to make a cupboard mat next and repaint that cupboard, while I am at it;) The wall is the one we just painted, so still trying to decide what to put on that area.

Patriotic Bowl Fillers!

Today I wanted to make something fun and quick to do a little decorating. With the cabinets being redone, it is hard to keep the house clean and redo things for the season, but there are some spots I can play with that don't get messed up by my husband.

I wanted something to use as bowl fillers, so I tried two different ornies. One is the flag pillows, a quick and easy project. I used red and white ticking for the flag, then I sewed a backing onto it and lightly stuffed it. I sewed the star onto the blue piece and put that on with a simple running stitch.

I wanted to make a rag flag to put in the basket, but didn't have time today, so I put a piece of blue ticking in it, for now. It looks light in the photo, but it has been antiqued and a lot darker in person. A couple of rag balls and a few things I had in the house and I have a little setting for the top of my chest.

The Patriotic mouse is a piece that I won from Ragpatch Primitives.

The firecrackers I made by using scraps, so the size was dependent on what I grabbed. They measure about 6" x 2". I sewed them on the machine and left the tops open, then added a piece of jute for the fuse. They are stained with a combination of mahogany and walnut stain.

And of course, being the proud Grandma, I had to show a new photo of my grandson. Grandpa is holding him in his lap.

Hexagons, Halloween and Hokie Mokie!

I finished my hexagon topper, at least I think I did. Should I or shouldn't I, tea stain it?
 I hand sewed them together, so they are not perfect. I learned from making these, to mark my 1/4 mark on the back, so I could sew more evenly;) It is all hand sewn except for the border, which I attached by machine. It measures 22 1/2" from end to end and the hexagons are 1 1/2". This is a great lap or traveling project and by using smaller hexagons, you can make a lot of different design variations.

Here is a close up of the stitching. I used black pearl cotton and stitched inside of each hexagon. I used my new camera, so the colors are better, but I still need to learn how to use the settings to get true color shots. The feather stitch was done with some of my hand dyed floss, so it goes from dark to light green. I am not sure if I will use it for a topper, not sure if I have a table it will fit, lol. I think it would make a nice base for a prim, table top tree.

I took out some decorations and threw them on the table;) I took the rag balls I had and just added orange and gold fabrics around what I had, so they would be bigger and I could use less fabric, that way. Plus, when I am done with fall, I can take it off and they will be red and green again;) The wonderful candle mat was made by my friend Kelley.

And for the Moki fans, this is for you. Not sure where he was, but doesn't say much about my cleaning;)

Christmas Decorating and Wool Punchneedle

I have been experimenting with wool yarn and punch needle and love the look.
I used lopi lite and some vintage yarn I had to make this piece. I used a 7 height on the design and a 6 for the background.
This is a design by Kelly Belfast that she made for our group to use and it was fun to punch up.

I used a cameo large needle on jo anns weavers. Their weavers has more stretch to it, so great for the thicker yarns.
You do have to be careful with the lopi yarns, they can tear as you pull the strands apart, so it is more time consuming, but well worth the look.



I have been doing a little decorating as I go and this is how I fixed up my bench this week. The feather tree was made by my friend Joanne. She even hooked the tree skirt to go with it. The candy canes I made by using pipe cleaners and spraying them with walnut spray, then sprinkling cinnamon on them. I dried them in my front loader, but you can dry them in the oven on low too. I found the wire basket at the home store for 4 dollars and then I made new rag balls with christmas colors. I just took my pumpkin balls and left the orange fabric on and put the new color over it. It saved on having to use more fabric and made the balls a bit bigger. Then I added my new/old firkin and kitty.

Cat Antics

I thought I would take a nice warm bath and read a magazine to relax. It took about five minutes before I heard things falling on the floor and knew the yellow furry girl was at it again. Of course when I came out, I got that look again. No, she would never do that.



Then Casey had to check it out and Dora sat on the chest and tried to tell me he did it, haha. He had an alibi, he was in the bathroom with me.



This week my son is moving into a new apartment that doesn't take pets. He wants me to take his cat, but we call her "Psycho Kitty". When ever she has come over, she hisses and charges at us. So far she is hiding out in the basement, but Dora has decided we got her just for her. Dora spends her free time harassing her and chasing her, so it has calmed their cat down some. It finally met up with a cat crazier than her. Today she did touch the dogs nose, so she is getting braver and figuring out that hissing and being mean will get her no where in this house. I guess I should ask my son what her name is, lol.


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