Well ladies, THIS IS IT. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time. I’m going to host a craft night (well, four craft nights actually) and I’m really excited about it! I have some pret-ty rad Christmas crafts for you to make. If you live in or near Utah Valley, YOU are invited. Well technically, everyone who is reading this is invited. Maybe it’s a good time for a trip to Utah, eh? Heather, Melissa, Natalie, Beth…I’m looking in your direction.

There will be (at least) five projects to make, which you should be able to finish THAT night.

1.  Vintage, glittery, Christmas trees in one of three colors

mint green

vintage white

pink

Felt balls (the most time consuming, but one of my most favorite crafts)

felt ball garland

Gift adornments/ornaments

This picture is from my phone, sorry for the bad quality!

pom-poms

stitched felt christmas trees in various colors

Gift tags or ornaments? How about a gift tag turned into an ornament? Boom! Best craft ever.

Various glittered items

glitter pine cones

And I might just throw another project in just for kicks…you will just have to come and see. So come over!  Before your life gets too hectic with the holidays, get away for one evening, have a GNO, and come be creative.  Do something for yourself!  

The dates are:

• Tuesday, November 22
• Tuesday, November 29
• Wednesday, November 30
• Thursday, December 1

Each class will be held from 6:30-9:30.  The location is in Provo (directions will be emailed to you after registration).  Class is $35 per person (this covers all your supplies too). Class size is limited to 15 per class. Please specify what color trees you want to make in your notes in Paypal or email me at hollylesue[at]gmail[dot]com.

I hope to see and/or meet you!

I remembered to participate this month! Yay for me.

So I decided to shoot with my 50mm prime lens all day because I have a hard time focusing on the right things when I have it on a low f-stop. So I must practice, practice, practice, so that I can get better. I’m addicted to the lens for all the delicious light it lets in.

My day started out with a little re-organization. Our coat closet has been driving me crazy! So this morning when I was hanging someone else’s jacket for the millionth time, I snapped—but not in a bad, postal way. I pulled everything out, got rid of a few things, and organized this bad boy. I know this picture isn’t very impressive to anyone else, but it brings me great joy!

My stained glass star which was a Mother’s Day gift. Now I have something pretty to look at while doing the dishes.

Miss Clara is just shy of her two month mark. She is such a good baby and pretty in pink. She still has the reddish hue in her hair too!

I’m FINALLY getting around to making Gwen’s quilt for her twin bed. It’s from Heather Bailey’s Nicey Jane line. I used more blues and greens for Gwen, as opposed to the pink I used for Inez’s.

A grapefruit. It’s my mid-morning snack. I have to lose this baby weight! Oh, and the other weight I’ve put on in between babies.

We had our chimney cleaned out. Two years at this house and we’ve never built a fire in our fireplace. This was the first step in getting our fireplace finished. You can see there is still a lot to do! UGH.

I found Big Baby in Clara’s car seat. She had even grabbed Clara’s blanket too. She is a funny one.

What a pleasant surprise! When the mail came, we got a package. It came from one of my oldest friends, and full of goodies for my girls from her little girl’s 2nd birthday party. Thank you Lisa! Looks like it was a fun party.

When I need a chunk of time to myself (like to make dinner) I turn on a show for Big Baby. Inevitably, the older girls gravitate towards the TV too. While Olive prefers Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I’ve tried to broaden her horizons, but she just won’t sit still for Pride and Prejudice. But she will…all in good time.

We’ve discovered that Olive isn’t a big fan of her highchair. She will sit and eat much better if she sits with Dave though. She’s such a Daddy’s girl, and he’s such a sucker (in a good way).

Fin!

But, because those golden moments are so few and far between, I’m unable to get the top quickly sewn together, which gives Big Baby ample time to come in and “rearrange” things.

Maybe I’ll have it done when Clara turns one.

This is wool roving.

However, I hadn’t found any good online tutorials, so when I got it in the mail, it just sat on my desk because I was too scared to actually do anything with the wool because I didn’t want to ruin it. It’s so pretty.

Then, I hit (my version of) the jackpot. I found an online class with a few different tutorials and promptly signed up.

At first I was just interested in making felted wool balls.

Then I started making some felted “flowers.” They don’t look like flowers. They are just kind of wonky circles of different sizes. But you layer them to make flowers. I added a ball to the top, attached it to a hair band and it’s now a hair accessory for my girls.

I love them because it dresses up their otherwise boring ponytails. Especially since Inez informed me that I only know how to do three hairdos.

She said, “You only know how to do ponytails, braids, and straight hair. And everybody can do straight hair.”

It didn’t make me feel bad though, because it’s true.

I don’t think the online class is being offered right now, but here’s the link to the blog of one of the Australian lasses that gave the tutorials.

*Dave just informed me that this is kind of a boring post. So, sorry. I’m eight months pregnant. Give a girl a break (on blog posts and hairdos).

So what did I do with the strips of fabric leftover from Inez’s quilt?

I made a wonky pillow. It may not appear very wonky in this picture, but rest assured, it is indeed wonky.

There are still a bunch of left over quilt squares I didn’t use. I want to make her a matching doll quilt out of it, as well as a full sized pillowcase. And I’m sure, one day I’ll get around to that.

P.S. I love the word wonky.

It wasn’t done in time for Christmas, but at least I finished it within the month of December!

Here are a few of my favorite blocks, and you can see my mistakes too. I’m such a amateur quilter but actually, I’m totally okay with that.

The middle of the block is from the line Holiday Happy by Monica Solorio for Lecien.  She calls that funky guy “Gnoma Claus.”  The border is also a Lecien fabric, which is a Japanese line.  Lecien fabric is a bit more pricey, but also more kooky and therefore worth the extra money (in my opinion).

This is Dave’s favorite block, and one of my top five. The turquoise poinsettia fabric in the middle is from Kate Spain’s 12 Days of Christmas line, and the border is from my stash, not sure what line it’s from.

I cannot remember what the middle of this block is from.  I got it last Christmas, or maybe even two years ago.  The border is just a solid apple green from my stash.  This block wasn’t one of my favorites until after it went through the wash.  I love how vibrant it is with the red thread.  You can also see that I had to make the block bigger.  I don’t know what happened, but it was way shorter than the rest of the rows. Oops!

I love this block.  The polka dot middle is from Riley Blake, and the Fa-la-la border is again, Kate Spain’s.

I think this is my absolute favorite block in the whole quilt.  The middle is from Kate Spain (again) and the border is from my stash.  Unfortunately, I bought that border fabric about two years ago and I have no idea what line it’s from.  I realized when it was too late how much I loved it and have never been able to track it down.

I used this candy cane stripe for the binding.  It’s from the line Hip Holidays by Barbara Jones for Henry Glass.  I used a few others from this line throughout the quilt as well.

I backed it with flannel from Kate Spain’s 12 Days and I’m so glad I did. The flannel makes it surprisingly much cozier.

I’m not sure why, but any time I lay it out on the floor to take a look at it, she quickly comes over to walk around on it, point to different parts of it, and “talks” about it in her little toddler language. Then she sits down on it and claims her territory.

I’m really proud of it and will be sad to pack it away until next season. I’m also glad that the whole family likes it.

Fellow sewers (as in one who sews, not sewer as in a place for waste disposal): for what it’s worth, about halfway through piecing the top of the quilt together, I decided to invest in a quilter’s foot for my sewing machine.  In past projects where I have just done simple blocks, there was more room for error when it came to lining up (or not lining up) the blocks.  This quilt was not nearly as forgiving. I can’t believe how much of a difference it makes! It’s an expensive foot, but definitely worth it.

Here is a view of the front:

I am proud to say that this year it didn’t get pushed off my list like it has for the last five to six years. I used Robert Kauffman fabrics and I tried to make Inez’s with more pinks and reds, Gwen’s with blues, and Olive’s with green. Inez’s favorite color is pink (with red coming in at a close 2nd), Gwen’s is blue, and the girls have designated Olive’s favorite color to be green. Whether that will prove to be true or not, I didn’t think using green in a Christmas stocking would be a bad thing.

Here’s a view of the backs:

Since I couldn’t spend a ton of time making them, I intend on perfecting them sometime during 2011 (way before December!), adding a few embellishments. I will also need to make another one for #4 anyway, so I’m hopeful it will get done and not put off for another six years. Wish me luck because I have no idea how life with four children will be! I’m expecting it to be even more crazy.

But it’s good crazy. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

I got this roll of polka dot wrapping paper from the dollar section at Target in 2008 or 2009, which went really well with the crepe paper I used. I have a huge roll of off-white twine that I used to reinforce the crepe paper.

Unfortunately, I was in a hurry this day and had to settle for scribbling names on the wrapping paper. If I had the time, I would have made small tags out of card stock using a paper punch, not very time consuming. I couldn’t even find our good sharpie, so my writing is extra sloppy here. Oh well, you get the picture.

Wrapping paper: $1 from Target
Crepe paper rolls: $1 each (and I still have TONS of both red and green rolls left) from Hobby Lobby, but easily found at any craft store.
Twine: $12 but I only used a very small amount of the roll I have. I believe it has 800 yards on the cone. Twelve dollars is really nothing considering how long it will last me. I found it at Xpedx a few years ago.

When I spread it out on the floor after getting it back, Olive promptly sat on it, pointed to different parts of it, and jabbered on and on about something (probably about how rad it is).

I think I love this picture so much because I love her chubby little dimpled hands. Why do they have to grow up so fast?

This is where I found the tutorial.

I bought a bunch of snowflake ornaments from Target, only 3/$1! One night I strung them together and persuaded Dave to help me hang them up, in which he did most of the work. I love what it adds to the room, but unfortunately doesn’t quite translate to pictures very well.

I got this grapevine tree at Hobby Lobby the other day for 50% off. It wasn’t in the Christmas section, but with all the other grapevine items instead. It was only $3.50 and I LOVE it. In fact I went back the next day and bought the last one for my mom.

I got this pom pom garland from Tai Pan Trading about a month ago. I think it was only $5.97 and I wish I had bought more of them. I’ve been meaning to go back to see if they have more, but I just haven’t made it yet because just the thought of going to the mall exhausts me! The imperfect and wonky pom poms are what make me love it so much.

I love our Christmas decorations. Now I just need people over so they can actually be seen.

So who wants to come over and hang out?