How Is It FEBRUARY?!

Hello!

It's been a while since I've signed on, apologies. We're emerging from, oh, 6 or 7 weeks of sickness around here. It's been one thing after another, and at least one person in our family was sick at all times during the month of January. AAH! I know in the large scheme of things, I should be grateful that we're overall healthy and it was nothing serious. But it sucked, and I am knocking on wood that we are done!

Since I've been home a lot with the kiddos, I've been trying to get organized, make lots of stuff for my shop, etc. I sorted through all my fabrics recently and gave a lot away, and then I re-organized what was left in my fabric cupboard. Take a look. Pretty!




While going through my overflowing basket of works-in-progress, I found the following Christmas tree blocks I had made in November or early December.




Remember this table runner I was planning on making?




Clearly, I never did finish this table runner in time for the holidays. Bummer! Maybe it will be done by next year's Christmas. I like how the blocks turned out, each quite different, but they work well together.








I have a lot of stuff to share and write about, some tutorials to put together, and tons of things in the works. So I'm hoping (planning!) to post a bit more frequently in the coming weeks and months. Assuming everyone stays healthy...


How is everyone? What have you been working on lately? I'd love to catch up in the comments.

Gifts for Secret Santa Exchange

Hello!

We're back to the school routine over here, as of yesterday, and I'm trying my best to get back into the swing of things. It doesn't help that I'm a bit (a lot) sleep-deprived due to getting sucked into yet another dystopian trilogy. Oh, how I love to read with my little Kindle, but I need to stop staying up so late!

I've been going through all my photos from the holiday season and realized I made quite a few gifts this year! I will start by showing you what I made for a handmade Secret Santa gift exchange with a group of mama friends.

In this exchange, we all provide some helpful tips and personal information about our tastes and wishes to help guide our Secret Santa. Among other info, my gift recipient said she would love a new scarf and small jewelry, and adored the smell of lavender. I focused on those points as I made my gifts:


- A pair of earrings

I made these with sterling silver and jade beads (at least I think they are jade, salvaged from a former bracelet) from my stash. It was fun to make jewelry again, it had been a while. There was a time in my twenties when I made new pieces almost every day!




- An infinity scarf

This scarf features voile by Anna Maria Horner on one side and double cotton gauze in a light shade of coordinating chartreuse on the other side (Angel, do you recognize the style, I made yours at the same time!). I actually made quite a few infinity scarves for Christmas this year and will share more tomorrow.




- Lavender dryer bags

These are so easy! I use reusable cotton tea bags, fill them with drier lavender and zigzag-stitch them shut. I then create a little pocket out of pretty fabric and stuff the tea bag in it, then top-stitch them closed. You can throw one of these in the dryer with your wet clothes and your laundry will come out smelling lovely! Multiple uses for each bag until the scent disappears.






- Scrappy Stocking Ornaments

I used my own tutorial to make some little ornaments for her! I kind of like this non-traditional color scheme, what do you think?




I also threw in some homemade cookies. And that was it! I hope my recipient enjoyed her Secret Santa gifts!!

I myself received some pretty cool handmade Secret Santa gifts, including a large button trivet similar to this one on MAKE. I love it!


Did you guys participate in any handmade exchanges this holiday season? What did you make? What did you receive?!

December Sponsors: Christmas Shopping!

Happy Sunday!

In this last stretch before Christmas, there is still time to get awesome gifts for the crafty person in your life (or spend that Christmas cash on some crafty goodness for yourself!). Please welcome back our lovely sponsors for December: Drygoods Design Online, Fat Quarter Shop, Felt on the Fly and Sew Well Maide, !

Here are some gift ideas from these wonderful businesses. We hope you'll check out what they have to offer and consider them for your holiday shopping!


* * *



My gift selections at Drygoods Design would include a fat quarter bundle of Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry, a few yards of that amazing metallic gold linen, a couple of Orla Kiely plant pots, and a gift certificate for good measure!




For you Seattle locals, how about some classes at the brand new make*do*mend studio? I had the pleasure of touring the space last week and it is absolutely fabulous!


You can find Keli and Drygoods Design Online here:
Shop -- Blog -- Facebook -- Twitter -- Pinterest

* * *

Craft Fair Tips From a First-Timer

Hi Angel,

I am sorry to hear you're sick. I hope it's a quick bug! We're staying in this weekend, for the most part. The kids both have a cold and it's sleeting outside, so we're painting ornaments, making a gingerbread house and will probably bake Christmas cookies tomorrow. After the horror of yesterday, I just want to snuggle my babies this weekend.

Let's focus on something positive, shall we? As you know, I participated in my first craft fair here in Seattle last weekend, the Holiday Arts + Crafts Open House, and thought I would share photos and tips from my experience! It went so well, I was super happy.




Do some research and prepare

First off, if it's your first time doing a craft fair, do some research and prepare! I am so thankful you reminded me of that, Angel. I looked up the tips you had mentioned on Lupin Handmade and from there, read more via this list of links on Handmadeology. Extremely helpful! I made lists, I made plans, and felt empowered.

Ornaments!

Hello there! Who's ready for Thanksgiving (if you're in the U.S. and celebrating, of course)?!

The boys are out of school for the week and the hubby is off work starting tomorrow. With record rainfall around here, I'm looking forward to some cozy time at home with the family, and some opportunities to get my crafty on!

I have ornaments on the brain and thought I would do a little round-up of all the ornament tutorials and free downloads we have available here on Stumbles & Stitches.


Tutorial: Scrappy Stocking Christmas Ornament




Tutorial: Felt Beehive Ornament




Tutorial: Knotty Christmas Tree Ornaments





Layer Play Ornament




Little Birds Ornament and Garland




Felt Flora and Merry Little Ornament






And if you want even more inspiration for Christmas projects, here are a couple of extra downloads courtesy of Lark Crafts:


Milk and Cookie Mats: Free Download





Read Between the Lines Pillow: Free Download



What are you guys working on over the Thanksgiving break? Please be sure and check back tomorrow for some aweesome deals from our sponsors! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Tutorial: Knotty Christmas Tree Ornaments

Hello there!

This is the second year we've hosted Christmas in July and it feels familiarly odd to be working on holiday decorations when it is sunny and warm out. We spend most days at the beach or the park, then in the evening I embroider little Christmas trees... weird! But I know I'll be so glad to have some fresh handmade goodness with which to decorate at Christmas time!

I finished some ornaments yesterday, with a design I had been mulling over for a while. And I thought I'd share a little tutorial so you can make some too! I hope you like them!




I call these "knotty" Christmas trees because they are embellished with bits of felt and French knots...

Things you'll need:

• 1 rectangle of fabric, 6 x 10 inches
• scraps of felt
• embroidery floss in coordinating colors
• embroidery needle
• a small embroidery hoop
• fabric marker
• point turner or chopstick
• handful of polyfill
• hole punch
• sewing machine, thread, scissors, pins

A Few Details:

• You'll want to start by printing out my template (PDF) for the tree. I recommend printing or tracing onto cardstock. Then cut out the tree shape.
• This tutorial is for your personal use and enjoyment only. Please do not sell or copy this pattern, or use it for profit. Thank you for respecting my copyright!
• If you make an ornament or a few with this tutorial, I'd love to see them! Please upload photos to our Flickr friends group!

Read Between the Lines Pillow: Free Download!

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone is feeling inspired by the Christmas in July posts so far. We've been working on our own Christmas-y projects and can't wait to share.

Today we're sharing another lovely project from the upcoming book Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays by John Q. Adams: the Read Between The Lines Pillow designed by Kelly Lautenbach. How clever is that patchworked Ho Ho Ho?




>>Download the PDF here.

Big thanks to Lark Crafts for sharing this project with us! Wouldn't this pillow look great with the fabric from the Ardeth's Christmas fat quarter bundle assembled by Alewives Fabrics?

Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays will be released in August! Stay tuned for a chance to win the book right here on Stumbles & Stitches.




If you missed our previous free project from this book, you can download the Milk and Cookie Mats pattern PDF here.

Stay tuned for more Christmas in July fun this week: project updates, designer features, ornament tutorials, another giveaway and more!

Holiday Making and Giving

Happy Friday! How is it January 6, already?! I guess it's about time I show you the gifts I made this holiday season. I didn't make as many as in previous years because I was overwhelmed with work for my Etsy shop and custom business. (Can't complain!) But I did make a few things, several of them with Benjamin.

First off, I should mention I made a modern log cabin pillow cover for my friend Steve but forgot to take a picture of it. I loved the process and the result and will be using the pattern to make some for my shop! I'll try to remember and take a picture of it next time we visit him. Moving on...


One of my favorite projects this holiday season was the bookmark Ben and I made for my father-in-law, an avid reader. We followed the same process as for our mug rugs with kid drawings. Ben drew a picture of himself with his grandpa and dad fishing near Mount Rainier last summer, on white cotton with fabric markers. I heat-set the picture with my iron, then Ben selected scraps in a color scheme that had to do with the experience: blue, aqua, green, brown for the water, the trees, the mountain. I took pics of the process and might do a tutorial in the near future if anyone is interested!

Teacher Gifts

Happy Friday! Yesterday was the last day of preschool for Ben before the holidays. I had volunteered to present a "holiday tradition" to the class, so I talked about Winter Solstice and made pine cone bird feeders with the kids. Yesterday was also the day we brought teacher gifts to school. I had great plans to hand make a special gift for each of Ben's awesome teachers, but a couple of days ago, I realized this was just not going to happen.

Instead, I whipped up a little Scrappy Stocking Ornament for each of them, except bigger so it could fit a gift card. Obviously it is open at the top, and also lined.

Holiday Burlap Art

Hi Angel! I hope you're well and keeping your head above water as we enter the final stretch toward Christmas. I am officially Overwhelmed, with a capital O. I have been so busy making gifts as well as items for my Etsy shop and custom orders, along with the regular routine of raising 2 small children and running a household, plus all the typical holiday craziness. You know how it goes. But can I just say: AAAHH!!!!!!

All right, deep breaths. Since I can't show you the handmade gifts I've been working on, because recipients might be reading, I am going to show you a custom project I worked on last month. I thought it might be fun to share, since it's a holiday project. (Apologies if you visit my personal website, as I already posted photos there!)


I was contacted by a lovely lady named Christina back in early November to create 4 holiday pieces for her family members. They exchange unique holiday gifts at Thanksgiving and she wanted to wow them. After some back and forth with sketches and ideas, we settled on 4 burlap art pieces: 2 with stockings and 2 with snowflakes. Along with the grey snowflakes above, here are the other 3 pieces I made for her.

Kid Craft: Stocking Advent Garland

Hello Angel! I loved your little Christmas wrap-up yesterday and wanted to share the ONE Christmas decoration we have put up so far: a stocking Advent garland made by Ben (with a little help from me).

I was so determined to make a beautiful Advent calendar this year but have been so busy and overwhelmed, it didn't happen. Ben has been asking about a calendar for weeks, begging me to purchase the cheap chocolate kind at the grocery store, so I decided it was time to make one, even if it is temporary!


Last week, Ben noticed the template for my Scrappy Stocking Ornament lying around my desk and asked me if he could color it. That's when a little light went off in my head. I created a coloring page for him on card stock by tracing 6 stockings. 4 pages of stockings make 24, perfect for Advent!


While I was sewing, Ben sat at the table next to me with his markers. We talked about all the special things we do during December and he drew them. Our family celebrates Winter Solstice, so several of the pictures focus on that -- making bird feeders, lighting the candle, eating mushrooms for dinner (husband's traditional Solstice recipe!). We also celebrate Christmas and many of Ben's drawings depict the magic of that holiday for him: decorating the tree, Santa and his reindeer, opening gifts with his little brother. We also talked about winter and what's special about it so he drew a lot of snow- and ice-related things.

Tutorial: Scrappy Stocking Christmas Ornament

Welcome to all our new friends visiting from Sew Mama Sew, Pinterest, FaveQuilts or other spots! We hope you'll enjoy yourself, subscribe and like us on Facebook for updates. Happy browsing!

* * *
I'm so excited to have a tutorial to share today!! I was inspired by a custom project I did recently for a lovely customer (more on that soon) to create some patchwork stocking ornaments. This is an awesome scrap-busting project. It is simple and pretty quick: you can sew half a dozen ornaments in an afternoon. And the result is so cute! (At least I think so, I hope you do too!)




I decided to leave the edges raw, so they fray a little bit. I think that's part of the charm of this scrappy stocking, but if you don't like that style, you can use that fray spray, or sew the stocking right sides together and turn it inside out. My tutorial will show you how to make the raw-edges top-stitched wrong-sides-together version shown in the above photo.

Here we go with the tutorial (if my kids let me focus long enough, oy).

Scrappy Stocking Christmas Ornament




For this project you will need:
- fabric scraps (I used quilting cotton and natural linen)
- batting scraps
- lightweight interfacing (optional)
- felt scraps for the cuff (optional)
- ribbon, yarn or twine for the hanging loop
- scissors, sewing machine, thread, pins, washable fabric marker

Some Finished, Some In Progress

Hello Angel and friends! I'm popping by today to quickly share a few projects. Some completed, some still in progress.

First off, I finished two Christmas table runners. Here's a glimpse of one below. If you're curious, I shared more photos as well as my original sketch on my website, since these were made for my shop. I've already sold one, whee! The other one is still available. I really like how these came out with the large wonky stripes and the contrast with the textured linen. I have more in the works, that are not Christmas-themed, including one for our own dining room table!!


And now for the works in progress... Some of these are gifts, so I won't divulge any details. I'll just let the pictures do the talking! As you can tell, I am completely unashamedly obsessed with linen at this point.

Fab Felt Holiday Crafts with Betz White: Felty Fir Trees

I have long been a fan of Betz White's blog, books and wonderful upcycling projects. She is the green queen in the world of sewing and crafting! When she contacted us to participate in the blog tour for her new Fab Felt Holiday Crafts workshop on Craftsy, Angel and I were thrilled! I am so excited to share the project I've made from the workshop today. Angel will be sharing hers next week.


In the Fab Felt Holiday Crafts course, Betz shows you the basics of felting wool sweaters, and then takes you through the steps to make 7 beautiful felt projects, from a tabletop village to ornaments, bottle sleeves, slippers and more. Perfect for holiday decorations and gifts!

Christmas in July!

Every year around the Winter holidays, I wish I had started making things earlier. The cute tutorials and gift ideas seem to hit the blog circuit right around Thanksgiving. By then I am usually too busy with other things (like enjoying the holidays!) to make as many things as I'd like, especially gifts and decorations for the house.

So this year, Jenny and I thought it'd be fun to have a little "Christmas in July" series on the blog. Let's get a head start on making things so we won't be so rushed when the holidays come creeping up.



Are you in?

Here's The Plan

We've got a lot in store including projects, patterns and links to get you in the Christmas spirit. We're most excited about making felt ornaments from the wonderful book Fa La La La Felt. We'll be sharing PDF patterns from the book, thanks to Amanda over at Lark!

Here's a little preview:

We'll post the pattern and template for one project on each of the remaining 3 Mondays of July (2 projects for the last week). There will be lots of other Christmas-related crafting posts in between. So be sure and check in!

Get your supplies ready!

Wool felt is PERFECT for these four decorations. It is a durable, quality material: ideal for ornaments that will be around for years. I love working with wool felt so much. I know that not everyone has access to it at a local shop, so I wanted to show you the projects ahead of time so you can source your supplies.

And get this: Debbie from A Child's Dream Come True is offering all our readers $5 off orders placed in July, with no minimum purchase! All you have to do is use the code FALALA at checkout. One 8 inch by 12 inch sheet of wool felt at A Child's Dream Come True is just $2.75, and Debbie has 61 colors to choose from. Fun!

Take a look at the photos and see what colors you might need. One 8 inch by 12 inch sheet of wool felt will make a few ornaments! If you've wanted to work with wool felt, or practice your hand-sewing skills (or both!) this is your chance! And you'll end up with beautiful, handmade decorations to give as gifts or keep for your own home when the month is over.

Aside from felt, the other materials you'll need are embroidery floss, seed beads, batting and ribbon, all easily found at your local craft store if you don't have a stash already.

Excited Yet?

Let's gather those supplies! Make a list of colors you want to use, get your hands on some felt and check back here on Monday for our first project! If you have questions about how much felt you'll need for each project, leave a comment and I'll give you an estimate.

>> See all upcoming Christmas in July posts here.

Symbolic Street Sign

I was thinking of our little discussion about Christmas and handmade gifts and I realized that, you know what, I did make a gift this year!! Aside from food, there is one handmade gift I gave this Christmas.




But first, a little background story...

My step-dad Matthew (Poppy for the grand-kids) lived in Seattle in his youth. It was the 70's and he was part of a commune for a year or two, coincidentally in the neighborhood where I now live. When he and my mom visited us last year, they walked through the neighborhood searching for the house where he used to live -- he remembered the closest intersection but sadly couldn't find the house. He talked about his former life in Washington with nostalgia and I could tell he was transported back to that time all those years ago.




At Christmas time, my family draws names for each other and we do a secret Santa exchange. I picked Matthew's name. As part of his gift, I wanted to include something special and symbolic of his time in Seattle. I thought a picture of the street signs at that intersection would be pretty cool. I sent my hubby on a photography errand -- since he is the most gifted in that department out of the two of us. He came back with a lot of options which I turned to black and white.





We picked our favorite, printed a large version of it, then matted and framed it. Voila!




We Skyped with my family on Christmas day and I was fortunate enough to see Matthew's face when he opened my gift. He is a man of few words but the look on his face spoke clearly. Success! And once again yippee for handmade love!

Jenny this gift is definitely what handmade is all about. How incredibly thoughtful! You took the time to really pay attention while Matthew visited and turned that simple idea into something very meaningful. And how fun that you got to see his face! Gotta love Skype. (We are way past due for a Skype session ourselves! I think that's my fault.....)