#1 Ohio Star Christmas Ornament

So the first ornament I'm going to work on is Ohio Star.

I know that there are a lot of pieces to it but I figure I might as well jump on in.

Fortunately I had a bunch of Christmas fabric scraps left over from the Christmas Quilt I had finished. I have no idea why I saved them. The majority of the pieces were too small to do much with. But it turns out they are the perfect size for miniature quilt blocks. Another trip to the store was saved by my obsession with saving fabric!

Instead of a 1/4 inch seam allowance I'm using 1/8 inch seam allowance. I figure that the little quilt won't get a lot of hard use and 1/8 inch should be adequate. I am keeping the outside seam allowance of the block at 1/4 inch so that I can use a traditional 1/4 inch binding. I have some red crochet thread that I used for hanging the block.

I attached it the thread under the binding in the back,  I quilted it by stitching in the ditch. This was done with the feed dogs engaged so that the lines were nice and straight and even stitches.

It took me about 1 hour to complete the Ohio Star. This includes looking through the book, the aha moment, copying the pages, building the block, quilting it, and making and adding the binding.


I want to make about 24 ornaments so now that I know what to look for I did a quick google for images of traditional quilt blocks and printed out a bunch of them. I can't wait to have more machine time.

Quilt Block Christmas Ornaments

Last Christmas I had decided to make Christmas ornaments and have a handmade Christmas tree for this year.  I've been diligently working on crocheting snowflakes and have made about 20.  So it's time to start working on the quilt blocks. 

I've been really struggling to find traditional quilt block patterns small enough to be ornaments.  There are quite a few ornament patterns but I haven't found any for traditional quilt blocks.   I also don't want these to look cheesy.  It's amazing the amount of time you can spend on the Internet looking for these things.  And if you're like me, I'll start out googling "quilt block ornaments" and end up looking at kayaks.... It's almost like a Googling evolution.  I'm sure there will be a government study on it....

Anyways.  I'm bombing with finding patterns for quilt block ornaments.  So I pulled a book off my shelf which has some traditional blocks in it to see if there was a way that I could develop my own patterns.  I'm not a traditional quilter so I think I own only one book with traditional patterns. I thought that I could maybe I could cut down the size by doing some math.  I'm staring at some of these pictures and it hits me that the picture of the block is close to the size that I want the ornament to be... And I could easily copy the page and use it as a paper pieced pattern.  Woo Hoo!!  Fortunately we have a copier at home (you can find them really cheap at used office supply companies or EBay) and I played with enlarging some of the pictures until I had just the size I wanted. 

I really love that moment when something perceived as a problem is suddenly solved and an easy solution is found. 

The first pattern I'll try is Ohio Star.  Wish me luck!

Snow Flake Quilt

It seems that I'm on a snowflake theme this year.  I started a quilt that I've been dreaming about making for the last couple of years.  I finally summoned the courage to make it.  It's a feathered star pattern and very intimidating.  The majority of my quilts have been art quilts for walls.  Most of these have been given away to various people.  This one will be for me and my bed.  I know... how weird... a quilt for a bed. 

The reason this pattern is intimidating is because of all the little half square triangles, biased edges and inset seams.  Several years ago I made a practice block and I did such a terrible job I knew that my skills needed some serious improvement before I attempted it.  Over Thanksgiving weekend I decided it was time.  I had recently discovered a secret weapon for accurate piecing and cutting.  Spray Starch.  Yep, that's all it is.  Starch the heck out of the fabric while cutting and piecing.  It did wonders.  The other thing that made these blocks successful is increased patience and discipline.  I didn't rush the piecing and if a seam wasn't perfect, I ripped it out and did it again.  It's amazing how many seams had to be redone.  Each time there was a seam that wasn't perfect I asked myself if I could live with looking at it on my bed.  That usually did it. 

I think I'm going to set the blocks so that I have a lot of white space for quilting.  This is where the blocks are so far.  It's just needing all the white fabric in between all the blocks and a decision on what designs to quilt in the white spaces.  I'm also not sure if there needs to be some additional design elements added.  Maybe some appliqued designs on the corners and center to enhance the quilting design and trapunto?  Not sure.  The quilt hasn't finished speaking to me yet. 

Homemade Christmas Ornaments - Crocheted Snowflakes

I had a really difficult time getting into the Christmas spirit this year.  This is the first year that both of my daughters weren't going to be home for Christmas.  My oldest daughter, Melissa, is married to a Marine (Brantly) and they are stationed in San Diego.  Brantly is being deployed in January so they decided to spend Christmas with his family before he ships out.  So that meant no daughter, son-in-law, or granddaughter for Christmas.  My youngest daughter is in Misawa Japan and this is the first year she has not been home for Christmas.  So the Christmas spirit wasn't overflowing my heart this year.

My sweet husband bore the brunt of it.  It's usually the girls that decorate the tree and since they weren't here it was left to me.  Jeff and I went out and bought a Charlie Brown tree and had it up in the living room for about a week before we got around to decorating it.  I spent that week trying to figure out how I'm going to cope with an empty nest around Christmas in the future.  I obviously wasn't into decorating.  When we did finally decorate the tree I was grumbling the whole time about what a stupid tradition it is to cut down a perfectly good tree and haul it into our house and put a bunch of expensive crap on it.  I mean really.... have you ever thought how silly that is?!?!?!  I decided that next year we're doing something different.  I suggested to Jeff that we just have a really big poinsettia.  I don't think he was too thrilled about that one.  So that's when I decided that next years' tree will have home crafted ornaments. 

So the search began.  I want to have little quilt block ornaments, yo-yo garland, and crocheted snowflakes.  I started with the snowflakes.  I found the best site for crocheted snowflakes and started right away.  You can find these patterns at snowcatcher. 

These are all designed by a very talented lady who has the ability to look at a snowflake picture and turn it into a pattern. 

I have 13 snowflakes blocked, starched, and glittered.  They are so fun to make that now I'm hooked.  She posts a new pattern every Monday.  For the last two weeks I eagerly check her blog on Monday to see what new masterpiece she has come up with.  These beauties look wonderful with batik fabric behind them.  I'm not sure if I want them to hang free on the tree or attach them to fabric first.  I'll have to play with it. and see.

I'm already looking forward to next Christmas.  If you know of some great ornament patterns please share.  I'll continue to post any that I find and make.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Finished Christmas Quilt

The Christmas Quilt finished beautifully!  I'm very pleased with how it turned out and I hung it up as soon as I reasonably could for Christmas.  This quilt is for my daughter, Courtney, who is currently stationed in Misawa Japan.  It was fun to show her the quilt on Skype.  She will get it permanently once she settles down a little and isn't moving around so much. 

The pattern suggested using seed beads for the ornaments on the trees with stars.  I used iron-on swarovski crystals instead.  They come in several different sizes which made it that much easier for the different size trees. 

 

You can see the crystals on the trees around Santa's house.

Christmas Quilt

I put the Christmas quilt on the frame yesterday and I'm almost done! Starting to feel really good about the progress I'm making on getting all the UFO's done. I've been working on this one for 1 1/2 years now. I know.... that's a long time but there's a story with it.

I started it Christmas of 2008 when my daughter Courtney was home from the Air Force on leave. I had been really missing her. She had been gone to boot camp and tech school since July of 2008. I was trying to drink in every minute of her visit. Courtney and I are really close. She's quite artistic and was wonderful about drawing my visions for various quilts. During her visit we went to my favorite quilt shop and she picked out this pattern and kit. I had been wanting to do some red work for quite a while. So even before she left to go back to the Air Force I started working on it to help me work through missing her. It worked. Everytime I stitched on it I thought of her and all the travels we'd been on. There are literally tears, sweat, and blood on this one. I pricked my finger and bled a couple of times. The tears came right after she left at the end of her break. I'll be thrilled to hang it on my wall this year for Christmas. It'll be my reminder of her as I doubt she will get to come home this year. She is currently stationed in Misawa Japan. I plan to give it to her. I'm just not sure when yet.

That's one of the things I love about quilts, it's not just a bunch of fabric and thread holding it together. There's a story behind each one that makes them special.

The quilt will be done soon and I'll post the finished picture.

4th of July Fireworks Angel

Every year we have a big 4th of July party. I just had to share this photo I captured. I always knew we had angels watching out for us... Here's the proof!