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2023 Christmas Village Setup!

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I have always loved Christmas Villages (and miniature things in general) and ever since I was a little kid I wished for a Christmas Village of my own! Over the past several years I've collected a bunch of Dept 56 Christmas Village pieces from estate sales and ebay! These are mostly from the "New England Village" sets, but there are lots of different themes.  First I pull out all my boxes from the attic, set up my tables, and make the foundation for the houses to sit on. Here I have a 6-foot folding table and a square card table. The upper part is cardboard boxes with a later of leftover styrofoam from insulating my garage door to make an upper level.  Next I unbox the houses and large pieces and play around with where I want them to go. I stacked up smaller pieces of foam to create variation in height among the houses.  Then I take all of the houses off, run the cords to every spot where I planned to put a lit piece, and then lay the snow blanket on top. (A snow blanket i...
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Ghost Party Quilt

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This October I made the  Ghost Party Quilt  from the Pattern by Woolly Petals!  I think it turned out amazing!  Fabric is a variety of picks from my local quilt store!           
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WIP: Isla's baby Enchanted Garden Baby Quilt

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I always do more quilting in the winter, and I have been in a quilting frenzy since Thanksgiving! I felt bad about making a quilt for Gunnar's friend when I still hadn't finished a baby quilt for my niece! So I dug out this adorable Lewis and Irene fabric bundle I'd been hoarding and got to work.  The pattern is based on a quilt I saw on instagram, but for the life of me I couldn't find a pattern for it--but that wasn't enough to make me give up. I did a lot of math and trial and error and arguing about triangles with both Jack and Gunnar, but finally managed to reverse engineer the pattern!  Here it is up on my makeshift "design wall." (I didn't feel like crawling around on the floor to lay this out lol.)  Also, the fabric glows in the dark!   
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Is this the year I finally make a Victorian Bustle Gown?

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I have been feeling a lot craftier in the last few months, and I am trying to do more of what I want to do and less of what I think I should  do. I mean, I've always been one to walk my own path, but I also have been held back by thinking "what would people think" and worry that my hobbies are dumb or that I am somehow dumb for liking the things I like. This feeling ebbs and flows with my mood, but sometimes it takes over and keeps me from doing the things I want to do. But I am working on squashing that critical voice and embracing my weirdness. One of the things I have always wanted to do is make a Victorian Bustle gown for myself!  I love costumes and I love puffy dresses and I love sewing, and I think I have the space, tools, and skills to tackle this project. (Well, I don't have a dress form. But I'll jump that puddle when my boots start leaking.) Bur first: I give myself permission, especially on this first venture, to use my serger, to avoid hand sewing if ...
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Pinwheel Quilt for Baby Journey

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One of G's coworkers is having a baby this month and he asked very nicely if I would make a quilt for baby Journey...so here it is! The fabric was a layer cake called Rosa by Moda and the purple and teal are free spirit solids from my local quilt shop. The back is minky which I just love for baby quilts!  I love the way the quilting turned out on this. I really want to do this quilting pattern again next time I make another pinwheel quilt!  The quilting on the back looks like flowers!   
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Roundabout Christmas Quilt

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I've wanted to make a Christmas Quilt to hang up for a while now but wasn't inspired by any of the Christmas fabric I saw. I also have wanted to make a big rainbow roundabout quilt but was too intimidated by the pattern to do that.  Then I saw this Lewis and Irene "Noel" Fabric and decided to make a "practice" roundabout quilt for Christmas!  The little triangles are VERY DIFFICULT but I managed to make it work. The points aren't nearly as nice as I usually like, but the tutorial I was following said not to worry about it and...I agree that cutting off some points isn't a big deal on this quilt. When you stand back and see the hidden circles, none of those tiny points really matter!  I was worried that the circles wouldn't be obvious enough because my background fabric was too busy, so when I quilted it I meandered ONLY on the background and it really helped to make the colored bits and therefore the circles, pop out!  I quilted it on my home ma...
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Rosemary's design Doll Outfit!

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This was a doll dress design team-up! I drew a picture of Rosemary's doll Violet and she drew and colored an outfit that she wanted for her, and then I went to my sewing room and made it a reality!  It was a fun little challenge and she loves it!   
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