Christmas House

Hello!

Today I took a break from the sewing and finished a cross stitch project that took me a while to make: A Christmas house!

The patterns are by Perrette Samouiloff.
It was fun to stitch, and not very hard, really. The hard part was to choose the designs, and to count the stitches to make sure they would fit. I had to find some small designs to fill the empty spots. I think that was the most difficult part.  But I love how it looks!

The attic is full of secrets. They are hiding the presents. I added more presents and the teddy in a box to balance things a bit.

Now, the middle part of the house.
This little boy holding the hearts is adorable!  I stitched some ornaments to fill the spaces.

The little girls. They are so cute! The one holding the teddy bear is my favorite.  Here I added the cat, the presents, and the ornaments.

The living room. I just had to add some more presents to fill the spaces and join the two designs together. That's the fun thing with Perrette's patterns. There are several small designs in one pattern. You stitch all or as many as you want.

I had this frame for a long time. It's from a kit by Bucilla. I decided not to stitch the kit, and stitch these little kids instead.  I painted the frame red, and made several changes to make things more colorful. The original colors were a bit too dark for my taste.

I glued a piece of red felt on the back to make a nice finish.  A mini wreath on the top of the house  finishes the look.
Brenda helped me picking the colors and designs for this project, and she loves the finished piece!  Now, let's put it way until Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Have a great week!

Ana Paula.

Patchwork Christmas Stockings

Hello!

I know... funny posting Christmas stockings in April.
I wanted to make them last year, but I got busy, and never made them.
Now, here they are!

I love the Scandinavian look. The matching stockings had to be red and white.
There are several online tutorials on how to make stockings like these. Here is one I like.
The quilt as you go style is the best. Very fast and easy. It's a no brainier.
The pattern for the stocking shape I got from one of my Holiday crafts magazines. I find it very hard to draw the pattern myself. I love this shape, not the old booty one!

The hard part for me was to attach the cuff. It was very bulky, It took me a while pinning and ripping seams. But I love the way they look! My family finally has matching stockings!
I made a stocking for Brenda when she was little, but never made for me and my husband. We had some old plaid ones for a while, borrowed from my MIL. I returned them so I could have a real reason to make our own. I did it now.

I like how they are similar but different. I collected red and white fabrics for a while to be able to make some projects, including these stockings. Not easy, Joann's has a small selection. A couple of years ago they had some new ones, and I got some. Besides Joann's, I only have one more fabric store near by. Sometimes I get lucky there. Sometimes on e-bay.

This is the fabric I picked for the back of the stockings, a cute peppermint candy print.

Now I just need to get some wooden letters to personalize them. I like this idea.
I am very pleased with our new stockings! It's so nice when a project comes out the way you imagined it!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by my blog!

Ana Paula.

Book Bag

Hello!

My last post was ages ago! Got too busy with the holidays, and some health issues.
Anyways, I decided to post a little something today.

This is the book bag I made for Brenda.
She loves to go to the library, and it was time for her to have her own bag. It has a pocket to put her library card. She just loves it!

Here is the detail of the embroidery. The pattern is from the WeeWonderfulls Book Club Stitchettes.
It's such a sweet set of nine designs, you buy the pdf and print at home.
I wanted to stitch this girl for Brenda so badly!  A perfect design for a book bag, don't you think?
I had a piece of turquoise corduroy laying around that was just the right amount for the job. So, what can be better? A gift made only using things that I already had.
Brenda wears it very proudly, she gets lots of compliments from the library ladies.
So, kind of crazy posting about  a Christmas present in February, but better late than never.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Ana Paula.

Happy New year!

Hi! Hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas! Happy New year to all!
I really need to catch up on my blogging.
Anyways, here are some stuff I made recently.

I used a wood box I found at Salvation Army to make this Christmas Shadow Box (?)

I really don't know how to call this. But we love it!

It was fun to plan and gather all the little things for the scenes. I had some help from Brenda. Some stuff I had on hand, but we had to go "hunt" for just the right things to complete the little scenes.

I made the pompom snowman and the little girl on red felt cape. The mini water globe is there because I could not find a perfect size Santa. Brenda's picture is from about four years ago, and is one of my favorites.

I wanted to make this shadow box  for some time now, and I am so happy I finally did! I jumped for joy when I found just the perfect little box at Salvation Army!

Another project I wanted to make for a couple of years and was able to acomplish this year.

I had this space by The Christmas tree. I have Cross Stitch Samples I hang on this spot for all three other seasons, but not winter :(   Every year I had to hang something too small for the space.
This Christmas I decided to take action and do something about it.

I got the Holly Jolly Christmas fabric from Robert Kaufman and fussy cuted the pictures.The red and green fabrics are batik.

I just love the fabrics and was a good experience "designing" this wall hanging.

I am not a quilter (yet), and I  don't have a fancy sewing machine.  It is always a bit challenging for me to piece and machine quilt even a small simple quilt like this one.

But I keep trying, and I am very happy with the results.

Now, I have just the right thing on the wall!

And since I am talking about fished projects, we also finished the white shelf behind the tree.
It is a hand me down that was looking so bad! Even with the bad weather, (we are having frost many nights now) we finished painting  just in time to hang the stockings. That's our pretend fireplace mantel :)
I still have to make burlap boxes to fit on the shelves to hide my old VHS movies. That's a never ending list of projects!
I have some more things to show, but I really need to do laundry.
Have a wonderful day!
Ana Paula.

Two new finishes

Hello!
I have two JBW designs finishes to share.
The first one is  Christmas Purse.

I wanted to finish it a little different. This is what I came up with.
I made a pillow using a gold dusted cotton.  With a dark red and gold fabric and the stitched piece, I made a "belt" tied with bows on both sides of the pillow.
I love the design and I think the finish looks very festive.

The second finish is  A Very Merry Christmas.

I finished it as a double flanged mini pillow. I saw some pictures of this kind of pillow finish online but could not find any tutorial. After a while I came up with my version. I am very happy with how it turned out.
I used two shades of green Christmas fabrics, and some gold buttons.

Maybe I will write a tutorial for this finish one of these days. :)
Thanks for stopping by.
Ana Paula.

A Christmas update and a blog party!

Hello!

I know it is the end of January, but I forgot to show off this little elf that I made with the kids at my daughter's class.
I got the idea here . I made some changes to use what I had on hand.
I had wood beads with only one hole. So, I made the hat complete with jingle bell and hanger and glued on the bead.  I made little kits for the kids using  ziploc bags. They had the heads, pipe cleaners, pony beads, a big wooden bead for the body and a pre cut felt scarf.
They only had to thread the beads, fold the ends of the pipe cleaners and put the scarf on the little guy.
The kids followed the directions pretty well. We had other Moms helping at the class. The kids loved it!

Anyways, no more Christmas for now. Now the blog party!
SJ, at The Homemaker on a dime is hosting a great party to help you to get more followers and make new friends. She is a pretty cool gal, and very clever. I can say that because I know her personally. :)
Please check it out.






Thanks for stopping by.

Ana Paula

Mini Quilt and Doll Bed Handmade Christmas Gift Idea

Hi! With the holidays approaching I decided to share some handmade gift ideas. Things that you can make using scraps,recycled fabrics, thrift store finds, things that you already have at home and very little money.
Some time ago I made this for my daughter.

First, I found this cute bed at Salvation Army. I have a weakness for doll furniture.

Them I painted it white. I used a gloss white craft paint from Michael's.
I made the mattress using a recycled Laura Ashley fabric from a pillowcase and some fiberfill.

I had  some Flower Fairies Fabric squares from England that I got on e-bay. I used the cutest one and some scraps to make this little quilt. My own design.

I also made a matching  little pillow, and invited a little bear from the toy box to sleep on the bed!

She (it's a girl) likes her new bed, don't you think?
Please check back soon and I will have more handmade Christmas gift ideas.
Thanks for reading my blog.