Christmas wall quilts, binding and gifts from Santa

HELLLLLOOOOOO! :)

It has been too long, but here I am again! I have been extremely busy over the last weeks and by being busy I have a few finished items to show.

I have always wanted to make a Christmas card holder, and here is the result. I'm not sure when 'I believe' (panel and fabrics) by Nancy Halvorsen went for sale in the (web) shops, but I have 'saved it' (for what?) ever since then! :)

I used one of the prints from the panel to make this Christmas card holder. It has two pockets; one for small and one for bigger Christmas cards. 

I don't have a proper hanger for it, but is now using a piece of bamboo, 'stolen' from the roadside on the way to the center of town - lol! :)    

It looks like I have been in the 'Nancy Halvorsen-fabric-mood', doesn't it?!

Here's a wall quilt, where I have used two other prints from the same panel;

'I believe in HUGS' and 'I believe in LAUGHTER'.

On this one I have used 'I believe in GIVING'...

...and finally... a mini wall quilt; 'I believe in PEACE'.

I think this one is rather cute; a cat sleeping on the back of the dog and that darling mouse on the cat's leg! :)

For those of you who follow my blog, know that I have been working on the Polar Bear quilt for quite some time... but now I see light in the tunnel! :)

The binding is thread basted and ready to be hand stitched to the back! :) I don't know whether I can do it this year.... Christmas is approaching and I have some preparations to do... Another issue is the heat.... Yes, we are into summer now, and yesterday the first cyclone of the season was named; 'Alenga'. Well, I think it will be too hot having a huge quilt on my lap these days doing the binding...

Another binding I'll have to do before Christmas, is this long, table runner.

I'm still waiting for fabrics and thread sent from the US! Most likely the Christmas mail rush has started and parcels/letters are delayed! :(

I have a secret Santa in Norway! :) Who brought me gifts today!

Nidar marzipan, red whortleberry jam (for the Christmas dinner), 'kvikk lunsj' chocolate, Friele coffee - and purple candles for Advent! The latter is a little bit late though - :) - but I'm going to put up the Advent candlelight holder tonight! :)

As if that was not enough; FABRICS!!!

If you remember the stash I got here - this is the rest of it! :)

...and finally.... a book I ordered from one of the shops connected to Amazon US.

That bookshop does not ship to any African countries, so I had to get it shipped to Norway! It's a secondhand book and I didn't pay more than US$ 5.50 - but don't ask me about the shipping! :(  :))

Any of you who has this book and can tell me something about it? I got it this morning, so I haven't had time for a proper read.

Christmas is approaching - are you all 'on time' for the festive season?

I took my camera to the garden this morning... if you want to have a look, click here.



Peppermint Cottage Table Toppers

I've been busy sewing over the last weeks. These days I'm into table toppers, table mats and table runners. After making big quilts over the past few years, it feels wonderful making smaller items.

I love Christmas fabrics, especially panels and stripes. I bought these 'Peppermint Cottage' by Diane Knott for Clothworks a couple of years ago - if not mistaken. Isn't it odd; we buy beautiful fabrics, intend to make something out of them, but find them too beautiful to cut or we don't know what to make... Does it sound familiar to you?! :) Well, in my case; I couldn't decide what to make! Honest! :)

I'm happy to say I have (finally) made some table toppers and table runners out of these fabrics and I think they turned out quite cute.

A small table mat - measuring 14 3/4 square. 

Table topper...

Another table topper...

Love the cute house border

Perhaps a bit nontraditional Christmas colors, but why not?! :)

Table runner in navy blue, yellow and green.

Again I've ran out of quilting thread! More is on its way and I hope to finish another two table toppers in a two weeks time.

I'm happy to say I've used fabrics from my stash! All in all I think I've reduced my stash with approx 8 yards! Isn't that great?! :)



Even more snowmen

It has been a struggle to upload photos to this post for the last 2-3 days, but fortunate now it looks like it works... I hope the connection 'behaves' until the post is done!!! Fingers crossed!!!

I have had so much fun creating these projects - love the whimsical snowmen!

I've been playing with the fabrics to create these blocks - lots of fun! :)

Yet another table runner! :)

Close-up of the block.

For the backing I have used some of the fabrics that I didn't find very interesting for the tops.

A pair of placemats...

Another pair, here the snowmen are on dark red (currant) background...

What's the life without mug rugs?! :))

Christmas card holder

He's too cute, isn't he?! So darling! :)

I have used Superior's King Tut cotton thread - brown variegated - for the quilting. I've tried not to quilt over the snowmen, I think they look much better without being 'tangled' in quilting thread - lol!

I added decorative snowman button on each side to hold the hanging loop (??) better... Don't know if this solution is the best one, but... I wanted to use buttons, and those are the only ones I had that is suitable... I used the same buttons to decorate the wall quilt I made using the same fabrics.

This is all for now... Believe it or not; I still have one table runner and two table toppers to finish. When I purchased the Moda Marbles for the binding, the web shop was sold out for one of the fabrics and is expected to the shop at the end of the month.

While making these projects, I tried to focus on the snowmen stripes. I did well; there's not one single snowman left! :) What was left of the fabrics, I have cut into 2.5 inch squares and strips. Not bad - huh?! :)

It's 7 o'clock evening here; I'm off to work on a new project! :)