More Christmas

Christmas craft making has continued around here. The photo quality is a little poor as most pictures are taken late at night but the general idea comes across.

Katie gets Turtle magazine which always has good games, activities and more in it. She usually finds a craft or food project she wants to try. Her most recent issue was all about the holidays. She found a craft project she has really been wanting to do, basically it is a tree made from craft sticks.

Here is the finished product:

We also made some bell necklaces.

Foam reindeer ornaments.

Bell snowmen. These were a few weeks work, wooden balls have to be painted, hats have to be cut and sewn, etc... Some of their faces are a little odd looking but I never claimed to be a painter, I still think they came out cute.

A felt, sequin and bead snowflake.

A foam Christmas cookie ornament.

Paper ball ornament.

Foam garland.

Paper chain garland.

Christmas Crafting

We have been getting into the Christmas Spirit, lacking a sewing machine has forced us to move to other types of projects.

One ornament project was ribbon lollipops. These came from OTC craft kits and came in three colors. They involved rolling felt and ribbon in a spiral for the top part.

My Mom has been working with Katie on decorating pine cones she collected from her yard. They have while snow (paint) and glitter

A kit I purchased at Jo-Anns made these ball ornaments that Katie decorated.

In a craft book I found a Borax Snowflake idea. I had borax and just needed to get pipe cleaners. They form over night and we have made several rounds of them. Here is one of the first ones.

After looking at some of the many ideas online I got a little more creative with the design and we also added food coloring to give them a slight blue tint.

Finally, I completed this felt wreath. It is made from a variety of shades of green felt squares. The squares are folded and cut then strung on a heavy wire. Next I put together the felt flowers and glued them along with some decorative buttons and now have a completed wreath.

All Framed Up Quilt

This quilt is again from the Moda Bake shop and called All Framed Up. I finished a few months ago but did not get around to taking pictures of it. It is also the last quilt I made before my machine fried so it might be awhile until I get to finish any others.

The quilt name comes from a group of different sized squares that get framed and then those squares go together. Here are the cut pieces.

And here is the completed quilt. It was a baby quilt but I went with a different fabric line Moda's Circa 1930. It has a vintage feel and I really like the line.

And here is a glimpse of the back and the binding.

Fall Canning

With this post I will bring everyone up to date with what we have been canning in the mlast few months. There have been quite a few green beans which we now easily clean, cut and can, this take so much pressure off of trying to get them used up. Going back to September through the final item which was made yesterday we have canned these, in sort of chronological order.

Zucchini Relish

Corn Relish

Blackberry Jam

Apple Pie Filling

Apple Jelly

Grape Jelly

Spiced Apple Chutney Put em Up

Golden Gossip Chutney Ball Complete book of Home Preserving

Apple Preserves Ball Blue Book

Jalapeno Jelly Ball Blue Book

Red Pepper Jelly Ball Blue Book

Pumpkin Butter Pick your own website (not photographed)


Green Tomato Chutney Ball Complete book of Home Preserving

Lemon Jelly Blue Ribbon Preserves

We have been busy and the cupboards are full!

Halloween

When asked what she wanted to be for Halloween many months ago Katie was not sure. We headed to the store to take a look at patterns. Katie finally selected a pink fairy costume from McCalls. I purchased the pattern and materials and began construction. Katie was very adamant that she was a fairy, not a princess because she had wings and a wand. 

My Mom did primary construction on the actual costume, my brother worked on the wings and I made the wand. I almost purchased a wand but then saw one and thought "I can make that". I purchased tulle, a dowel, ribbon and a set of small flower decorations. I began by cutting strips of tulle, we sewed a seam then gathered it to make a circle. Two of these sewn and hot glued then adding the flower decoration resulted in this:

I made two of these so the want could be double sided. Next we cut the dowel and wrapped it with wide ribbon. I then tied and glued ribbon streamers to the top and attached the tulle circles.

Here is Katie with the finished product.

The costume was a lot of work but the results were worth it. She wanted pink and sparkly and that is what she got.