Mill Hill Finish

A year or so ago my mother gave me two Mill Hill ornament kits. I finally opened one and finished it. Here it is, Mill Hill's French Horn: It was my first attempt at perforated paper. I wasn't quite sure how much tension to use so in the gold stitches, which were the first I put in, are a bit looser than they probably should have been, but once surrounded by beads, I don't think you can really tell. I'm not sure if this was my imagination but the combination of working with the thread and the paper really dried out my hands.

Crapting Moments: Not true crapting as it isn't evident in the finished product but threading the beading needle was a bear. I think it was the cheap thread (at least it seemed cheap). I could see the hole well enough (though it was tiny) but I really struggled to get the thread to actually go through it. It would split all the time. I think one threading session took about 20 minutes. Due to my hatred of threading, I strung the red beads with the same green thread I was using for the green beads. I was not going to thread anymore needles than necesary, as a result if you examine the ornament carefully, you can probably see the green thread on the side of the red bead, but I DON'T CARE!

Cutting the shape out was also a bit of a challenge. I'm scissors challenged to begin with so making sure I wasn't cutting into any of the stitching was difficult. There was a near disaster at the very top where I think I did cut away the hole for one stitch, but I think it's going to stay in place. I can't decide if I'm going to back it or not. I probably will, just not right now.

Side note: I did finish all my Christmas tree panels, I just haven't had time to write about them. I hope to in the new year, as well as actually put it all together.

Merry Christmas!

Days 4 and 5 - Christmas Trees 5 and 6

No, I didn't fall down on my goal. I just fell down on my posting. I was able to make a tree on Saturday and one on Sunday. Today is Monday, how will I do? Time will tell. Here is Saturday's tree:
I really like the green fabric I used for the tree. I wasn't sure at first if it would work but I think it does.

Here is the resplendent festival:
Crapting moment: None that I can remember. Hooray again!

Sunday's Tree started out with this fabric selection:

Note the peppermint rounds fabric. I thought this was perfect for ornaments and the big ones fit the circles perfectly. I thought I'd end up with crapt as I'm not always adept at matching things up nicely, or for that matter, cutting things out properly but they actually came out pretty nice:
And here is the finished tree:
I adore the peppermint ornaments. So cute! And the expanding festival:
It looks great. Three more to go (before the real work begins that I have no clue how to do). I better get cracking!

Day Three - Christmas Tree #4

I've done it again. I'm on a roll. Here are the pieces, fused and needing to be cut:

Everything ironed down and the finished product:
Again, surprisingly I'm quite pleased with it. Cute!

Crapting Moments: Happy to report not a single one! At least in regards to this tree, however, I did make the mistake of reading the instructions and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put it together without major assistance. Also, the instructions said that you need to sew around all the appliques with quilting thread that matches the fabric! I don't have enough spools of thread to match all the different colors I'm using (actual fact - I own no quilting thread whatsoever). What's a girl to do? I'm wondering how tacky it would be to maybe use some kind of Christmasy metallic thread (does that even exist?). Pretty tacky, now that I think about it. I'm going to finish the rest of the trees before I sew and then honestly, I don't know how I'm going to manage the borders, binding and quilting. I've never done anything remotely like this! Positive thinking, girl, positive thinking

The four trees:
It is getting to be quite a festival!

Day Two Christmas Tree #3

I've kept to schedule and have finished Christmas Tree #3. Here is the fusible webbing with the pieces traced on: Here is the rough layout minus the ornaments and star:
Then here all put together:
Pretty cool. Here are the three finished trees:
Sweet. But, with six more to do, I'm realizing this thing is going to be huge.

Crapting Moment: None! Hip hip hooray!

A Christmas Treee A Day

Over a year ago I started to make a Christmas tree quilt. I found the pattern in the December 2007 (!) issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. The designer is Linda Lum Debono. Here's what the finished project looks like:

Very cute! The project was marked Beginner, which was right up my alley as I've never done quilting, applique or worked with fusible webbing!

I began the project in January of 2009, with one Christmas tree panel. I did okay. Had a fun time. Put everything away until yesterday when it occurred to me - "Hey, it's getting near Christmas, where am I again with that Festival of Trees quilt?

Oh, that's right. Nowhere! So I have decided to do a tree a day! I already had one so only eight more to go!

Perhaps I can get this sucker done before Christmas (or at least in time to fold it away with all the Christmas stuff until next year)!

Here is the first panel I did from almost a year ago:
Why, this picture came out so tiny, I'm not sure. But you get the idea.

Let's cut to yesterday, December 1 and my return to the project and Christmas tree number 2.

Here is the beginning of Tree #2 with all the fusible put down on my fabric. In true crapter fashion, where my brain left my body, I also got webbing on my new 90buck Rowenta iron. Lucretia would be proud!

Here is the finished product:
Overall, I'm very happy with it, but I did have another crapting moment that isn't quite evident from the photo. The bottom corner of the tree did not have webbing on it for some reason and so it's kind of sticking out. Very annoying and I'm not sure how to fix it. Anyone have any suggestions? Glue?

Here is Tree #2 next to Tree #3:

So far so good! Let's move on to Tree #3 tomorrow!