it all started with a tiny wall hanging...

I've been feeling like our apartment entrance is a little bare.  I hang a wreath on the door that I change for each season (all my super cute wreaths come from this etsy shop), but that's it.  A little boring, especially when our neighbor across the hall always has a festive seasonal display of wreath, flowers above the door, and flowers on a pedestal!  I decided to make a mini quilt to hang on the wall by the door, and I plan to make one for each season, so I can change them along with the wreaths.

First up, Christmas.  I had just received my copy of Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston.  I love this book.  I love Gwen Marston and everything about her aesthetic and philosophy.  This book has been so inspiring.  I decided to try my hand at her method for making wonky stars.

My first star and the book that inspired me so much.

I made a lot of stars.  I didn't have a pattern or plan or a certain number in mind, so I just kept making stars.  They were a lot of fun.  Because I was making a Christmas wall hanging, I used a variety of greens and reds for my stars, with various grey fabrics as background.

Once I was done making stars, I started making log cabin blocks in low volume fabrics.  I put together a composition that I liked and pieced together my little wall hanging.  I quilted it in straight(ish) lines.  I was really happy with how it turned out.

Christmas wall hanging, before it was quilted.

here is the wall hanging that started it all, hanging in its place of honor in the hallway.

When it was done, I had a lot of stars left over.  Those stars turned into a small quilt for my mom, and a large quilt that our family is keeping.  I didn't have a particular size in mind for these.  I just kept adding until I felt the compositions were complete.  The quilt for my mom ended up at 84x66.  I would call it a nap size.  The quilt for us is 93x97.  It fits nicely on our queen size bed.

My design strategy for the bigger quilts was basically the same as for the mini quilt.  Festive red and green stars interspersed with low-volume log-cabin squares, plus a few big swatches of solids or prints.  I added random strips here and there to fill in spaces.  It was a very unplanned and organic process.  I hung a piece of batting as a temporary design wall so that I could step back and look at how things were coming together.

laying out the design for my mom's quilt, step one.

adding more stars and solids, step two of layout.

another progress shot... more spaces filled, more seams joined.

I sent the two larger pieces to my trusty long-arm quilter, Sarah Russett in New York state.  She did a fabulous job as usual.  I got them back from her just in time to bind them and wrap my mom's up for Christmas!

christmas stars quilt for my mom

back of mom's quilt

giant christmas stars quilt for us to keep!

back of our quilt.

These projects were my first attempts at improvisation.  For my first time not using a pattern, I was really pleased with and proud of how they turned out.  I think I could have done a better job of choosing fabric for some of the stars.  The values were too close on some, and the stars didn't pop out like they should have.  Aside from that, I really love all these quilts, from the mini to the queen size.  They are festive, funky, fun, and fabulous.  I really love improvising.  I may never use another pattern again. 

story quilts for Christmas

This year I gave story quilts to my nieces and nephews for Christmas.  I gifted one per family, not one for each individual child (I currently have 8 nieces and nephews, and one on the way!).  I love giving these story quilts as gifts for kids, because of the way they can engage a child's imagination.  But I have to say I have made so many of these in the past few years, that I don't want to make another for a very long time!  I saved enough of the fussy-cut novelty print squares that I can make a few more down the road, perhaps for grandchildren.

The pattern for this quilt is found in Modern Quilt Workshop by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.  It's called Once Upon a Time. 

Nate helped me take these pictures in the park on a beautiful snowy day.  It was fun.  :)

I tried to think of each family's home and style when I was choosing background fabrics.  The solids I used on the front are all shot cottons which were gorgeous and soft to work with.

It was fun to watch them get unwrapped at Christmas.  I'm happy to have these done and to be moving on to other projects.

This gold and purple version was for my sister's family.

 And here is the back. 

Grey and lime green for my sister and brother in law.

Here is their back.

Blue and cream for my brother's family.

And the back.

this year's ornaments

Christmas crafting!  We tried three different things this year, with varying results.

I wanted to make these snowglobes.  I found pictures of the boys in the snow and laminated them.  I was so excited to put these together but they were duds.  My problem was that I did not leave enough space around the inner edge of the lid, and the jars would not close.   On one of the three, I could get the lid on, but it wouldn't seal, and so it leaked.  I think I used the wrong kind of glue, for starters, and I may have been trying to cram too much stuff into each snowglobe.  I was focused mainly on the look and how cute they would be with sprigs of this and that.... I should have been primarily concerned with whether the darn things would close.  So, these potentially adorable snowglobes were a bust for us.  Maybe we will try again next year.

Incidentally, one of the other moms in S's class wanted to to do snowglobes as the craft for the whole class during the winter party.  So I was able to experience all the same technical difficulties, times twenty.  I felt so bad as each kid walked away from the sink, which was my station, with either a leaky snowglobe or with one that wouldn't close at all.  That was quite an afternoon.


These next ornaments we tried were these little wintery scenes.  I think these turned out okay, even though some of our trees and deer dried at a crooked angle.  The tricky part of these was not getting glue all over the stuffing that we used for the snow.  And also keeping the stuffing inside the cup as you put it over the top of the scene.  So these took a bit of dexterity and patience.  Because of that they weren't very kid-friendly.  I had to do most of the work myself, which isn't the idea.  But they made cute gifts for teachers and grandparents.  I love the one we kept for our tree.

Lastly, we made these sparkly snowflakes.  These were super easy for the boys, but it took a surprisingly long time to do 5 beads per pipecleaner.  Turning on some tv as a distraction helped us get through it.  We made most according to the directions, but I also tried one version where I kept the pipecleaners longer and then I curled them to make a more flowery look.

Next year I'm going to try to limit myself to one or two ornaments, and I'll try to pick ones that will be a little easier for the boys.  The whole point is to do these WITH them, not for me to slave away after they've gone to bed.  

One more thing I did this year.  I used our box advent calendar again, but this year I put magnets on the backs of the boxes.  In the past I had hung them on a door or wall using poster putty.  But it never worked very well.  We would often have boxes falling down  and their contents spilling out.  The magnets worked much better.  I put them all on a cookie sheet from IKEA.  Voila.  No more falling boxes.

Just for fun, a few pictures of our decorations this year.  I love the mantle in our apartment. 

We made Borax crystals.

On The Crafty Crow, I read about making these Borax crystal ornaments. Basically you make a shape with pipe cleaners, mix up a solution of water and Borax, let the pipe cleaner shape hang in the solution overnight, and when you pull it out beautiful crystals have formed all over it. Super fun, super easy. We made lots.


This one was probably my favorite. Shape by S.

Here you can see the crystals up close:

Here are a few more shapes. I made some, the boys made others.

I really loved this project and will probably be doing it again next year. I need to collect some more glass jars to use. I only had two on hand, which meant we could only soak two ornaments at a time. Also the jars were a little too thin. A wide jar with a wide opening would be best, maybe a pickle jar? The ornament can't touch the sides of the jar or the crystals won't form properly. I personally like the white pipe cleaners best for this project. The crystals on the white fluff look so snowy and nice. We gave some of these away to grandparents, aunts and uncles, and kept others for our own tree.

We made ornaments.

We made several ornaments this year.  Let me show you.

These are made with paper towel rolls and pipe cleaners.  So cute!  From Family Fun.

 These flying cardinals and doves are also from Family Fun magazine.  I cut out the felt, the boys helped me glue them together and glue their eyes on.  I love their simplicity.  I think they're really pretty.

Bells!  We made these out of egg cartons.  Three bells in a set, we made 5 sets and gave them as gifts to grandparents and teachers.  More for hanging on a doorknob than on a tree.  Idea from an old Martha Stewart Kids magazine.

Finally, these aren't exactly ornaments, but I wanted to show you the snowflakes Nate cut out that feature the boys' names.  Can you see them?

That's all for now.  More crafty goodness to come.  Hope you are enjoying your holiday!  xoxo