Starting the week off right

We have some Christmas in July winners!

The winner of the Quilts category is Erika! She's so ready to snuggle this holiday season under that beautiful quilt!

The winner of the Home Decor category is Karen! She figured out the pattern to this table runner herself. It looks pretty complicated!

The winner of the Small Projects category is Marla, who doesn't have a blog, but should totally get one. Peer pressure! Her potholders look pretty perfect.

The randomly chosen winner out of all the entries is Amy, who made a journal cover with a teeny tiny charm pack. Journal covers sure are sweeping blogland!

Ladies, please watch for an email from me later! Thanks to everyone who played along!

And ahem, even though it didn't get pulled by random.org, and even though I might be biased, check out Marit's beautiful pillow:

Oh.my.goodness. I love it. Looks so beautiful with such contrasting fabrics! I like hers better than mine haha!

And how am I starting my own week off?

The other day Jennifer posted about wanting to start her Double Wedding Ring quilt. I've had those arcs printed since January, and I really want to make one, but I kept pushing that project aside in favor of other things. I want to make the DWR just because! So I emailed her and we decided that we'd make our DWRs together and keep each other accountable and peppy about the project :)

This week is just gathering up our supplies and preparing our fabrics. Then we will be tackling 10 arcs per week! It's great to have friends to motivate you on projects!

Tomorrow I'll be unveiling the first 4 Potter Patterns, so make sure to come by and check out the patterns and the versions that my testers stitched up!

Christmas in July Link Up Day - Show off your projects!

Merry Christmas in July Day! It's finally here! Are you excited to link up your completed projects?! Because I can't wait to see them, yay!

And just in case you forgot what Santa was bringing [Santa partners with random.org, which is how prizes will be awarded]...

The winner of the Quilts/Tree Skirt category will receive:

Red and green basics 8 FQ bundle from Pink Castle Fabrics!

The winner of the Home Decor category will receive:

Alpine Wonderland 8 FQ Bundle

The winner of the Small Projects category will receive:

Panel of Flurry by Kate Spain [2/3 yd], 1/2 yd Kona White [not pictured], and 3 yds tiny pom pom trim

And then there's a random winner from all the entries linked up, with the winner getting:

Scrap bag [approx. 2 yds] of holiday fabrics from Sew Love Fabrics

Woohoo for prizes! The link-up will remain open from Monday July 30th until midnight on Friday August 3rd. Prizes will be announced Monday August 6th. You can certainly write separate posts for all your projects, but if you have multiple projects you can put them in the same post and then just choose the thumbnail picture for the appropriate category. As a refresher for where your project should be posted:

• Quilts/Tree Skirts - quilts baby size and larger and tree skirts
• Home Decor - pillows, table toppers, wall hangings, mini quilts
• Small Projects - hand-stitched projects like hoops, towels, garlands, cards, pins, etc

Remember, we're celebrating completed projects. We all know that half-finished projects can languish for years, especially holiday ones. If you have an unfinished project then you have until Friday to finish it and link up! :)

If you're still confused about where to post your project then just shoot me an email and I'll help you figure it out! And just fyi, you have to click out of your Reader to link your project.

Now lets all have a great time checking out all these festive projects! Grab some cocoa coffee iced tea, sit back, and maybe leave some comments for everyone who is ahead of the holiday sewing game!

Christmas in July Tutorial Wrap-Up

Christmas in July tutorials are all finished. Sad. But how great were all those projects?! It makes me want to keep sewing for the holidays! It also amazes me that all these wonderful ladies came up with such different tutorials...a great variety of projects!

And make sure you go visit all their blogs because they're constantly producing awesome stuff :)

I wanted to make sure to do a round-up of all the tutorials, so you can access them in one easy location.

But first things first, the winner of the Thimble Blossoms PDF Stocking Pattern is:

...which is Judith! She makes different stockings every year! I'll be emailing you Judith :)

I will also be updating the Christmas in July tab at the top of my blog later tonight with links to all of the tutorial posts, so you can easily access which one you want to make!

Remember, the linky party opens next Monday July 30th and will remain open until Friday August 3rd. There will be multiple categories, but you can only link one official entry per category for prize purposes. There's one prize per category, plus a prize for a random winner out of all the people who choose to share projects! Your project must be a completed item to be considered a valid entry!

So you still have plenty of time to make some holiday items for a chance to win some fabric :)

Maybe one of the tutorials from the past month?...

Simple Patchwork Quilted Christmas Card by Quilty Habit

Paper-Pieced Snowflake Table Runner/Wall Hanging by Sew Festive

Christmas Coaster Tutorial by Make Me Crafty

Reversible Wine Tote by pins & bobbins

Fussy Cut Pillow by Sweet Diesel Designs

Stacking Gifts Wall Hanging by Kelsey Sews

Embroidered Flour Sack Towels by There & Back

Poinsettia Pins by Knotted Thread

Christmas in July - Poinsettia Pins

Aw, we're at our last Christmas in July tutorial! Luckily, we're ending the tutorial fun with a great one by Jennifer! She makes all sorts of fun stuff and has been running a Follower Friday feature on her blog to highlight some of the great quilters out there. I'm trying to not hate her because she just moved to Maui this past week. Right?! I've been to Oahu twice so I'm absolutely green with envy because I know just how awesome it is. Sigh. I suppose I won't hold it against her because I also love this afternoon's project...
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Hi all! I'm Jennifer from Knotted-Thread. I'm so exacted to be a part of this Christmas in July series! When Rebecca asked me to be a part of it I immediately thought of a family favorite.

Poinsettia's!

Materials

- red and green felt

- gold seed beads

- red metallic dmc floss

- dark green thread

- poinsettia templates

- needle

- scissors

- large pin (optional)

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Start out by cutting out the template pieces, you should have one of each flower part and one green part. 

Take your 2 flower pieces and place them so the petals lay between each other. 

Using 2 strands of your metallic red floss, we're going to stitch and make the veins of the petals. I typically start with a top petal and move in a clockwise motion stitching the petals - that way the stitching goes through both pieces and keeps them together (don't worry about how the back looks with the threads, it will be covered later!)

Once you're finished tie off your end and get your green leaf piece. Position it however you like. 

Now, if you're making a pin, 

position it so the side that lays flat (doesn't open) is against the green

we will be using this side to anchor the pin to the poinsettia

I'll be using white thread so you can see what i'm doing

I recommend using green so it blends in better.

Start by knotting your thread at the end. Come up the green side and made sure the knot is between the leaves and petals pieces.

Go back down and through all 3 pieces to the front of the flower

Add a gold seed bead, and go back down through all three, close to where you came up on the front

Try and stay as close to the pin as you can, and as close to center of the flower to add your seed beads

Continue this process until you're happy with the center of your flower

I typically make a cluster of 7 seed beads

When you're finished, tie it off!

At this point, if you don't like how the back looks, add a piece of green felt between the pin prongs

to cover it up.

Alternative Options:

Poinsettia garland 

(add the beads the same way, but without the pin then string them together by putting the string sandwiched between 2 green leaf pieces, anchoring with hot glue)

Holiday gift decorations

bouquet of poinsettia

Be careful, they're addicting!

if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I'd love to see picture if anyone should try these!

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How perfect does that poinsettia pin look on her white coat?! And for those who also wondered, the instant I read through the post I had to email her back and asked if she put on a winter coat and took a picture in the dead of summer. But nope, she didn't! And now she doesn't need that coat in Maui. Luckily these poinsettias would look adorable as a garland or pinned to a bag too!

I will absolutely be making these, as I have a whole slew of fake poinsettia plants that I put out at the holidays; it's a great way to be festive on a budget!

Thanks so much for all the great ladies who created tutorials over the past month! I will be doing a round-up post in a few days so you can access all the tutorials in the same place. Make sure you checked out Katie's project from earlier today, and then get creating. The linky opens next Monday, July 30th for you to show off your completed holiday projects!

Christmas in July - Embroidered Flour Sack Towels

Today we're celebrating the last day of Christmas in July tutorials with all things hand-stitched. And who better to start with than Katie! She hosts a Handmade Parade every Friday to celebrate hand-stitching, is the mama to the bee I'm in, and she has a super cute project to share. Plus she's also putting on the Winterkist blog hop starting August 6th, so if you want more tutorials and chances to win free fabric then go check it out [I'm a stop on the hop, so I'll be putting more info up later this week!]
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Hi, I'm Katie and I blog at There & Back, where I tend to share my love for hand stitching, colour, and all things cotton. I have a wonderfulfantasticawesome husband who generally supports my fabric habit, three children, two of whom are teenage boys (eep!) and I work part time as a pastry chef. Sewing is definitely my "me time"!

So. Christmas. Yes, it's coming and since there's nothing we can do to avoid it, we might as well prepare for it! Thank you Rebecca for hosting this fantastic event! It certainly has given me the push to get cracking on my Christmas projects.

Throughout the year I keep a list of all these great ideas for decorating, gift giving and of course baking; I am a pastry chef after all! Usually though, these lists tend to stay as lists and I don't end up making much progress on them. I generally wait far too long and want to do waaaayyyy too much. So if you're like me, you'll appreciate this quick and easy project, which makes a nice hostess or teacher gift, if you can part with it.

I bought a package of three flour sack towels that were 50% off at my local kitchen store. Apparently red doesn't fly off the shelves in the summer, so good news for me! Since I like to embroider (ok "like" might be putting it mildy) I decided to get stitching. I transferred an easy design from Paloma's  Etsy shop and over the course of one evening I stitched up the towel.

I normally transfer my design by taping the paper design to a window, then I tape the fabric on top.

This of course works best on a nice sunny day. If you're using this method it night, it works really well if you tape it onto the tv!   I generally just dot around the design, like Kristyne shows up close here.  A traced line might show up through the stitching, where as dot dot dots are much less likely to. Also, for other projects I sometimes use transfer paper but since I was using flour sack towels, which have a pretty loose weave, I didn't think using transfer paper would be very effective.

So...the design I chose doesn't scream MERRY CHRISTMAS , but the colours and sentiment are definitely appropriate.

My daughter's teacher will be getting this cute set. I wonder what she'll think when I break my long-standing tradition of giving out Starbucks cards.....

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Look at those perfect tiny stitches! I admit, I don't have the patience for itsy stitches. But what a cute idea! You could totally use this concept of hand-stitching and bunting for any holiday, and use something else on the sides to "hold" the bunting if you're not partial to birds. For those of you who don't know where to get flour sack towels you can buy them at Joann [using a coupon!] but I also just saw a package of 4 on sale for like $6 at Target.

Thanks so much Katie! Lucky teachers! Personally I love your tradition of Starbucks cards [give.me.all.the.coffee.in.the.world.thanks] but I do love that handmade gifts show that you recognize what hard work they've put in throughout the year, and are willing to take the time out of your life to do something for them!

Don't forget that there's one more tutorial this afternoon, and that the giveaway from last week is open until tonight at midnight EST!

Christmas in July - Bonus Edition!

Hi everyone! Nicole contacted me last week and offered to share some holiday merriment. I of course said yes! So everyone gets a bonus Christmas in July day! We all need some inspiration, and we're in the last 11 days before the linky opens!

Just a quick run-down about the categories for the linky party running July 30-August 3:

-Quilts [baby-size and bigger] / tree skirts

-Home Decor [pillows, table toppers, wall hangings, mini quilts]

-Small Projects [including hand-stitched hoops/towels/garland/cards]

-The 4th prize will be drawn randomly from all the participants!

And now for some fabric creations...

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Hello! My name is Nicole and I blog over at bold goods. I'm here because my mom recently sent me a few boxes of lovely handmade Christmas decorations handed down from my grandma Julie, and Rebecca was nice enough to let me share them with you as inspiration for Christmas in July! Here are just a few of my favorites from what my mom sent.

 If you think you have time for a large project, this tree skirt seems pretty simple, could be made without the ruffle, and would make a big impact on your Christmas decorations. This one is sewn patchwork that is tied instead of quilted, made in 1983 by my grandma Julie French.

Another slightly more time-consuming project is this adorable wreath with a jumbo bow. This one is just a circle with thick cotton yarn wrapped around it. It's hard to see the detail, but there is also a feather-stitch all the way around the inner seam. In the above picture, there is also a whole-cloth version in green, and the yarn is tied in knots instead of wrapped.

 If you only have a few hours, you could always whip together this interactive advent calendar. This one is just a panel with a batting layer and backing, with snaps hand-sewn in various places and a snap on a little bear that moves to different rooms looking for Christmas. This was always fun for us as kids. I did a google search and there are several options available this year for advent panels, I'm thinking of doing one myself.

 

For non-sewers out there, there are a few options. First, this cute little fabric tree is just a styrofoam cone, with little rectangles of fabric folded with a tiny bit of batting inside and pinned with steel pins in layers. I am pretty sure that was made by my aunt Mary Lou Houdek, she is super-crafty but more of a hot glue person than a sewer. I think she also made the santa to the left - he is stuffed and hot-glued together!

 

These little Christmas houses are also not sewn. They are tissue boxes cut up with fabric, lace and felt hot-glued to them. I have a whole village! Some were made by my grandma, and others by my aunt Paula in the early 1990's. The varieties are practically endless, this would be a good one to get your kids involved with!

So, there you go! And if you need even more ideas, I've got a bunch of Christmas projects over on Pinterest as well. Good luck and I can't wait to see what you share in the link-up!

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Thanks Nicole! After seeing that tree skirt up there I'm totally thinking that Elizabeth Hartman's Octagonal Orb block would make a great tree skirt pattern! I must look into what it would take to enlarge the block to be a good tree skirt size.

What are you inspired to make?