Keeping Cool with Christmas

It has been kind of hot and muggy here the past couple of days, and no air conditioning. boohoo!  So I kept cool by sewing up these fun houndstooth squares for Emily.  Such beautiful fabrics and such an easy pattern with a big wow effect.  This quilt is really going to be fun to see all finished up.

Snow in June!

Okay, I am super excited about this block, mostly because I engineered it myself simply by looking at many other blocks on the internet, and incorporating all the different aspects I liked from them individually, into one perfect-for-me block.

First I will be sending everyone either a green 10.5 inch square block, as pictured here, or a red square block, along with a wooden "stand" already cut to the correct measurements.

You will also receive a paper template for the correct size circle needed to make the globe part of the block.  Please choose a Christmas design that looks like it could be a scene in a snow globe, or at least the closest you've got, as I did here and fussy cut it so that what remains will look slightly grounded and not like it is floating in air.

Iron on fusible adhesive to the back of both the circle and the wooden stand fabric.  I have found that I don't really need to cover the entire piece of fabric, just enough so that it stays where I want it until I am ready to sew it all down on the background piece.

When positioning the fabric it is important to remember that these blocks will eventually be sewn together.  Leave room for the adjoining seam, on both the top and bottom of the globe.  Also, try and get the circle centered in the middle of the two sides as well as possible.  You can even use a ruler if that will help.  Place the circle down first, and then place the wooden stand over it, making sure that both sides of the stand are exactly even with the sides of the globe.  We don't want our globes to spring a leak! :)

Then sew all around the globe using white thread and a zig zag stitch.  My settings on my machine were with a 2.7 width and a .50 length.  Then use the same settings, but brown thread, to stitch all around the stand. And that's it, you are done!

I can't decide on if I should embroider snowflakes around the background fabric, sew some iridescent sequins on to the circles to make it look like glitter in the globes, or both.  Any thoughts?

Thank you so much ladies! I am really excited to make this for my mom.  She used to have quite a lovely snow globe collection, amassed over several years.  And then one fateful night, the shelf they were displayed on got knocked pretty hard by the shoulder of a teenage boy creeping home in the night and they all came crashing down.  She has never tried to replace them, but really loves remembering them.  I thought this would be a good, unbreakable substitute! :)

Hello there!

So I thought I would add my own introduction to the others that have been made.  My name is Amy C. and I currently live in a small village just south of Zurich, Switzerland.  We have lived here for over 15 years and it just keeps getting better and better. I am the mother to 5 kids, ranging in age from 17 to 8. 

This is us in Utah this fall making a quick visit to see family. I am lucky to be a full-time stay at home mom, although for the past few years I have been working one morning a quarter up at the school checking the kids for lice. :)

My first sewing class was in Mrs. Allen's Home Economics class in 7th grade.  Half the year we sewed, the other half we cooked.  I made a skirt and got an A+ on it, then went on to sew a couple more skirts through my high school years, but then completely stopped.  When my oldest daughter was about to turn 8 I sewed her a baptism dress as we were living in a country that didn't have that sort of thing available anywhere and ordering one online was too expensive and risky.

My friend helped me cut out the pattern pieces, and then I sewed the thing together on my $100 sewing machine I bought to sew on cards. (I am a huge paper crafter as well.)  Here it is being worn by the third girl. Pretty soon I was sewing lots of clothes for my daughters as all the "cute" clothes available in the stores didn't come in their sizes anymore.

I learned lots of things by watching vidoes on Youtube made by talented ladies who didn't mind sharing their skills with the rest of us.  That morphed into watching quilting videos and I decided to just make each of my kids a quilt for their beds, which I did and quilted them on my home machine because no way was I paying someone to quilt them for me.  Then I made a quilt for my husband, then one for me, and then I was buying fabric like a crazy person and sewing quilts just for the fun of it.  I will occasionally give a baby quilt away, and have even sold a couple, but there are more just sitting there waiting for who knows what.  I also still sew lots of clothing for my kids.

I was super excited when I was invited to join this quilting group as I had been following the blog for a while, admiring all the beautiful creations and the skill that was involved.  It has been so fun to receive those fat little envelopes in the mail filled with fabric-y goodness and know that I "have" to go spend some time in my sewing room. haha!

When I am not sewing, I am usually reading a book,  or making cards.  In between housework, taxi duty, and other responsibilities of course. Oh, and I do cross-stitch, but that seems to come and go in stages.  Sometimes I feel like it, sometimes I don't.  But I never get rid of crafting supplies, I might use it someday! :)

Becca's Peppermint Blocks

So, I meant to finish these blocks before we went to the States in October, but clearly that didn't happen.  I did finish them right after we got back, though, and they have been sitting there mocking me ever since.  In clearing off the sideboard in preparation for Thanksgiving decorations, I saw them once again and decided now would be a great time to send them off.  Hopefully you can still get your table runner done in time for Christmas!

And of course, I had to include a Swiss block. :)  Becca was my first friend when I moved here, and boy was I happy and thankful to have her.  She made the transition much, much easier!