Happy Christmas (and tiny houses)!

 I was cutting it a bit fine for a last minute Christmas make, but wanted to make something with the teeny tiny buttons that I'd ordered after seeing Julia Gahagan's use of them.

I finished up with these four snow capped (well, almost) houses and Christmas trees.

  I started with a strip of starry background and snowy foreground.  Added in my shapes, covered them with netting, quilted around them...

 .... decided to try and add snow to the roofs (not completely successfully, ahem), and machine embroidery for the house details, then cut them apart.

Then I tried to edge them neatly with a small satin stitch.  Quite why it didn't occur to me to stick a layer of buckram in to stiffen them at this point I don't know.  It would have made so much sense!  I'm writing this now in case I what to make something similar in the future.  Perhaps it will help me to remember!

The last thing I did was to hand stitch the buttons on (see top photo again).  I will add a hanging loop to make them into tree decorations, I think.  Just over 2" squareish.  Next time I'll try for stiffer and smaller and make brooches!

Hope that you've found some crafting time too.  Seasonal greetings to you all!

Another Winter Quilt

This was another pattern that the generous Julia Gahagan shared at the workshop I took almost a fortnight ago.

I thought that I'd make it the same size as the winter scene that I showed last week - so they are both just under A4 size.

I think that I'd call this one a small quilt rather than a miniature.  The pieces are small, but not tiny!

My baubles might be slightly lumpy, but I had a lot of fun making this and adding the machine stitching.

Time to hang them both, alongside my other Christmas quilts.

Wonderland from a Workshop

I went to a quilting workshop with Julia Gahagan last week, where I made this miniature quilt (apart from the binding which I added once I got home).

It was a fun workshop learning this quick pictorial technique which uses a layer of netting over the top of fabric that you've temporarily held in place with fabric glue before quilting everything into place.

Fast, fun, and you manage to maintain sharp points in a way that I can't always manage with needle turn applique, or even fused applique if I've over sewn it.

Nice to come out with an almost finished snow scene, just before I put my Christmas quilts up!

Dino-tastic Christmas

Many thanks, Pintrest, for this dinosaur tilt on a Scandi inspired strip layout.

Used here in cross stitch to make a fun card for a young dinosaur enthusiast.

Life is all about finding the fun in small things, isn't it?

So, this is it for me this week.  Small sewing, but fun sewing!

Welcome to December!