Friday, July 16, 2021

Christmas in July Blog Hop Day 4!

Welcome to Day 4 of Christmas in July Blog Hop sponsored by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  That link will take you to Sarah's first day of Christmas in July.  Have you seen the great quilt she has designed for this year's blog hop?  If not check it out -- it just might be something you have to make this year. 

I'm all about Christmas ornaments and cookies for the blog hop.  I've been making ornaments for my grandchildren for 10 years or so.  I make 4 ornaments a year for the 3 girls and one boy.  Sometimes they all get the same ornament and sometimes I vary the colors and or designs.  Here's a review of some of the ornaments I've made.  (Sad to say I couldn't find pictures of all the ornaments. Say what????) All the pictures should enlarge if you click on them.  

2013


2014 

2015 

2018

2019

2020
That's a good variety. I gave up the counted cross stitch ornaments as I would make so many mistakes reading the graphs.  Then I decided machine embroidery would be a bit faster and I could add my initials and the year on the back. I often pick designs from Embroidery Library which is where the stars are from. The Safety First Gingerbread ornament is by Urban Threads and is stitched in the hoop.  The one shown above is my sample attempt. 

This year I'm trying some hand embroidered designs. I bought a cute stocking pattern second hand. I've been unable to find information on the company on the Internet. If you've got a link to them please let me know and I'll add the info. (The date on the pattern is 2006 so it may not be in business still.) Thanks to Linda I can add one place to buy a kit with this pattern: "I found that River Town kit on eBay! It is item #402872383080 and is 6.99 plus 8.50 shipping for the complete kit, if anyone is interested."  I bought only the pattern as the seller had made the stockings.   

Pattern from RiverTown Warehouse LLC

The pattern has the stockings made out of white batting. I started right in but was faced with how to transfer the design from the paper to the batting. Hum, I "thought" I had some pattern tracing paper.  Maybe that would work... Please note the prices: 25¢ and 60¢. 


These are from my grandmother and my mom.  I'm sure I've used the 60¢ version when I made clothes for myself and my kids. But would it still work? 


It's hard to tell, but yes it did work. But I wasn't sure how well it would stay on or would I be able to remove stray marks after I finished. 

It's hard to see but the designs did transfer.

This design has a lot of stitching in it and I wasn't thrilled with the batting. I put it aside and went looking for some wool felt I thought I had.  Fast forward to a different design that didn't lend itself to using the tracing paper and the wheel.  How could I transfer the next image. Hum, perhaps some thin interfacing and a water soluble pen. 


I traced the design on the interfacing with a Micron Pigma pen -- permanent ink.  Then I placed it over the felt and used the water soluble pen to trace the design.  It worked.  Please note -- I did test to make sure the light blue ink would come out of the felt and I tested the floss I was going to use to make sure it wouldn't bleed as this design will have to be spritzed or possibly submerged in water


The tree is almost finished.  But part of what makes the little stocking so cute is the blanket stitch used at the top of the stocking and stitching it together.  I'm tickled I have gotten this embroidery almost done.  But it will take me a while to get the blanket stitching done and the stocking together.  I will continue to work on this between my quilting projects.   

I did promise you cookies, didn't I? Forgive me for not actually making hot tea and pouring it out.  It's too hot here these days but these cookies go well with a cuppa. 


Yep, here's my favorite drop sugar cookie recipe.  Go to Google Docs to pick up a copy of the whole recipe.
Are you so busy making ornaments that you really don't have time to bake?  Might I suggest:
Ok, in all honesty -- the cookies shown above were thea mix. Sigh. Remember what I said about time?  My recipe is better than the mix but it takes a bit longer to make.  


Are you ready to visit all the blogs that have already been posted for 12 Days of Christmas in July?  Here's the whole list.  The links go to the blog rather than a specific post. I've enjoyed reading the previous posts and am looking forward to the rest of the posts. 
Wednesday, July 14th

Thursday, July 15th

Friday, July 16th
Jamie of L'Fair Quilts

Saturday, July 17th
Bonnie of In Stitches With Bonnie (you are here!)

Sunday, July 18th

Monday, July 19th

Tuesday, July 20th

Wednesday, July 21st

Thursday, July 22nd

Friday, July 23rd

Saturday, July 24th
Joanne of Everyone Deserves a Quilt (Part 2)

Sunday, July 25th

Hope you find a lot of fun ideas as you browse through all of the Christmas in July links.  It's going to be a great 12 days of ideas and fun. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

17 comments:

  1. all so very cute bonnie....when my daughter was little i would take her photo and put it on a christmas ornament as a keepsake...sadly that went by the wayside but i do have some...

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  2. Love all the cute ornaments and ideas! Thanks

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  3. What a great idea to make ornaments as gifts for your grandkids. They all look beautiful, and I especially love the ones in 2019 - they look just like sugar cookies! Would you believe your drop sugar cookie is the one I've used since the 1970s? I add about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon nutmeg to mine. It is a great recipe.
    I found that River Town kit on eBay! It is item #402872383080 and is 6.99 plus 8.50 shipping for the complete kit, if anyone is interested.

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  4. Your ornaments are so fun! What a great keepsake for the grands! The stockings for this year look fun to work on, too.

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  5. Great ornaments; thanks so much for sharing!

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  6. I love the idea of ornaments for your grands! My grandmother used to make the satin and sequined ornaments, all fancy - I wish I knew where they were now. Thanks for being part of this year's 12DCIJ!

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  7. This was such a fun stop. Love your ornaments. I too have started to do my gift ornaments on my embroidery machine love how they turn out. Have you tried free standing lace FSL yet. Super simple in the hoop work. I've done Christmas Angels, Bells and a 3d Manger Scenes for the tree. Lots of stuff out there to try. Thanks for sharing your examples of wonderful ornaments.

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  8. Bonnie your ornaments are all so cute. But I really love your new stocking ones. Right away I thought felt would be the better choice, not sure I would have figured out how to transfer the pattern to it though! Nice work;)

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  9. Wonderful post, Bonnie. I loved seeing the cross stitch ornaments and what a great embroidery pattern find. The stockings are going to be darling. Yum yum on the cookies. Thank you for sharing

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  10. I like the embroidered stockings! What a great project to make for the grands! fun post!

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  11. Thank you for the recipe, Bonnie. And I love your ornaments. A couple years ago, for the first time, my then 36-year-old son, hosted Christmas. He had never had a tree before and asked for his special ornaments. Up till then I actually hadn't realized how much they all meant to him. I'm sure your grands will have the same appreciation. Good job, Grandma!

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  12. OMG the penguin is so cute...or so I thought till I saw the reindeer. Absolutely darling. Love love love!!! It is indeed very hot. Thinking about Christmas does kinda lower the temps :-)

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  13. I smiled at your package of 25 cent Dritz Tracing Paper! I had some of that from my mom’s stuff! Sadly it was very used and dried up! I had to toss it! And I’ve used those Betty C. cookie mixes. They are pretty darn good in a pinch!

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  14. Someone on a quilt FB group posted a photo of a tracing wheel saying she'd found it in her mother's (grandmother's) things and what was it. What fun to review your crafted ornaments!

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  15. What a wonderful collection of ornaments, Bonnie!

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  16. Ooh, I've made a few of the Pellman kits like this but love that these are Redwork! Going to look out for these for next year -- I'm doing a Blue and White scheme for Xmas this year but definitely could see doing Red and White in the future. Your grandchildren will really cherish all the ornaments you made for them over the years!

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