Tie one on! Quick and cute ornaments that you can use as tags, too!

Ornaments have always been my go-to for fun and fast holiday gifts. It's not unusual for me to mass produce them so that I have enough for everyone. To speed things up, I often do some of the steps using my Sizzix Big Shot Plus and dies.   For the Sizzix booth at Quilt Market and Festival in Houston, at the last minute, I made a small collection of ornaments for them to display. Now you can make them with the instructions here!

For my ornaments, I used Winter Wonderland, Posy Patch, Hearts and Scallops, and Penny Rug Circles and Tongues die cuts from my Rosebud's Cottage collection at Sizzix.  I also used Ovals #2  and the Bigz 2, 3 & 4" Circles die.   I used Roxanne's Glue Baste to hold my shapes in place ... and one strand of floss unless I say otherwise. So simple but so sweet!

For this ornament, cut two 2" circles, one posy, one scalloped posy for the center, and a 1/4" circle. Lay the poinsettia down first on one circle. Make one long stitch through each petal, ending with a little X at the end. Put the green scallop center and a yellow circle on top. Stitch over the yellow center with a star stitch, going through all of the layers. Now put the back and front together and blanket stitch with two strands of floss, hiding your knots inside. Use four strands of floss to make a hanger.

Make this simple one by cutting two 2 1/2" ovals, two holly leaves, and three 1/4" circles. On one oval, stitch the holly in place with bright green floss and either a backstitch or a running stitch. Overcast the stems with a few stitches.  Add the three berries, attaching them with French Knots. Put the back and front together and blanket stitch with two strands of floss, hiding the knot. Add a hanger with four strands of floss.

For the heart ornament, cut two 2 3/4" hearts from red wool, and a 2 1/4" heart from pink, two holly leaves from green, and a red berry. On one red heart, whip stitch the pink heart. Attach the holly with two large Xs. Make a star stitch over the top of the berry. Put the front and back together and blanket stitch with two strands of floss. Use four strands of floss to make a hanger.

The tree ornament is made by cutting the base from purple houndstooth wool, cut two 4" ovals, one tree, a small star, a small heart, and a tree trunk. On one oval, whipstitch the the tree with green floss, tucking the trunk slightly underneath. Use the same green floss to make several running stitches down the center of the trunk. Attach the heart and star with large Xs. Put the front and back together and blanket stitch with two strands of floss, hiding the knots inside. Use four strands of floss to make a hanger.

This snowman ornament can hang out all Winter! Cut two 4" ovals, one snowman, a heart, a tree trunk for for the scarf, and three 1/8" circles. On one oval, center the snowman and whipstitch in place. Use a larger X to anchor the heart. Make three large black Xs down the tummy. Use black floss for French Knot eyes. Put the (trunk) scarf sideways across the snowman's neck. Overcast it with long stitches, bunching them in groups of two. Make fringe with three long stitches at one end of the scarf. Anchor the circles with extra long stitches to look like snowflakes. Put the back and front together and blanket stitch with two strands of floss, hiding the knots. Make a hanger with four strands of floss.

That's it! If you don't remember how to make them, a few of the stitches are explained here. They are also in the files section of my Wool Workers group on Facebook. If you don't belong to Wool Workers, what are you waiting for? It's filled with people who love to work with wool ... lots of inspiration and sharing of tips and techniques. Make sure you hit the 'like' button on my Rosebud's Cottage page, too.

Merry Christmas ... have fun creating during the holiday season ... and all year long!

It'll be a two-toned Christmas this year!

Here in Minnesota with it's huge Nordic heritage, it's normal to see red and white holiday decorations. So what better way to use my Sizzix stocking die cut and recently released dies!

For this project I used these dies ... they can be found here on my Rosebud's Cottage spot at Sizzix. You need the Stocking, Circles and Tongues, Hearts and Scallops, and Winter Wonderland die cuts. Just use the photo ^^^^ above to figure out which pieces to cut. Of course, you need a front and back to the sock and a hanger. And if you didn't want to use the pine tree, you could use a snowman or a bunch of hearts ... no rules ... just red and white.

The other things you'll need are red and off white wool and floss, embroidery needles, Roxanne's Glue Baste, some pins ... and that's about it! All the stitching is done with one strand of floss ... except for blanket stitching the front and back together ... that's done with two.

Trim a piece of the scallop and fit it under the cuff. Use Roxanne's glue to hold in place. Put the cuff over the top and whip stitch the bottom edge to the scallop, going through to the stocking. Use one strand of off white floss for this. Place the stars and dots on the cuff. Use red floss to whip stitch the stars and to make a star stitch over the top of the circles. Backstitch along the edge of the cuff.

Center the tree and star. Whip stitch them both with off white floss. Make star stitches over the top of the snowflake circles, the red ones on the tree, and the one in the center of the star.

Whipstitch along the top edge of the toe with off white floss. Whip stitch the heart with red floss and make a star stitch over the circles. Backstitch in red along the toe.

To finish, match the back and front and pin together. Use two strands of floss to blanket stitch ... off white for the toe and cuff ... red for the body and the cuff edge of the back. Stitch a hanger in one corner between the layers.

You can order the dies from me ... and if you're local, a Big Shot Plus, too. Email me at [email protected] or message me on my Rosebud's Cottage Facebook page. I'll send you a Paypal invoice and get your things on their way.

This is a quick and easy project ... mostly because of the die cutting ... and would make a great gift for someone at the office or a friend. Stuff it with special things they'd enjoy. Happy holidays!

Stitch up some Snow Friends!!

It's snowing in Minnesota and it's the kind of snow that is perfect for making some snow friends! Well ... not outside  ... inside! Get out the wool and floss and stitch away on a snowy day.

Hexxies are so popular ... I've used them for my snow friend faces. If you have a die cut, use a hexxie die that is about an inch and a quarter or an inch and a half. Or cut them by hand. Mix up different pieces of orange wool if you want so each snow friend is unique.

I prefer to cut out my wool appliques using freezer paper. If you like to use fusible, make sure you reverse some of the noses. I didn't in the pattern. You want the noses to go in different directions.

The tiny stars in the eyes and the cross hatch marks for cheeks are some tricks I learned as a decorative painter. It was easy to transfer the idea to thread!

You can down load the Snow Friends pdf here and get to work!

Download Snow Friends

We'd love to see your Snow Friends! When you get done, show us your pix on our Facebook page or at our  Wild Roses Quilt and Craft Club!

Happy stitching!!

When is Spring?

In Minnesota, Spring doesn't show itself on a particular day ... it's more an attitude about which day it arrives.  The temperature is part of it but it's more about when can you go outside and feel comfortable! Translate that to mean no coat, no mittens, no scarf around your neck!

Spring is when the bikes are the first thing you see in the garage ... and not the snow blower!

It's finally Spring when the patio furniture moves from the shed to the deck.

And when you can use it to lay outside and read a book!

It's Spring when there's a clear view of the fire pit that isn't blocked by snow piles ... or vegetation.

When the skies are bright blue with puffy clouds ... and the buds on the maple tree are starting to swell ... then it's Spring!

The hedge sprouts leaves and they're bright green ...

... or the peonies poke up to begin living their caged life again.

But when the fairies begin their Spring cleaning ... and the flowers bloom around their cottage ... then YES ... for sure ... it's Spring!!

I'm in love with our Be Mine banner exchange!

In Winter ... especially THIS Winter ... I love that Valentine's Day breaks up the season. Who cares if the groundhog sees his shadow ... for me it's all about pink and red and white and glitter! I loved it as a kid when it was time to make valentines to exchange at school. I'm sure mom didn't though ... remember the chunky glitter we used to use? It went everywhere! Now that I have to clean up after myself, I'm a little more conservative in how much I use ... plus I've switched up to that snobby fine glitter that glistens like snow. So pretty!

At the turn of the year, Pat Sloan and I were chit chatting and she brought up a harvest banner exchange I had done a number of years ago. And of course, our thoughts immediately went to Valentine's Day! It didn't take long to decide on a managable word and then I went off to pick four more friends to join us. I chose two from the east coast, two from the west coast, and two of us from the middle. The idea of our packages criss crossing the country as we mailed banners to each other amuzed me!

The way this worked is that our banners were all the same size, and each of us was assigned a letter to make for so that they spelled out B-E-M-I-N-E. We each made six ... one to keep ... five to share.

Sherri Falls from This and That   had the B. She's from on the other side of the Twin Cities here in Minnesota. We never see each other!

Pat Sloan from Pat Sloan & Co  had an E. Pat is from near Washington DC. We scheme a lot.

Suzanne Zingg from Strawberry Patches Quilt Shop had the M. Suzanne owns a darling quilt shop in Bakersfield, California that I love.

Pam Vierra-McGinnis from Pam Kitty Morning had the I. Pam lives near San Franscisco but has strong ties to Minnesota so we consider her one of us. And she drinks coffee each morning on her blog. Her coffee cups are darling!

Eileen Hull had the N. Eileen is a designer in the paper industry but I especially love her  because she designs for Sizzix ... and you know how I love to die cut! I've personally contributed to Eileen's pocket money over the years with the purchase of her dies. Eileen and Pat live in the same town!

And I had the other E.

Click on our links above and we'll all have something to say about our banners, and you'll get a pattern for the letter we each had ... BECAUSE ... we know you're going to want to gather your friends to do a swap, too!! Read along for more instructions.

In order for them all to be the same size, we had to start with the same pattern. Take a piece of paper and draw a line that's 6" long. Find the center of the line ... 3" ... measure down 8 1/2"  from there and make a dot. Draw a line from the dot to each corner of the 6" line to form the sides of a triangle. There's your banner! You can also find a pattern here ... Download Be Mine banner pattern.

The only other conditions we had were that we would stay in the traditional Valentine's Day colors and that we would make a hole in the corners and attach ribbons or fibers so they could tie to each other. They could be made from fabric, paper, or a combination of both.

I used fabric for the front of my banner and the E. The back of my banner is cute scrapbook paper. I fused my banner fabric, cut out the banner shape, and then fused it to the paper.

I used my 1/4" foot to stitch along the cut edges. When you sew thru paper one thing you should do is increase your stitch length a bit. If it's too small it could rip later. I used my OLFA rotary cutter to trim off the paper after so it looked nice and straight.

I put fusible web on the back of my letters, too. Remember ... when you do that you need to reverse the letter! I've already done that for you on my pattern and I placed it on the banner too so you could see where it should go. After they were fused in place, I headed back to my sewing machine and stitched in the center of the letters ... I followed the curves of the letter so it echoed the shape.

I love crepe paper so I die cut three layers of white and then set my stitches to BIG on my machine to gather them up. If you don't have crepe paper, you can use tissue paper, or lace, or fabric. No rules here!

When the crepe paper was gathered tightly, I lined it up with the top edge of my banner and used big paper clips to hold it in place. And yes ... those are some of the clips we made at our Pinterest Party on New Years Day. So handy! I layed a piece of pink rick rack over the gathering line to cover it up and I sewed through all of the layers.

My banner was dressed up with layers of hearts made from glittery paper and a little bit of bling in the center. I put another tiny heart on the E. I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch holes in the corners to thread my fibers through for ties. Then I bagged them up and headed to the postie ... and then waited. It was exciting to get fun mail for a change ... I'd open each one up and lay them out and it was a lot like playing Wheel of Fortune! "I'd like to buy an M, please."

The most amazing thing was that even though we were all working on our own and not coordinating them, our banners look great when they're tied together! We had such a good time that who knows ... maybe there'll be more banners in our future. Find a group of friends and play along ... it's such a nice way to get yourself through Winter!!

 

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!!

I have a HUGE postcard collection that is really heavy on the Merry Christmas stuff! I like to read the backs of the cards and one thing I've noticed ... through the years all people want for those they love is for them to have a good and happy life. Wishing that for you this year as well!

Merry Christmas!!

Festive finishing touches!

It's all in the details ... the tiny things you do that make people secretly squeal when they see them! The holidays are the perfect time for adding these darling surprises. Take some inspiration from the things I saw at the Bachman's House. There are several I want to do!

Instead of writing your guests names on place cards ... how about a photo in a pretty frame ... and it's a favor to take home and remember the day!

In another life this used to hold back flowers in the garden ... now it's showing off Christmas cards from family and friends!

Fun wreath made from vintage silver serving trays. I love this!

You can find these glass cups at estate sales or the thrift store ... or in my cupboard! So cute using them between the window and the screen.

Look how old wooden utensils were made into recipe holders ... or they could hold cards or pix of favorite people!

I think it's fun to decorate other parts of the house that no one expects ... like the bathroom!

Aren't these cool touches? And they don't require a lot of effort.

I love it when the outside is as interesting to look at as the inside!

Take a stroll through your woods ... pull stuff from your closet ... discover unusual pieces in the antique store ... decorate your home for the holidays!

Merry Christmas!!

Great ideas for Christmas decorating!

Well you'll never guess where I went! I know you will ... the Bachman's Christmas Ideas House! I took a little mini-vacation and drove over there the other day. Still as inspiring as ever! This year's house was very wintery ... lots of silver and white and light. Still cool!

I think the front porch will always be my favorite. It's a decompression zone before you go into the house ... especially if you've made the mistake of going to the garden center first! It's chilly on the porch but I'd still want to hang out there ... wearing a jacket and probably fingerless gloves, of course!

One of the things I loved about the Christmas house is their great use of lights. They had small spot lights hidden in unexpected places that really added drama ... and light ... to areas that normally are pretty dark.

Like inside the fireplace. It's dark and dreary without a fire there! I love this idea.

This was a glass light cover ... the kind you probably would have seen hanging in Grandma's dining room. They put it on one of those wire garbage bag holders ... from Grandma's yard ... put a glass round on top ... lit it from below. Wonder if it's too late to get the fixture from my mom and dad's house. Hmmmmm ....

Lots of mirrors all over the place helped to keep the light bouncing around ... pretty even on a sunny day. I loved the living room.

The theme from the downstairs was carried out in mom and dad's bedroom upstairs. It was dreamy ... very romantic ... if you're in to that sort of thing! :-)

It's impossibly hard not to keep looking at the prettiness!