Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

(We actually get to use finished stockings this year!)

Awesome and easy stocking tutorial from Fabricworm!

{amylouwho} december cheer and a sew & tell vacation

I've been busy painting, decorating, organizing and getting ready for Christmas.  I'm pretty sure you are all in the same boat, so we'll just take a Christmas break from sew & tell and resume in January.

December cheer around our house includes birthdays!  Mine is right after Christmas so I guess I'm sensitive to the plight of my DD #1 and her birthday 10 days before the big day.  We had a little party for her today which was fun, but I had the house torn apart from the above mentioned projects and had to pull it all together today!

I've been sewing stuff - I'm just too limited on time and energy to do some worthy posts!  I finished some window treatments to go with my newly painted rooms.  I sort of love it all! I should have known a little turquoise on the walls would motivate me and make me happy. :)

So here's a few pictures of what we've been doing.

 Happy Christmas, Birthdays, and New Year's! 

merry fall!

Well, hello there friends! I know I've been in absentia for a little too long. As has Sew & Tell. Without boring you with all the details I'll just say this. I've lost my blogging mo-jo a little bit. I'm sure you are not surprised. Things have been busy with my oldest starting real school this year, mrlouwho being gone a lot in preps for a deployment, babies at home to take care of, and still not having that sweet spot in my house for taking photos.

Plus, I know there are so many blogs out there to read, and I only want to blog about things that are fun and encouraging, so that I'm not wasting your time when you come visit.

Along these lines, dear Kim gave me a little pep talk last week, and I think we came up with a solution for bringing back weekly Sew & Tell. More details to come. THIS Friday! So get your projects and posts ready to link up.

I have been sewing quite a bit actually. It's amazing when you don't blog as much you can get a lot more things finished! I wanted to share with you today what I chose for my month of my quilt bee, BeeTweet. My month was August and I have had some Christmas prints laying around~ I actually won them in a giveaway a couple of years ago.

 I sent my group this inspiration mosaic for what I wanted. I was thinking, whimsical and Christmas (obviously).

I was late (of course) sending my fabric out and they are starting to trickle back in.  These are the 3 I've gotten so far, and I'm so excited to get the rest!

I'm thinking of a square in square type of sashing. I hope it will be as cute in my head...

See you soon!  Sew & Tell on Friday!!

no-sew felt christmas tree skirt - tutorial

If you are anything like me, there may be some things you put off at Christmas.  For me, I can't even begin to count.  But I decided this year I REALLY wanted a tree skirt.  But I didn't do anything about it (notice the date....)

(here's my moments shot for you - see how the bottom foot and a half isn't really decorated... I have two small kids, need I say more?)

I was unexpectedly at Joann's last week and saw the red felt and though - hmmm, how could I do this?  It was a 72" wide bolt, so I decided to buy 2 yards so I would have a square.  I figured the least I could do would be wrap it haphazardly around the tree.

I've been mulling it over in my head all week what to do.  And once I figured out what I wanted to do and maybe how to do it, I was excited to get it done.  And there was no sewing involved - it's so easy!  But, the best part?  The felt cost me $10 and it took about 10 minutes to cut it up!

I figured I'd better get busy, since today is the last day to link up with Natalia's Homespun Holidays!



So while my husband was watching a football game I went to work.


Supplies:
72" square piece of flannel
Dissapearing ink pen/chalk
String
Can, bowl, plate, or something else circular
Scissors
Embellishments

1. I took my felt and folded it in fourths.  I marked the center with a curve using my #10 can. This way I will have a bit of a hole for the skirt to wrap around the trunk - you can eyeball this to match you tree/stand.

2. Next, grab your disappearing ink pen or chalk (I used a sharpie so you can see it).  Tie your marker to a string.  Get the cute guy watching football on the couch to hold the string firmly in the corner (during a commercial) so you can trace an even curve from the bottom right corner to its kitty corner.

 

It should then look like this!

3. Next, take your circle template and trace a scallop design along the circle edge.  I probably could have made my scallops a little bigger, but I like it.

4. Then cut along your cutting lines: center circle (on left) and scalloped edge.

5. Finally, unfold your circle (isn't it cool?) and cut along one of the fold lines to the center.  I picked the least pretty edge, since this will be in the back.  I can put the sharpie side down and my prettiest scallops are in the front.

6. Lay it under your tree and see how it looks!

I think this would be cute with ric rac, pom poms, sequins, little trees and birds. . . oh, the possibilities!  I have plans to embellish mine with snowflakes.  I'm hoping it will look something like this (these are foam snowflakes from the dollar store):

Maybe next year.

If you make one - I'd love to see it!  You can add it to my Flickr tutorial group!