Christmas Ladder

I saw a tutorial on how to make your own decorative ladder on Tattertotsandjello.com and I had to give it a try.  I've always loved the looks of using ladders to decorate, but never wanted to fork out the money for one.

I've decided to use mine to display holiday photos and Christmas cards.  I bought the ornaments from a dollar store to keep the decorations fairly cheap, but I did break down and buy the garlands from Joanns.  At least they were 60% off!

Here are a few tips if you decide to make one.  Learn from some of the difficulties I had when I made mine. :)

1. If you don't have one of these doo-dads (a center punch),  get one.

They are great for creating a little indentation for the place you want to drill.  It makes the placement of your hole more precise rather than the drill bit dancing around on the wood before starting to penetrate.

2. Pay closer attention to her tutorial then I did.  :)  I didn't notice that she said to use screws to attach the dowels to the 1 x 4x so I used wood glue first.  Messy and it didn't work as well. :)

3. Use white screws if you have them.  I only had dark grey ones on hand and the paint didn't cover them up as well.

4. Very carefully drill the holes for the screws to make sure they go in straight.  Otherwise the screws will start to push out the side of your dowels.

3. If you use grey screws, put them in a little further than flush with the wood.  (So they are depressed in a bit.)  Then putty over them and sand the putty once dry.  It will help the paint cover them better.

4. I'm fairly new to crafting and haven't "distressed" many things.  So I found some tips that helped me.  A) Sand the areas that would naturally get worn through time and use.  B) Use 60 grit sandpaper first to rough it up then go over the same spots with 120 grit sandpaper to smooth it out.

Enjoy!

Christmas Wall Hanging

After I finished my first quilt I decided it would be fun to do a Christmas quilt wall hanging so I started looking around for patterns.  I came across the Little Forest Quilt on the purl bee and thought it would be perfect for my new quilting skills.  (And it's free!)

It's a great project for scraps, but that didn't stop me from cutting little bits off of large pieces of material.  What can I say, my scrap collection is small at this point.  :)  It came together so quick!

I decided to do a scrappy binding and love how it looks.  I also tried my hand at ditch quilting, and was surprised at how tricky it was.  I mean, come one, how hard is it too sew a straight line?  Apparently pretty difficult.  :)

I'm still playing around with different branches.  I can't find one I'm thrilled about.  The pattern also suggests using a large knitting needle to hang it, but I couldn't bring myself to spend the money on one, even with a 50% off coupon.  

Christmas is Sneaking in...

I love - L.O.V.E - Christmas.  There are years when I start listening to Christmas music as early as August, because one month of it just isn't enough.  This year I resisted until Halloween day.  That's good for me!


The last few years on the day after Thanksgiving my husband and I have gone and tromped through the mountains and cut down our own Christmas Tree.  He's not big into Christmas so it's been a good way to create a tradition that we both enjoy.  I then spend Saturday decorating the tree and the house.  This year I couldn't wait that long so Christmas has slowly been sneaking into the house. :)

Here's a centerpiece I just created.  My mom gave me the lamp a while ago - I think it's from Lillian Vernon.  I bought the glasses from the DI (a local secondhand store), and the poinsettas from Joanns.  I also had the tray sitting around.  I saw a tutorial on tatortotsandjello.com on how to make a centerpiece tray from bead board and molding, but I lucked out and already had one on hand.  What do you think, do you like it?  I'm still trying to decide.  The pine cones are the cinnamon ones so my kitchen smells YUMMY!

The two pictures above are of my mantle.  I still might add a thing or two.  How do you like the flag?  My husband doesn't give much input on decorating, but he likes to have the flag on the mantel.  I can't say I blamed him.  It's well earned!

And here's a simple shelf.  I made the Joy at a church event and got the lantern at Shopko.  Love the lantern!

I also got out our Fischer Price Nativity Set and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer characters for the little one to play with.  She's loving them!! 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Rag Quilts

About two years ago I had a brilliant idea.  I was going to make Christmas rag quilts for each of my siblings families and one for my parents.  That's seven rag quilts.  It was during the beginning of my sewing experience so basic rag quilts were the extent of my skill.  Great idea, right?

Here they all are!  The four on top have actually been
"ragged" and washed.  They're throw size, about 4 ft x 4ft.

I bought the material (oh how quickly the cost added up!) and went to work.  I loved it and had so much fun at first!  Then the problems started.  I was pregnant and something - the smell of my sewing room, the heat upstairs, the smell of the material - was making me nauseous.  I tried to push through, but it wasn't happening.  So they got put on hold for a while.

I started working on them again during my second and third trimester and things went much better!  But then my baby came and time grew short.  I'd work on them here and there, but they still didn't make it done for the next Christmas.

Here's one of my favorites.

Here we are three Christmas' later, and they're all sewn together!  Yay!  I have four of them "ragged," and  I'm slowly working on the other three.  They've actually been sewn together for months, but I've had a hard time finding the motivation to rag all of them.  Any volunteers?

And another favorite.

My sibs may actually get them as presents this year. :)  Now I just have two problems.  1) I want one.  2) How do I decide who I give which one?  I need to decide quick, because I need to get one in the mail!