And the winner is....

Christmas Eve is finally here and that means that it is almost time for the big event.....the drawing of my mystery fabric giveaway!

For the last month or so, I have been running a mystery fabric bundle giveaway with some delicious (in a fabric sense) goodies from Makower. Amongst the fabulousness are 10" squares, labels, a stocking and advent calendars (plural!).

I wish that I could have given you all a prize and without getting too sentimental, I would like you to know that without you, I wouldn't have a blog. A lot of people say that they write for themselves. I don't. I write for you and I am always happy to hear that you are enjoying the patterns.

Well, that brings us to the bit where I tell you who has won....drum roll please....

Jacquie Morris

You have been chosen at random for this lovely prize! Well done Jacquie and congratulations; have fun with it.  Now I need to know where to send it so drop me an email and let me know where you would like your parcel delivered.

Thank you for everyone for entering and supporting me.

To everyone, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I will look forward to seeing you all next year for some more fabulous sewing and crafting fun.

See you next time!

Love and hugs

Debbie xxx

December the First - PineGnome Children

Do you see what I did there? I love my gnomes and I love pine cones so it seemed very natural to combine the two. 

This week's blog is not a sewing or quilting one. It is a gluing and collecting change of pace and it might be one where the children can help out a bit too. Best of all, it brings us one step closer to the big event. I know that you know which one I am talking about!

PineGnome children have, you guessed it....a pine cone body so the first thing that you need to do this week is to wrap up warm and head out into the woods with a bag. Gather yourself enough pine cones about 7cm long to make a little family of gnomie people.

These little shelf sitters are children so we don't need any gnome beards or things like that. They are a great opportunity to delve into your felt stash too. So what do we need besides pine cones?

-3cm plain wooden beads. I found mine on eBay.

-black sharpie marker

-thick grey felt

-a square of red felt

-scraps of other colours of felt for the scarves

-buttons or felt shapes, wooden shapes - whatever you think will fit the season

-hot glue gun

-Sizzix Big Shot 

-Sizzix Heart die. I used one which was just called 'Hearts' and it is a Bigz die with a 5cm heart which is the one we are after

-sandpaper

-water soluble marker

Clean your pine cones if they are sandy. Wash them in some warm water and detergent and then leave them somewhere warm until 

they are dry.

Sand the bottom flat (the bottom is actually the top when it hangs on the tree. This bit is a bit more solid and it sits better).

Remove a few of the 'petals' from the other end too and make a flat bit for the bead head to sit on....

Cut a 5cm thick felt heart using your die cutter. If you don't have one of these magical things, any heart at all will do. If your felt is not thick enough, simply laminate two pieces together with your hot glue gun.

Glue a felt heart to the bottom of your pine cone...

This will help it to sit well on the shelf. Here it is the right way up....

Next, hot glue the head into the prepared space at the top. Ignore the holes in the bead utterly. For the purposes of this argument, we are simply after a 3cm wide round thing. We are not using it as a bead.

So far, we have a little, bald person with no eyes. It is time to change that and put some clothes on him or her. Take your piece of red felt and draw an 18cm circle onto it with the water soluble marker. Cut the circle into quarters. Using one quarter at a time...

Fold the quarter in half and pin....

Now sew it up to make a cone. By the way, we have used this size circle to get the height needed. You will have to sew a couple of times to get the hat to fit the bead though. This is easy. Sew once. Fit it on the head and then sew again after finding out where the best fit is....

Trim off the excess - I promise that no one will ever know!

Now turn the hat the right way out and poke the top out with a chopstick or similar....

Now glue it to the little guy's head...

I would be willing to bet that most of us have seen this pom-pom trim at the haberdashers. Simply snip one of the little pom-poms off and hot glue it to the top of the hat....

As you can see, I have also added a couple of eyes with the black marker pen.

Funnily enough, I like him just like this too. But, he is going to get cold playing outside without a scarf so choose a felt colour and cut a strip 2.5cm x 23cm. Tie this around his neck, arranging it to make it look nice and then keep it in place with a dab of hot glue...

Choose a pretty button - a snowflake one is an obvious choice, or a felt shape or something to decorate the scarf....

And that's all there is to the PineGnome children! Make families of them and put them around the house for Christmas.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope that you have enjoyed this blog post. Don't forget my giveaway which is in full swing at the moment. You could win a fabulous package of goodies by Makower....

To enter, simply leave a comment at the bottom of this post. The winner will be chosen at random. See you next time!

Love and hugs

Debbie xxx

Nordic November! Danish Heart Quiltlet

Nordic November is well under way and thank you guys for welcoming it (and continuing it) with me! Yes it is purely my own invention but it just seemed right.

Big Christmas Mystery Giveaway!

There is a new giveaway starting this week too! To be in with a chance of winning, simply leave me a comment at the bottom of this postThat's all there is too it.

And what will you win? I have a nice bundle of Makower fabrics for you including a few huge advent calenders, over fifty 10" squares, some labels and a few other surprises - it is a mystery bundle after all. Here is a sneak peek....

Quite a lot in there and not all Christmas stuff so you can enjoy it all year!

Entries close 23rd December 2015 and I will announce the winner on Christmas Eve!

Right! Back to busniness.....This time, we are stopping over in beautiful Denmark and I have a pretty Danish heart for you which I  translated into a block last post. This is an icon in Scandinavia and it is found in many places. It is also an instantly recognisable image. But what in the name of all that is holy is a quiltlet??

I made it up - which is why Wikipedia is being spectacularly unhelpful. Sorry. I keep doing this. First Nordic November and now quiltlets. It's like the last days of the Roman empire around here! 

Don't worry, a quiltlet is quite simply a very small quilt. In this case, it is a little quilted hanging with a sentiment on it. I was thinking about cards one day and the fact that we send them and love getting them and I wondered how this concept would translate to fabric. And to something lasting that we can hang in our house. 

I know that you can make quilted and embroidered cards but this is more. This is a little quilt. made the same way as a super king sized one but around the size of a dinner plate. And it's round. All the things that I like.

I hope that you do to and it is a cute way to make use of the BOM for this month of Nordic November. Take a look....

Now I love round things - my Grandfather did too so maybe there is a genetic component...so I have decided that this little quiltlet will be round. Before we get into the whys and wherefores, what do we need for this week's make?

Gather these supplies:

-last week's Danish heart block

-scraps of red and white fabrics

-fat quarter 272 Thermolam wadding (Vilene) and you can find out about that here.

-black embroidery floss

-fat quarter of something for backing fabric

-something gorgeous to use as binding

-small ring (like a 10mm split ring) to hang

-red or grey bow

-water soluble marker

-thin card for a template

-your usual sewing needs

Here is your template. I have included the measurements for you to check when you print it out.

Print it out and then make a shape with your thin card. You can just trace around it onto the scraps and then cut them out - much easier!

Cut out 10 assorted red and white shapes and then sew them together to form a ring like this...

Iron the ring well, opening the seams. Lay your heart onto the fat quarter of wadding and then pin the ring over the top of the heart block, centring the heart perfectly....

Fold the inner edge of the patched ring under and stitch it with needle turn applique....

Don't worry, the outer ring will take care of itself. Folding the inner edges under like this opens up the circle a bit more and naturally gets rid of those pesky threads too. And you have done some of the quilting too. 

Time for the embroidery now. Thread a needle with one strand of the embroidery floss and make a herringbone stitch over the edge of the inner ring.

This is an easy stitch. You come up (see the black thread coming up through the fabric)...

Make a long stitch to the right and go down through the fabric and then up just to the left of it.

Make another long stitch to the right crossing over the other bit and come up again. Repeat around the circle. Once you get the hang of it, it is easy, there is a rhythm to it. And it really is sort of like an attractively distorted cross stitch.

Draw the words for your personal message around the heart with the water soluble marker. I haven't given a template for this for two reasons. One, I don't know what you want to write and secondly, it is better in your hand writing. More personal. Practise on a piece of paper and keep the message short. Don't clutter the space up too much. Embroider the words in a backstitch.

Here is what it looks like now

Time to finish that quilting off now. 

Lay the embroidered top onto the backing fabric and pin it. Quilt round the patched border in concentric circles like this....

I have machine quilted the circles but you can do them by hand if you prefer.

While you have your hand sewing thread handy, make a running stitch around the heart too...

Trim the three layers using the round top as a guide. Bind with your chosen bias binding

Now attach the hanging ring on the back 

and the bow to the front top

And there it is!

These make great and quick Christmas gifts. They are a wonderful alternative to a Christmas card (no trees wasted either) and they can be kept for generations. What's not to love there! 

Now don't forget the Christmas giveaway! I will look forward to seeing your comments and good luck!

Love and hugs

Debbie xxx