Gingercake

Farmland Christmas Decorating

I love my new iphone.  Cal and discovered this snowman while running errands and we had to get a picture.  Isn't it awesome?  It is 3 hay bales stacked on top of each other.  The hat is a feed bucket.  The carrot nose is a construction cone.  He only has one arm!   I grew up in the atlanta suburbs where all the decorations were candles in the windows, a wreath on the door and a spotlight on the tasteful elegant brick home.   It's fun to be a little tacky in the country!  So, are you a tacky or tasteful decorator?  

Christmas Cookies Anyone? Cookie Party 2011

Whew!  Another cookie party has come and gone.  Those are my cookies above.  I did all the same things as last year.  I even used the same invitations!  Lame.  I know.  I wanted to add "wear your most obnoxious christmas sweater" to the invite but worried the christmas sweater wearing types might not think it was so funny!  Maybe next year I will be braver :)

That's all the cookies- well almost all since I bought a sideboard/ buffet this year that held some additonal trays.  I love seeing everyone arrage their cookies and walk around tasting.  

As usual we voted after everyone had tasted and looked and discussed.  The voting is VERY secretive.  Just kidding- everyone blah blah blahs about who they voted for.

  We also had cute kid entertainment during all this action...

And finally the votes were tallied and the winners announced!

Not my best picture of these excellent bakers!!!  They are holding my prizes which I forgot to get a good picture of.  They were cute patchwork pot holders and sanding sugar my friend Karen got from Amish country.  Michelle won best all around cookie AGAIN.  Her cookie was a peanut butter chocolate revel.  That's like 8 years in a row folks!   Aven won best tasting for a delicious light and fluffy orange buttermilk cookie.  And Mary (Michelle's mom!) won most beautiful cookie for her pretty truffles.  I only got a picture of the truffles and they are beautiful!

Aren't those poinsettas so pretty?  One of our newcomers was 13 year old Syndey and her mom Wendi who made 80 beautifully decorated sugar cookies.  That's a lot of mom/ daughter bonding!  The result was some really cute cookies.

I really toned down my Christmas decorating this year.  I even gave a big bag of decorations to the Goodwill.  Is this some kind of milestone in my life?  Instead of accumilating Christmas decorations, I am finally getting rid of them!  Or maybe I am just getting wise to less is more (and less clean up in January!).

I am fascinated by people who can take good pictures of their trees.  How do they do that?  I decided to experiment a little.  Here is pretty good one of mine from the party...

Our tree has been named "chubba wubba" by the kids.  I usually go for a taller and thinner tree but in a moment of pretending like I don't like to be in charge of everything (haha-but it's true!)  I let Travis and the kids choose this chubby short tree.  It's still cute though.

Here is another picture of the tree at night that has a little more interest...

Maybe night is the key since that one looks pretty good!  I set my ISO to the highest setting (1800) and took the picture with no flash.  Then I lightened it up in iphoto.  First I tried to edit it in PSE but I couldn't get it quite right.  Sometimes something more simple works!  

See my white tree in the background?  I love it so much.  A garage sale find!  I decorate is with pastel new and vintage glass ornaments.  Here is a close up..

 

So, cookie party 2011 complete!  Thank you to my talented SIL Jenny Stein for taking picture of the cookies and that sweet pictures of the girls entertaining the crowd.  

The next week and a half are for making a few handmade gifts and trying to enjoy this sweet time of year.  I am always torn between wanting to squeeze it all in (should I book a fancy breakfast with Santa?  the nutcracker?  go to the lights show?)  and just spending time at home admiring our cozy decorated home.  

So, did any of you attend a cookie party or throw one yourself?  Give me some tips to try next year!  This party may need some shaking up!  What else do you have planned before Christmas?  

Sprucing up Your Wreath

I was decorating my outside wreath and realized I have not shared this on the blog before!  This is a super easy way to spruce up your old fake wreath to make it fresh and beautful.  I guess my camera is starting to have some issues so please forgive the little bit of blurriness :(

 

When we get our tree there is usually a pile of trimmed branches and I grab a few nice ones from different tree types- fraser firs, douglas firs, & white pines.  When I am ready to do my wreath, I get a few more textures from the yard- yews, boxwoods and if I still lived in the south I would be all over the magnolias!  In the past I have searched the woods for berries but this year it's all about simplifying and I think just the greens is still beautiful.

Then I have my garden gloves and clippers and I go to town snipping and layering!  I start the dark green background greens and shove them into the fake green- using the wired fakeys to hold them in if needed.  My little man helped me by chatting away and handing over branches.

Keep layering more greens until you have a full wreath.

I add the green "bling" at the end- boxwood and gold juniper.  Small pieces of those make a nice contrast. Stick a fluffy bow in there and you have an elegant wreath!  

See?  No sign at all of the fake underneath.  We had rain and snow last night too and it still looks great!  This work well for garland too.  I have done it on my bansiter many times.  What are your holiday decorating tricks?   Tell me some good tips!

Trimmed Trees Tutorial!

I have a bin full of trims that have been gathered for various projects and from the thrift store.  All those bits and pieces have been piling up for years!  I was organizing them by color and noticed how nice the textures all look together.  These trimmed trees are the result!  They are a cute addition to your mantle or a table top.  I chose to use a light green Kona Cotton for these 3 but I am dying to find a moment to make a smaller pink and turquoise to finish up the look!

Want to make this simple project too?  Begin by printing out the pattern pieces

Download Trimmed trees pattern pieces.

Materials needed:

1 fat quater of solid cotton fabric in your color choice

Fusible interfacing to back your cotton fabric

Trims (rick rack, ribbon, bias tape, zippers, seam binding, etc.)

Coordinating thread or clear thread

hand sewing needle and thread

scissors

sewing machine

plastic grocery bags / or polyfil stuffing and rice 

Begin by adding your first trim about 1" from the bottom.  Ribbon, bias tape & seam binding (that cute lacy stuff) should be sewn on both the top and the bottom of the trim.  Rick rack and zipper halves are fine with just 1 line of stitching.  The bottom trim is important since it serves as a guide to adding the rest of the trims.  Maybe draw a line with chalk or use pins to mark where it should begin and end.

I wanted my trees to have a more randomly decorated look so I tried not to use a specific order.  You can see in the picture above that I am adding tiny rick rack.  Allow yourself to use a good fabric glue if you are not up for testing your skills with a tiny rick rack!   Make sure to backstitch and clip your threads at the end of each line.

Once you have sewed on all your trims, fold your piece in half to make a cone shape.  Start pining at the top and go down to the base.  Sew the sides together with a 1/4" seam allowance.  Leave a 3 inch opening to turn the tree inside out.  See the picture below.  Again, make sure you backstitch so that the side seams won't unravel when you turn it inside out!

In the picture above, I alread sewed on the base and trimed the side seams.  These steps are next!  Take your base circle and pin it to your cone.  Sew the 2 pieces toether with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Trim your seams down to 1/8" except at the side openning.  Turn your tree inside out and use a chopstick to poke out the tip.  I used plastic grocery bags to stuff my trees!  I liked how they made it sturdier and it used up so many bags!   If you choose to use polyfil stuffing instead, pour some rice/beans/popcorn in the bottom first to make sure your tree is bottom weighted enough to stand up.  

Above left is the tip of my tree and on the right is where I stitched up the opening of my tree with a blind stitch.  You can see that the trims did not line up perfectly. You can make adjustments to get yours to be  perfect if you would like.

My original thought was that these would go on our mantle but they also look cute in this little village setting too!

Such a fun project!  And I used up some of that trim pile AND pesky grocery bags.  If you make some of these cuties, I would love to see them in my gingercake tutorials flickr group.  Trimmed trees is for personal use only- please do not sell trees made from this tutorial.  

Happy decorating friends!  Is your house all fixed up yet?  Mine is still a huge mess but my cookie party is this weekend so i have to get busy!

 

 

Sewing vs. Shopping. Gingercake Pattern Sale!

I hope all you Americans had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Our was fun and relaxing.

I am finally doing a sale!  It's happening on my bigcartel site.  That means a link will be sent to your email immediately after purchase.  Woo Hoo!  There is still tons of time to sew for the holidays, right??

I am going to spend my day with the kids and avoiding all shopping places.  I am sure it can be fun to get out there and get the deals but I am afraid of lines and crowds at department stores!

The sale will last from today until midnight on Monday the 28th.  You just go to my pattern shop and when you purchase, it will ask for a discount code.  Enter happyholidays and you will get your 25% off!  After purchase you will get an email with a link to download the pattern.  Download and start sewing!  

Kitty Cat Princess Hat and Show Details

Anne chose to be a kitty Cat princess for Halloween.  Suuuu weeet!  Dress up bin accesories, thrifted pink taffeta gown (which was so pretty and well made!!) and I made a cute fleece kitty hat.

This hat was so simple.  I am planning to make a couple more for my baby nieces as christmas presents.  It is basically a rectangle of fleece with the sides sewn together and then the ears are made by sewing the curve of the head.  I also put a dart in the middle to make it more head shaped.

I am hoping to get a quick tutorial made for this after I am finished with my shows!  Who is intersted in making more kitty hats with me???

This coming weekend I will be in Atlanta for Marist Holiday Traditions.  Marist was my High School and they do a really lovely show every november.  I get to visit my parents and sister while doing my show!!  Please come and see me if you live in the Atlanta area!  

Next weekend, Novemeber 12th, I will back in Pittsburgh and doing the handmade arcade again.  LOVE the Handmade arcade.  It is so cool and I feel so fortunate to be involved again.  It will be their biggest and best show yet so be sure to come if you live close by!

Whoo Hoo!!  Novemeber here we come.  Everybody ready to sew up some cute stuff for the Holidays?? 

Cottage attacked by spiders!!!

My mom and dad came to visit a couple weeks ago.  Mom always brings gifts!  One ofthem was this new product called the Candy Cottage.  It's pretty durn awesome.  The cottage is made of hard plastic and you just apply the store bought icing and go to town.  They have all sorts of themes to guide you.  Mom, the kids and I worked on this for about an hour.  So fun and sturdy!  After halloween I am just going to wash it off and then in December do a Christmas one!  

It's so tacky that I LOVE it!  This morning some other creatures noticed the spooky candy cottage...

oh no!  here they come!

Yikes!

Happy Halloween!  

Class parties and costumes are done!  Now we just have to carve pumpkins(husband does this and then makes super salty and greasy toasted pumpkin seeds) and go trick or treating.  

Pumpkin Princess

Making Halloween costumes is a bit of a struggle for me.  On one hand, it's a hassle when you have lots of other things to make.  But, the cheap looks of the store bought costumes that are in my price range are terrible!  This year, my oldest wanted to be a Pumpkin princes.  Princess, you say?  In orange?  That I can actaully get a little interested in making!

I began with a knit orange top (thrift store) and some pretty orange shiny fabric.  The serger rocks for costume making!

After we accessorized the pretty pleating got hidden but the end result is really pretty and she is happy.

We did a little staged spider scare.  We made these spider crafts the other day using the idea from V & Co.  Very fun and fast craft with kids and then they play with the spiders for a couple minutes at least!

and then she and the spider make peace...

I am pretty happy with this costume.  She feels pretty and excited.  It wasn't too time consuming (the leaf neck ring and the head band were from dress up and the green tulle was a recent party favor!), and she will be plenty warm since it's already freezing up here!

 

Hooped Bird Ornaments

Sheesh!  I know it's been a while.  I haven't felt too inspired to write about my work the past week.  But this morning I made these mini embroidery hoop ornaments and I am in love with how fun they were to make and FINALLY I was interested in doing a blog post!

I have been thinking and thinking about these hoops that I found at a thrift store.  I love all thes cute creations people are making with embroidery hoops (examples are this, this, this, and this!)  

I used scraps and I tried not to think too much about coordinating fabrics.  I have discovered that I like my fabric combinations better when i just go with my gut quickly.  It is interesting what you come up with when you trust your instincts (of course I like some better than others!).  I played around a little with some different bird shapes and then finally decided on this one.

I added wonder under to the bird shapes.  That was the first thing I did and then composed the branch and background next.  I used all cotton fusible interfacing to make the background fabric more sturdy.  The branch fabric is just a simple brown, without interfacing, that I free motion sewed on.  I wanted to get that sketched look and I knew the edges to fray a little for extra texture.  I backed the hoop with thick brown craft paper that I glue gunned on.

I am anxious to try this with my bigger hoops.  Maybe a triangular tree that is kinda reminiscent of Christmas but also wintery?  It's really a fun little canvas to work on if you are looking for something different to do with your sewing machine!

Email me if you have more questions about how to make one yourself.  The cool thing about this project though is that there is no right or wrong way to do it!  These will go in my booth at the Handmade arcade in a few weeks!

 

Sewing a Stack

I wish my mystery project was a pieced quilt (I wish I knew how to do a pieced quilt like that!) but it was just a big batch of crayon folios and mini folios.

I have decided to do a couple more shows this fall.  I feel conflicted about this since I much prefer creating patterns and sewing new things but a good craft show experience is pretty helpful also.

First of all- it is a nice bit of cash before the holidays!  Also, it is wonderful to meet people and see their reaction to my sewing.  I get a really good feel for what people like and through talking to them I get some great new ideas.  My sewing skills get an excellent work out and I find all sorts of ways to improve my patterns and how to simplify instructions.  Those things are more valuable than any $$ I might make!

Plus, my sister(yeah!  she is going to help ma again) and I get to hang out for a whole day together without our children :)

All that said, I am not really set up for heavy duty sewing over here.  But I have learned to get pretty well prepared with what I do have and I thought I might share a little about my process.  To start, here is my sewing machine...

My mom bought it for me when I was 15.  My friend Jennifer and I decided we wanted to sew a dress for ourselves and my mother took me to the local Hancocks fabric Store and we bought this together.  It was not the most expensive but it was pretty nice.  I can remember feeling excited and happy that she would get me such a nice gift on just an ordinary day.  Jennifer and I never completed our dresses and I felt like I had let my mom down by not using the machine enough.  I didn't use it again until I was 28 and we bought our first home.  I'm sure she is happy with the investment now though!

Back to the sewing machine...

It only has a few stitches and I really only use the straight stitch (mostly 6 unless I am doing a ruffle and then I do a 7), and the zig zag.  I have made enough in pattern sales to justify purchasing a new, fancy sewing machine.  But I like this old gal - she is simple and reliable.  I feel like I can explain sewing in a simple way on my machine and that is important to me- If I can sew and create on this machine with just my few stitches than anyone can do it!

Before I begin sewing for a show I always take my machine to get it cleaned and oiled and the tension perfected.  Mr Strobel takes care of it out his basement shop.  He rocks.  He hates new sewing machines and we bond over my devotion to my old machine.  This is KEY to being able to sew a bunch of items well since your machine runs like butter after being fixed up and it gives you the extra confidence to create nice items.

The crayon folios are not my favorite to make since I have made like a THOUSAND of them.  They are big sellers though and really bring people in to look around at your items.  They are also simple and satisfying to make.  This time around I decided to forget the special rick rack and trim, forget the effort of coordinating special prints, even forget the sticker pocket!   I just grabbed my stack of kid friendly fabrics and started cutting.  This helped because I made my fabric selections quickly and cut out about 20 folios and 12 mini folios in just a few evenings.  I ran out of interfacing though so I only have 11 folios and 7 mini folios made in the first picture!  

I then fused interfacing to all these pieces.  I set aside the large outside and inside pieces and then I chain stitch all the pockets and the handles at one time.

That part is pretty fun (especially when you let your kids play with it in the yard!).

Then back to the sewing room and putting it all together, sewing on the velcro, sewing down the crayon dividers, and finally sewing it all together and turning them all inside out.  You feel like you are doing all parts of an assembly line!  And your sewing machine just purrs away since you just had it cleaned and oiled.

It's nice to have this stack of crayon folio on the shelf.  Now I can make something fun and finish up that Lola Pattern!  Last week, before I committed to doing this show,  I did sew another Lola bag which turned out pretty darn cute... 

Maybe I should make some of those for the shows?  Do you have a special trick to sew a lot fast?  Part of deciding to do this show was a commitment to myself that I was going to be organized and prepared.  Fall is full of fun family stuff with the kids and I don't want to miss out by spending all my time slaving away at my sewing machine!  Help me blog friends!!!  I know some of you have some good experience out there!