I’m not sure how it happened, but Christmas is less than 10 days away! I wanted to share a quick tutorial with you for a felt Christmas Tree Ornament. If you’re still decorating, or perhaps you need a hostess gift, this little ornament might be just the ticket. And it only takes about 30 minutes to make!

What you need:

Felt. See below.

Beads. 2-4 for the “trunk”, 5 fairly large ones to go between the “branches”, 1 to serve as the “tree topper”, and 15-20 seed beads to make the hanger.

Needle and thread.

This template. (PDF)

What to do:

If you have 3mm felt or thicker, you only need one piece. Most fulled sweaters will be thick enough as is, but all I had on hand was this thin green felt. I decided to take two pieces and quilt them together using random straight lines.

Cut out the templates, and pin them to your felt. Then cut out the felt pieces.

Thread your needle with a longish piece of thread (doubled over) and tie in a knot.

If you’re like me and used two pieces of felt quilted together and you actually care which side is up, then insert the needle into the top of the largest star (if you don’t have a top, then just pick a side and poke), and pull it all the way through. (This hides the knot on the inside)

Next thread your “trunk beads” onto the needle followed by one seed bead and pull it all the way through.

Insert your needle into the trunk bead closest to the seed bead, not the seed bead, and poke it back through the center of the felted star. Pull taut. (I know, “taut” looks weird, but I looked it up and it is right… as we always tell the kids “English is hard”.)

Thread one of the “branch separating beads” and the next largest star onto the stack. Repeat for all remaining stars.

Add your “tree topper” bead. I chose this cute red star, but I have also used large round yellow beads. You can use anything you like, or nothing at all.

Now add the rest of the seed beads. I have these sterling silver seed beads left from ages ago, and I really like them for this application.

After all your seed beads are strung, insert your needle back into your tree topper bead from the top (or into the top star “branch” if you didn’t use a topper bead). Pull your thread all the way through and you should have a loop.

Push the needle back through a couple of “branches” and their separating beads and knot off.

And you’re done! I’ve sold I don’t know how many of these in my etsy shop (now closed), so I hope you enjoy making your own. I’d love to see them, if you make one!

So today’s project was also inspired by Faith, who posted her name badge for the Sewing Summit as her mini quilt for week #2.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I started this. I knew I wanted my avatar… and I knew that I wanted the font that I’ve used on everything from this website to my sew in tags. Other than that, I just decided to wing it.

There was no way I was going to try to piece that avatar, so I looked up how to print on fabric using freezer paper, and printed it on cheapo muslin from my last JoAnn run. (Like $.50 a yard after all the awesome JoAnn coupons!!!) At the same time I printed my name using my font in really pale gray letters so I could embroider over them. I’ve never done that kind of embroidery (or any kind for that matter) before, so I’m stoked with how it came out.

You’ve probably noticed my obsession. with. solids. lately, so once again I hit my scraps and just started stacking them together with the printed/embroidered stuff until I got what you see above. Not my usual colors at all. I also left several unfinished edges showing. gasp.

The back. I’ve got the option to hang from a lanyard, or pin it to whatever (probably my bag).

And I have to shout out to Faith, because I wouldn’t have even known about sewing summit if it weren’t for that mini-quilt Monday post, and now I’m going! I can hardly wait!

Mini-moo cards for taking to the Sewing Summit. And just as a side note, they have a 25% off deal going on right now too. I swear they aren’t paying me to say that… but they could.

This isn’t the first time I’ve ordered these cute little calling/business cards. I used to include a couple in every Etsy order I shipped. But since I haven’t sold anything on Etsy in — well — forever, I decided to get some cards that don’t have my etsy shop URL on them. Besides, the old ones only have my banner on the non-text side. (I’m not sure whether to call that the back or the front.)

This time around, I wanted to feature some of the stuff I’ve made over the years. You’ll probably recognize some of the photos I’ve used if you have been a long time reader. Some of you might even have the item in the picture in your possession. When I opened up the box and started to pull one of each card out I was shocked at just how many photos I had chosen. Ah, well, variety is good, yes?

As always, the quality of these little cards is just stunning. Heavy paper, crisp clear photos and text, and packaging to die for. I heart tiny boxes. What can I say? It seems to run in the family… you should see my grandmother’s collection of boxes, it’s taking over her living room… and Alexis immediately wanted to know when she could get her hands on this new box… hehehe. (As another side note, she thought that the little blue droplet on the edge of the box meant that the cards were waterproof.)

Seems I’m not the only one with this idea. Lots of the other summit attendees have blogged about their cards recently. I can’t wait to start trading them!

Over at Stitched in Color, the “thing-along” (Celebrate Color) is about fall colors. And the first “assignment” is to write a post about what fall colors are for me. As usual, I’m a day late and a dollar short. But here is my excuse. It’s only September. And it’s been one of the hottest (and driest) summers on record, with no signs of letting up any time soon so I’m not feeling very “fallish” yet.

Honestly, to me, fall doesn’t start until somewhere around Halloween. That’s about when all the leaves on the trees turn brown and fall off. No pretty colors here… well, not many anyway. Around here (normally) in September, the weather cools off enough and we get some (much needed) rain that the trees and plants turn green again from their dead summer brown.

And that brings me to this:

A little hand pieced, hand quilted scene I made a few years ago. These are the colors I think of in September. Clear blue skies, grass that is just greening up a little, and sunshine that isn’t so brutally suffocating. Not the most traditional of fall like colors, I know.

Later in the year, I start seeing the world in the warmer hues of orange and brown and gold, but still with a bit of green and red thrown in. On a side note, why is it that the colors for fall — when the weather is cooling off — are warm colors, and the colors for spring — when the air warms up — are cool colors like greens and blues?

I had planned to pull fabrics to show you what’s in the works, but found that nothing I had really fit the image in my head. I hate it when that happens. It means I have to go run over to the LQS. I mean, what a hardship!

I’m going to try to combine my Celebrate Color projects with some Mini-Quilt Monday posts for September. I hope that’s not cheating! So stay tuned. With any luck, they won’t all be epic Friday Fails!

The new quilt for Alex’s bed has been sitting in this state for weeks. I think such a large stack of squares is putting me off as far too daunting. How long exactly is that going to take me to not only make all those HSTs, but also then piece them together into blocks and then a twin sized quilt? Yikes. She’ll probably be 14 before I finish.

Another project sitting neglected in a pile on my chair. I started the quilting on the firebird quilt — I really like how it’s coming out — and it was going pretty quickly, so I told myself that I could put it aside as I have months before I would even need to think about finishing it for the spring auction.

Here’s one I haven’t showed you. I’ve been working on a busy book for the baby. He’s way into hooks and latches at the moment, but by the time I finish this project he may well be a world class lock picker… and I’m only slightly exaggerating. This is a project that I spend tons of time daydreaming about while rocking the boy to sleep, but then don’t have the energy to tackle it once he’s down.

Then there are the clothing projects. Chris and I got rather ruthless a couple of weeks ago and cleaned out our closet of most everything. So now, I have even less stuff to never wear. He was going to pitch these two shirts, and I snagged them with the hope of applying Simplicity 3835 to them.

I’ve cut the seersucker with no abandon, and now I might have a few issues on my hand…. like the sleeves are too small, and the hemlines don’t match up. Ahem, maybe I should have planned before wielding the scissors. Has anyone else successfully altered an old mens shirt in a similar fashion? What is the correct way to approach such a project?

Not shown are the first quilt, and the collage for Sean’s room. Both of those are collecting dust as well. Never mind that I haven’t touched ANY of my works in progress since, oh, hmmmm… last Friday. I suppose if I quit blabbing blogging about them, I could actually work on one or more of them… There’s a novel idea.

Oh who am I kidding? Is it time for bed yet?

Yep, there is all my spare time lately. A herd of Elefelts. For sale on Etsy. The two gray ones and the purple one already sold, but there is another purple one and 3 others in various stages on the way.

I also spent the weekend thinking about what other animals would work well in my shop. I’m about ready to dump all the other inventory and stick to the plush toys. So far, the black cats at Halloween did really really well, and the elephants have always done well. I’ve got a couple of chickens that have been listed forever that no one seems to want, and an orange kitty that is aching for a new home. And I’m going to retire the current fish pattern. I need to make a new one.

So I think I want to make a hippo, and spent the weekend drafting a pattern based on about 14 other hippo patterns and actually animal pictures I found on line. I think I’ve got one, but I’ve yet to actually try and sew it up. Alexis will be happy when I do, because she always gets the “prototype”.

But if any of you two readers have suggestions on cute, faceless stuffed animals, let me know. I suck at ideas.

When I started collecting sweaters for this blanket, I was envisioning it as more white with tan and sage accents. And even when I had all the pieces stacked up in front of me, I still expected it to come out mostly white despite the pathetically small stack of white squares. It’s beautiful though, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I love all the different textures and that I wasn’t completely anal about making all the cables run in the same direction.

This is the first blanket that I sewed entirely with my serger. I think I’ve got some tension adjustments to work out, but it sure made the job easier. That machine sews through felt like it is warm butter. And I love how it trims up the edges as you go. All those squares… were not so square when I started.

So the big question is, do I edge it, or not? I was thinking a satin binding in a pale brown or cream, but now I’m not so sure. I’ve only ever edged two of my throw blankets, and those were both done with strips of leftover felt. I have used satin binding on baby blankets, but they also have a knit backing. I wonder if the satin would make it look like a big baby blanket. NOT the look I’m going for.

Somewhere I got this weird wild hair and decided to make this. Yes… I have lost my mind – again. So here you are… 56 grocery sacks worth of plastic yarn. Roughly the size of a basketball. And it only took me 2 hours to cut them up and string them together. ONLY.

Someone please tell me why can never get rid of all my works in progress… oh! yeah! because I keep starting new shit! I never used to do that, I was strictly a one project gal. Somewhere along the lines, I became corrupted. Right now I have the plarn bag, two quilts partially quilted, a baby hat, 3 shirts, 2 chickens, 3 elefelts, and 2 giraffes started. Oh, and 2 bunnies, which I’m not even sure will work out…

On the other hand, I did finish two projects this weekend. And the floor in the sewing room is once again cleared. I don’t say clean, because it is still covered in little bits of wool fuzz from the last batch of sweaters I felted. I should really learn how that vacuum cleaner works.

Most of my ideas for changing the room were inspired by a book: Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space by Lois Hallock. Not that I’m much of a quilter. I mean, sure a few here and there. But not really… I needed more of a multi-purpose crafty space. And I’m super anal about neat and tidy shelves.

One of the best suggestions from the book was about drawing your room and it’s furniture to scale and playing with the pieces until you found a furniture arrangement you could live with. When I did this, I realized that the daybed had to go. It was taking up too much room. So it was off to craigslist. It lasted all of about 4 hours on craigslist before it sold. With the “profit” from the sale of the daybed I managed to buy the Murphy bed you see in the above photo. So now my mother-in-law (who I love dearly, really) has a place to sleep, that isn’t too comfortable, and I have floor space to spread out all those quilts I’m supposed to be making.

Underneath the daybed there were boxes. LOTS of boxes. Most of them filled with fabric. First order of business, empty the boxes and get rid of anything that I wouldn’t buy off the shelf today. That was most of it. You can see all that remained on the two top left shelves of the bookcase. The book also gave great instructions for how to fold all that “quilting” fabric uniformly so that it stacks neatly. So neatly that I felt I could stand to have it out on an open shelf. Which actually works out well, because now I can see what I have without crawling under the dust ruffle and pulling out six other boxes to get to the box with the fabric that I think I want.

One thing that I wanted to do that actually got done, was moving the Bose iPod dock thingy into my room. Woo hoo! Tunes while I work. Trust me, it’s better than my whistling.

I love that my serger and sewing machine are just an arm’s reach away. And all my thread is stored either on the keyboard tray of the desk or in that drawer you can see. And I love the new lamp from Ikea that lights the machines as I work. I wonder how I ever worked without it. That little appliance bulb in the sewing machine puts out about as much light as a firefly.

The closet. Which here looks over stuffed and unorganized. Really, it looks much better in real life, but perhaps I should consider some curtains. You can’t even see my most ingenious idea which involves Ikea pants hangers and yards and yards of fabric. All of my Etsy inventory is stored on these shelves. Most of it in the two red baskets on the bottom.

And you get a glimpse of the big fabric covered board on the wall. This is one of those pin boards that everyone seems to be making these days. Not even one of the tutorials on these things mentions what a pain in the butt it is to find homasote. We had to drive clear to Georgetown to even find a piece. And on the way back, with the damn thing flapping on the roof, I had to sit there and pull DOWN on the string going through the cabin of the car to keep us from literally sailing off the highway.

There is the rest of it, with the one lone pinwheel block leftover from the quilt on the back of the chair. Cool thing was, the blocks stick to the linen covering the board, and I laid out the entire quilt on the wall. No more crawling around like Gollum on the floor rearranging block after block until I get a “random” look. Yeah, I know I need help.

And you can see my easel. With a really roughed in sketch of my friend, Sarah. I haven’t touched it in at least 6 weeks. Maybe this weekend. If I can get enough crap done at work. The easel is great though. It’s beautiful on it’s own, and as an added bonus, I can lower the “shelf” enough to sit on the floor and work. I don’t know about you, but sitting on the floor is usually more comfortable than a chair in my experience.

You can see the little tiny part of my magnet board which holds a few pieces of inspiration cut from magazines. What isn’t showing is my medal from last year’s danskin.

I absolutely love this new room. I love the color on the walls (it used to be YELLOW… like really really yellow). I love my new furniture. I love all the storage. But most of all, I love that it is my room where I can go and hide out. And THAT is why there are no plans for another baby anytime soon.