Mini Fireplace Christmas Decoration

Since the book cart and then the bus, I have been determined to make Amanda an ornament that lights up. This is not technically an ornament since it doesn't hang, but I think this is as close as I am going to get. Unfortunately, you can't really tell the difference between the photos with the lights on and off.

Lights off

This ornament/decoration required more assembly than actual creation. I made the tiny stockings and the felt fire, but everything else is store-bought. The fireplace is from the doll house section of Hobby Lobby. I bought the string of lights first, determined to figure out something to do with them, but it's hard to create an ornament around a 9' string of lights and a battery pack that requires 3 AA batteries.

Lights on

Pink and Purple Ornament

This ornament was made to match the triangle baby quilt. It's not quite an exact match to Claire's ornament, since my sister chose an L name for this baby and I had already used the rest of the L brads on previous ornaments. I bought these larger, flat, gold brads because that's all I could find. I don't love gold, but I think it looks fine with these fabrics. I was afraid the brads would be too large, but I think the bigger brads actually work better. I do miss the look of the embossed letters though.

Try making one yourself with this tutorial.

Hexagons

I made this for Amanda for with the hexagon blocks her grandma gave me a couple years ago. Since the blocks were all hand-stitched, I hand-stitched most of it as well. (It looks fine on the front, but not so much on the back.) I attached the binding to the front by machine, and attached it to the back by hand. It's too big to be an ornament, but I'm sending it to her along with my submissions for our Christmas ornament exchange.

Finished size: 11.75 x 11.75"

Triangle Baby Quilt

This quilt is for my new niece. Julie chose a more muted color palette than Claire's airplane quilt. I didn't love the colors at first, but I am really happy with the way it turned out. When Julie told me she wanted a triangle quilt, I bought a triangle template because I hate cutting triangles with my rectangular ruler. Fortunately I bought most of the fabric before we moved because we don't live anywhere near a fabric store now. 

I quilted it with a zigzag pattern similar to Claire's quilt. Julie wanted a grey binding, so I went with the same silver fabric as my last scrap quilt. Eventually I'll get back to the quilt for which I originally bought this fabric!

Finished size: 41" x 58"

Stuffed Unicorn

A while ago, Claire found a scrap of fabric and announced to Julie that she needed me to make her a stuffed horse with a saddle. (The saddle was very important.) Once Claire found out I was moving closer, she was very excited that I could bring my sewing machine to her house. (Julie also started lining up sewing projects it wouldn't have made sense to mail me.) I started looking for a pattern and found one for Henry the Horse in Jill Hamor's book, Storybook Toys. Claire loves unicorns so we added a horn. It came out fairly well considering my lack of experience with 3D patterns.