Christmas cards, reincarnated

We finally got all the Christmas things stored away this weekend, and tucked in with them are some new ornaments. After I saw these, I knew I wanted to make some; and in the spirit of do-it-while-it's-fresh-in-your-mind, I did it this weekend, using this year's Christmas cards. (We keep those with letters from family and friends, but if it's just signed? It's getting chopped up and remade into something else. Usually tags for next year's gifts, but we have too many of those right now...)





Ok, so it's not a gift, but it is for Christmas next year, so maybe it's a start in the right direction?

The specifics:

For my first one, I cut the suggested measurements in half, to accommodate the smaller size of the cards. It was hard to curve the pieces without bending them when they were that little.

For the following ones, I just made the strips about an inch different from each other: almost 8 inches, almost 7 inches, 6 inches, 5 inches, for example, using full strips sometimes and cutting some to make them short enough.

I had a hard time getting a good photo, but I think you get the gist. I plan to hang them in windows next year.

A few last gifts

Ok, I finally gave our last Christmas gifts tonight (yeah, a bit late). So now I can feel free to show them.

More "discards" inspired by Denyse Schmidts's Quilts:



This set of them included a lot of vintage fabrics, and I found that I really liked the contrast of the modern style with those sweet vintage patterns.

One last 10-minute headband:



And, best of all, the pencil pouch that worked! (Bless you, Noodlehead.)





This last was a gift for a four-year-old. I used his own handwriting as the pattern for the embroidery, and included a pencil and a pen and a sketch book (of course, his mom is the one who really loves it, with that precious handwriting).

edited to add: I can't take credit for the pencil-pouch idea; that was from my brilliant friend Julie, who gave embroidered pencil pouches to her friends' children, using her daughter's handwriting and drawing. Shamelessly stolen!

Dis-cards

While we were away, we missed my sister's birthday. Good...it bought me some time to make a gift, which I'd somehow failed to do earlier. Not much time, though. Think, think...what's quick, but still special? What would she like? She's in massive de-cluttering mode, so most things I think of to give her just seem like more "stuff" she won't want. I perused some of my craft books, and I found a great idea in here:


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(Quilts by Denyse Schmidt). Quilted note cards. Perfect! She's great at writing letters and often uses note cards. And I've been wanting to experiment more with quilting, and I love how this technique uses the smallest scraps.



My sister wears a lot of turquoise, so I began with what I had along turquoise/greenish lines. (Including a lovely new bit I got in the mail...more on that later...)



As my little scrap pile by the sewing machine dwindled, I happened to glance down into the trash basket and spotted some scraps discarded as being "too small" after making the birdie scarf the other day. Not too small for this! Back out they came...(don't worry, it's just sewing stuff in there; not too nasty). That led me to my bag of orange scraps for some coordinating fabrics, and soon I ended up with these:



(I hold them vertically, but I can't get the pictures to post that way. Something else to figure out...)

I love them! I can see myself making lots more of these. I was particularly intrigued to notice how the fabric changed as I quilted it. In several cases, I didn't think I liked how the card had come out until I did the quilting stitches. So interesting.