Colourful Friday – Christmas colours

I actually missed last week’s colourful Friday post, & teal is one of my fave colours, coz I couldn’t find the camera, grrr!!!
Oh well, at least I have for the final colourful post of the year.

I’ve already shown my Chrissy deckies on my blog but I’ll show my tree again & ask if you like my tree to please visit this site & vote for it:

http://www.lifestylechannel.com.au/christmas/ratemytree/browse.aspx

It’s under J. Quigley, Langwarrin. It’s probably quickest to find it by hitting ‘control f’ & typing in Quigley.

This is dd Emma’s tree. They moved into their new home just last Saturday & the first thing she did was put up the Christmas tree. That’s my girl!!!! :-)

Some pics from last year, it was our 18th Christmas in the old house.

Our Lemax village & my little tree, the deckies are all handmade from swaps with friends.

My favourite Lemax building.

Our lovely old piano, we sold it before we moved. 
Hopefully it’s has lovely deckies on it in it’s new home.

I tend to go through stages with Christmas. Some years I love it & others not so much. This year is a love year. Finally we are living close to dd Emma after being 1000kms away for 8 years, we have a lovely new house to decorate & new shops to do our Christmas shopping in. The one thing that would make it perfect would be having ds Simon here too, but he now lives in Canada so popping home for Christmas is not so easy. We were lucky to have him home for a surprise visit in January, the first time I’d seen him for 2 years!!!!

Thanks to Robyn for hosting ‘Colourful Fridays’ I look forward to it resuming in the new year. :-)

Btw, my fave Christmas carol is ‘The 12 Days of Christmas.’

I Love Felt.

I love checking out crafty blogs & I’ve made a few things I’ve found.

I love working with felt, it doesn’t fray & is so easy to sew. I use 100% wool or wool blend as it lasts well & doesn’t rub like acrylic felt does.

These cute little owls are quick & easy to make. I found them on Jessica Levitts’ Juicy Bits blog.

http://juicy-bits.typepad.com/juicy_bits/2009/12/131-give-a-hoot-for-the-holidays.html

I found the directions for these little brooch trees here:

http://www.purlbee.com/felt-christmas-tree-pins/

I might make a few more in different colours.

Mug Rug Tutorial

I love tutorials so I thought I’d have a go at doing one. Now I’ve included photos of every step which is probably overkill but you’ll certainly get the gist of it.
Now this is how ‘I’ make mug rugs. I’m sure there are lots of different ways to do it & there is no right or wrong way. I think the trick is to look around & choose the method that you like.
The first 2 rugs I made, I added separate binding, which I  found fiddly. The 3rd rug I decided to simply cut the backing bigger & fold it over. On that one I stitched around the edge of the rug before folding over the binding but this time I thought if I put the pellon on glue side down I could iron the backing to it & save the sewing around step. It worked well. :-)
MUG RUG
I looked for a standard size but they vary.
I settled on 9” x 6” finished.
Here’s one I prepared earlier:

MATERIALS
a range of fabrics you love
Iron-on pellon, medium-weight not light-weight
threads to match

First I choose a feature fabric.



Then I choose fabrics to match.



Cut a strip from each fabric.
They should be between 1 1/2’ & 2” wide.
They vary in length, the longest for the centre strip is 9”, then 8”, 6 1/2” & 4 1/2”. If you have more or less strips these measurements will vary.
You can cut your strips as you go, so you can check how long they need to be.

Cut a 6 1/2” x 9 1/2” piece of iron-on pellon.
The standard thickness, not thin.
Draw a line, 3 1/4” from the right side on the side of the pellon that DOESN’T have the glue on it.
Lay your longest strip across the ‘square,’
right side up.

Lay your 2nd strip right side down on the first & stitch.
Pins are optional.

Stop stitching once you are approx. 1/4” past the line you drew. You will trim the excess later.

Flip the sewn piece over & finger press in place.

Keep adding strips until you’ve covered that side.

Add strips to the other side.

When covered, trim the fabrics & pellon back on 3 sides. It should now measure 6” x 9 1/4”.

Turn your work over & fold the pellon back.

Trim the excess fabrics back, making sure the edge is perpendicular to the other side.

Cut a 4” x 6 1/4” piece of your feature fabric & sew it to the edge of the stripes.

Flip the fabric back & trim any excess so the rug
measures 6” x 9”

Cut an 11 1/2” x 8 1/2” piece of backing fabric.
Centre the rug on the backing & pin in place.
The glue side of the pellon is now against the backing.

Turn the rug over & iron a section where there is no pin, to hold it in place. When it is lightly attached remove the pins & press well.

Turn back over & trim the backing back to 1” all around the rug.
 BINDING

Cut a 5/8” square our of each corner to cut back on the bulk.

Turn the binding in half, then half again over the front of the rug. Pin in place.
Turn the corner over 45 degrees.
The pin is so I could take the photo as I didn’t have a third hand. :-)

Fold the hem in half.
        
Finally fold it over again & pin. You might have to fiddle a little to get a neat corner but it doesn’t take long.
Hand stitch the binding in place & enjoy your mug rug.
NOTE: I can’t guarantee you won’t catch the Mug Rug Bug!!! :-)

Hi! Come on in. :-)

Hmm two doors to decorate this year. I only had one wreath so I cheated & wrapped a garland around to form the 2nd wreath. It does need a few more deckies.

Well this is a pretty way to get rid of the cream bland that is our foyer. It will be turning a lovely shade of green in the New Year to cheer it up.

Traditional red & green for the foyer, as I don’t use it in the lounge & I have some cute red & green things

I painted this 12 Days of Christmas wreath in a previous life when we had a folk art business. If you’ve spotted the 5 golden rings are missing they were glued to the holly leaves but fell off. It’s a matter of having the wreath, rings & glue all in the same place at the same time.

We had to be a little inventive with the Lemax this year. We ended up arranging what we could fit around the TV.

We went with aqua, silver & white again this year. This is the first time I’ve ever had a mantle to decorate. I’m a little concerned the stars on wire look a little like barbed wire, lol. I’ll give it a day or two to see if it works.

I pinched this idea from Myer last year. I noticed they went with it again this year.        

The tree, I love my white tree!!!!!!

& lit.
Love the blue lights, it looks stunning in the dark, very icy.

My blue Christmas wall hangings, wish I had more but it’s a bit late to start making more for this year.