Sunday, September 19, 2010

Christmas in September? 1970's addition

The Savvy Seasons swap and all the holiday fabrics have me in the holiday decor crafting phase. I love the holidays and just can't resist all the fun projects centered around them. This year I plan to make a holiday quilt for us and maybe a pillow or two.
The swap has got me thinking about my favorite decorations from years past and trying to recreate them. My partner was pretty specific in her requests and she is also one of what I refer to as the flickr elite. Anyone who reads this little blog knows that I get a little worried about my sewing ability when sewing for others. The quilt blocks this person makes are A M A Z I N G and since I know I can't create any complicated piecing jobs . . . I am relying on color sense and fabric choices. Through some stalking of my partner's blog I found out that the new Bliss line is a favorite. So off I went in search of some and let me tell you . . . it is a great line.
Here is where I stalled out. I could not find a pattern I loved for a tree skirt, so I decided to create my own from my favorite tree skirt we used growing up. It is not the traditional rounded skirt, but a quilted skirt with 8 blades if you will. I traced the skirt and have pieced together the top so far. I am loving it and now just need to decided how to quilt it. I am leaning toward straight organic lines. This skirt I love is a really awful 70's print that really wasn't all that festive, I just really loved the shape!
sorry for the random sneak peak! I have pieced with the jelly roll every other fan of the tree skirt and then used the print shown in red or the same print in green on the alternating one.
The exercise of decided what I liked from years past also got me thinking of ornaments. My mom made amazing stuff in the 70's. I really loved two sets . . . she did dough art for all of us and painted them in great little sports outfits or really whatever we were into. It was a ton of fun and they really felt special. Then she made some felt ornaments from a kit, that I just LOVE. A fellow flickr user posted a photo of the set recently and my quest began to find them. I had checked on Ebay before with no luck . . . but today I found them! I am keeping my fingers crossed I will win the auction!
Finally I have been playing around with some another idea of three nesting baskets in some fun holiday colors to go with the tree skirt. Here is my first prototype and I will tweak it a bit. I need to find something else to use as the base. I think I will make one for us to store the cards that come in. Maybe even as a gift to give to the neighbors with a few goodies tucked inside. Here is the smallest size and what I have so far! Loving the new spoonflower design from Laurie Wisburn . . . could it be printed as a Kaufman print next fall? We can only hope!
the inside looks like this
Before the partner assignments I started to work on a little hoop . . . not sure if I will use it, but will keep going on it. It is from Annie Oakleaves that I bought last year, but now it is easy to get them from Kerri at SewDeerlyLoved.
Have you started any holiday crafting? It will be here before we know it . . .

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