Christmas Cookie Exchange Centerpieces

This was a fun project that my daughter and I did. She asked me to make a couple of folded bags for the two centerpieces she volunteered to do at her church's cookie exchange. The colors were red and silver.

Let me tell you, there is no Christmas fabric to be found in December! I wanted some red fabric with a little silver accent or contrast running through it. I couldn't find anything so I decided to make my own. I found a pretty red fabric, sandwiched a lightweight batting in between the front and back, and went to town adding some stitches from my Bernina 830. The red fabric was slippery and I thought it might be a little tricky adding a binding or trying to fold it over. Instead, I used a beautiful wave stitch on my serger with red and silver thread. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but I think it turned out great.

The key to making this bag, is that it has to be square. Then you fold it in half, corner-to-corner, and stitch both sides. Turn it inside out and you have beautiful bag.

My daughter made the beautiful wreaths in matching colors and filled the bags with mints.

By the way, the cookie exchange was fabulous. Good food, good fellowship, and good music.

Each table was decorated by different women using the same red and silver colors and they all looked beautiful.

Christmas Wallhanging is Finished

Yippee! I finished the Christmas wallhanging. I think I'll take it to work and hang it there so I can enjoy it between now and Christmas.

Here it is:

All I Want for Christmas Is . . .

. . . a gift card from my local quilt shop!

DH - are you listening?

6th Panel in Christmas Wallhanging

Yippee! The sixth panel is done. Now I'm going to use a "quilt as you go" method and stitch all of the panels together.

5th Panel in Christmas Wall Hanging - Modified

I completely changed my mind about the fifth panel. I tried adding another motif next to the drum and didn't like the way it turned out at all. Instead, I decided to use the pinecone motif. I think it fits the panel much better and it is a very pretty design.

5th Panel in Christmas Wall Hanging

Here's the fifth block. It's cute and stitched up nicely but it needs something more. Compared to the other blocks, the drum is too small and doesn't quite fill the amount of space that the other designs have. I think I'll add one or two small designs to this block and see how it looks. It just needs something. . .

4th Panel in Christmas Wall Hanging

Here's the fourth panel for my Christmas wall hanging.

Some of the areas of this design are very dense and even though the 830 does a fantastic job of stitching, I slowed the machine down - just in case. I didn't want any trouble with the bobbin or the metallic thread. It stitched out beautifully. It will be even prettier once it is pressed and the hoop marks are gone.

3rd Panel in Christmas Wall Hanging

I'm so glad that changing the bobbin on my machine did the trick. This rocking horse is very pretty and it would have had a completely different look without the metallic thread. There are three more panels to be stitched for this wall hanging. I can't wait to finish them and put it all together. I think I may hang it in my office for a while during the holidays just so I can enjoy it!

2nd Panel in Christmas Wall Hanging

Last night I was able to stitch out two more panels for my Christmas wall hanging. If I have enough fabric, I may restitch the candy cane. My thread kept breaking so I swapped out the metallic thread for a plain gold thread for part of the design. To me, it's very obvious and I'm not real happy about the look. After the thread broke again, I swapped out the bobbin and the machine stitched the rest of the design beautifully.

Countdown to Christmas

OK, who put that Christmas countdown on this blog?

Oh yeah, it was me. I thought it was cute at the time.

Now it taunts me as it slowly ticks away the short bit of time I have left to finish my Christmas presents.

Tick Tock Tick Tock.