Showing posts with label Christmas decorations. Show all posts

Thursday, December 26, 2024

Christmas Updates and Finishes on Free Motion Mavericks

Allô and welcome🎄 I hope that you had a lovely Christmas. We had a terrific time with all of the kids and Poppy, great food, and gifts! It's now Boxing Day and very quiet. Time to get this post done and then do some more embroidery. 😊

Snow Happens wall hanging

The last time I shared this embroidery was last January in my 2024 planning post and then again in a slow stitching post a few days later. I'm afraid not much happened after that. I picked it up in December again and it's slowly coming along. Instead of giving myself another year to finish it (we know how that worked out!😁), I'm aiming for the end of January. At least it's a winter piece, so it won't have to be put away with the Christmas stuff.

The first two snow people, almost finished!

Here are the other snow people.

Some progress on the snow people

The last one hasn't been started
except for the bird house

Metal Christmas Ornament

Do you remember the trees embroidered on metal? They have great potential but we'll call this version a sample. I did learn a lot making and putting it together. I'm not sure if I'll make more but if I do, I'll have good notes below!

Christmas tree ornament - lots of potential

Not great but learned lots!

Kawandi style Christmas mat

For November's Table Scraps Challenge, I put together a little Kawandi style mat made of old fashion Christmas fabric. I finished it in December. I just love it and I think that my DL likes it too! As I mentioned in a previous post, I sewed the fabrics down by machine. This was so much easier than wrestling with pins and bits of fabric as I stitched it by hand. I will probably keep making them this way. My favourite part about making them is the slow running stitch.

Finished Kawandi style Christmas mat

Doesn't it go great with the Grinch card? The fabrics
are probably from the same era.

It's quiet here today. Poppy is spending a few days. I'm so happy.😍

Poppy checking out the yard!

Poppy coming in from the snow

What I learned

The Snow Happens embroidery is coming along. It's weird to be following a commercial pattern.
The piece is supposed to be in blue but I just can't do that - so the embroidery thread is all kinds of values of blue. It makes things more interesting to stitch!
The metal Christmas tree ornament was a disappointment. I now know not to use fuzzy thread.
The most frustrating part was stitching them together. I just don't like how I finished the edges. It only occurred to me a few days later that I could have backed them with felt. I think that this would be better and much easier. At least if I make these again, I'll have notes to follow!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 512 of Free Motion Mavericks! I think many quilters were busy getting ready for the holidays. Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Deb from a Scrappy Quilter quilted six Irish Chain quilts. Two have been donated while the others will hang around for the special occasion.

Kat quilted this one with a diamond grid

Six lovely quilts finished by Kat

Quilting Gail finished her Floral Fusion, based on Denise's sew along. What a beauty.

Gail's finished Floral Fusion

Gail outlined the flowers and FMQ swirls in the background

Brenda from Songbird Designs made this beauty for the Island Batik's It's All Up to You Challenge. You'll want to check out her post to read how she made it. She quilted it using some lovely sparkling thread.

Check out Brenda's lovely Christmas tree!

It's now your turn.

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Christmas Tree Window Hanging

I've just finished a genuine Squirrel! Saw the project online, found the pattern maker, bought the pattern December 12 and finished it today, December 28! Getting a whole project done that quickly is not something I do often 😊

Learning a modern version of Pojagi

In the rabbit hole that is the internet, I found Elizabeth DeCroos. She is an Island Batik Ambassador (which is how I found her). She also has developed some great project patterns and videos about using a modern version of pojagi to make what look like stained glass window hangings. They are absolutely stunning!

Finished Christmas Tree Window Hanging

After some research, I got pretty confused. The terms pojagi and jogakbo are sometimes used interchangeably. Pojagi is a traditional Korean wrapping cloth made from scraps of left-over fabrics. From the Victoria and Albert museum, it sounds like jogakbo is a patchwork pojagi. There were many websites and YouTube videos of some stunning examples of pojagi and jogakbo. I've included a few of these in Related links below.

I took a workshop last year that used translucent fabrics (silk organza) that are sewn by hand to make a light catcher. I never actually made one because the videos were available for a very short time and sewing silk organza by hand seemed beyond me at the time.

When I found Elizabeth DeCroos' website and saw that she made pojagi using a sewing machine and batik fabric, I was totally intrigued. I bought her Christmas Tree Window Hanging pattern and actually chose my fabrics and started cutting them that same night.

Fabric cut and half-square triangles made and pieced

I started by watching her Question and Answer video on YouTube, "Getting started making stained glass window hangings (all the FAQs)". This was very informative and gave me the confidence to jump right in. I then watched her "Modern Pojagi Simple Seam Tutorial". From there, I was able to start piecing the half-square triangles and the squares together. Once I had watched her video, I was then able to refer to her pattern to refresh my memory.

Attaching all of the squares together in rows

To attach the rows together, Elizabeth suggests using the "regular pojagi seam". I watched the tutorial and then was able to easily refer to her explanations on the pattern when I managed to forget what I had just done!😊

The finished Christmas Tree Window Hanging using
modern pojagi simple seams and the regular pojagi seams

I would love to show you what it looks like with the sun streaming through it but it's been cloudy for the last two days. As soon as the sun peaks through, I'll take another picture and add it below!

Hanging in the window

Update: It took a while but here is an image of the Christmas Tree Window Hanging with sun coming through it. Isn't it a beauty?

The sun is shining!

What I learned

This was an easy technique to learn. Elizabeth has other patterns that look more complicated but I really love the simplicity of these squares and half triangles.
When I first tried both of the pojagi seam techniques, I followed all of the steps. I used my ¼" ruler to check my seams throughout the whole process. However, after making a few seams, I was able to leave out all of the ironing. Batik holds its fold well and I didn't need to press the seam once I was used to the process.
To make the regular pojagi seam, I used my walking foot for the last stitched part over all of the fabric. It worked wonderfully.
In her first Q&A video, Elizabeth warns us to let go and have fun. The beauty of the work is in it's uniqueness and that perfection is not needed. She says that if we really must have all of the single and double stitched lines together, to have our seam rippers handy. She's totally right and it was great not to worry about these details. In the end, when the hanging is in the window, you don't see the seams. You just see the beauty of the fabrics.
Elizabeth also has instructions for the traditional hand stitch used in traditional pojagi. I will probably try that at some point.
When I did my research to write this post, I found some amazing art done with the jogakbo or pojagi technique. They are listed below in Related links. They are short and well worth looking at.

Related links

Elizabeth DeCroos, Epida Studio

Getting started making stained glass window hangings (all the FAQs) on YouTube
Modern pojagi simple seam tutorial on YouTube
Regular pojagi seam tutorial on YouTube
Traditional pojagi tutorials
EpidaStudio's pojagi patterns

Great videos on YouTube of jogakbo, or patchwork pojagi art

Pojagi + Beyond: a wintersession course in Korean textiles (2008) YouTube
Making Bojagi with Artist Youngmin Lee on YouTube
Chunghie Lee: 'Pojagi and Beyond' at the 2009 Festival of Quilts, England YouTube

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linky parties. Why not check them out? 5 Minutes To Stitch 2021, Midweek Makers, Patchwork & Quilts, Put Your Foot Down, Off the wall Friday, Peacock Party, TGIFF with Kathleen McMusing,

I'm linking up to Sandra's mmm quilts DrEAMi!

Project details

Christmas Tree Window Hanging

Pattern by Elizabeth DeCroos at Epida Studio

Size: 20" x 19½"

Materials: Batik fabrics

Techniques: Modern pojagi simple seam and Regular pojagi seam

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Christmas decorating fun

I love seeing our Christmas tree full of ornaments bought, inherited, received and made over the years. It's also the time when those Christmas runners, placemats and wall hangings get to come out and shine.

Adding to our Christmas decorations

Each year I try to make a little something for the tree or the house. I found the tutorial for the Christmas bell - the bell was supposed to be made of "sheer paper cloth" but I used organza backed with light stabilizer instead. The stabilizer gave the organza a crispness without removing the translucence. For the three-sided bell I used organza with dots and hearts on two of the sides and then embroidered the third side with a star. I hand-stitched the sides together and added the bell through it. If you're interested, the link to the tutorial is in Related links below.

Three sided Christmas bell

The embroidered side of
the Christmas bell

I also made a snow frame. I started with a meditation stitched piece that I made last year, added an extra piece of fabric to make it wide enough and then added a couched snowman, snow and extra stars.

Snow frame with Christmas tree and snowman

For the Out of the Box Fibre Artist group, I made a Christmas postcard. It was dropped off on November 30 and should have arrived to it's new home by now.

The postcard was 4" x 6". The background is a fluffy fabric that I hand dyed in very light green. I used a pink cheese cloth to outline the tree and then couched some green chenille yarn. I used a Murano star bead for the top. Behind it I attached a small piece of yellow silk to add a little pop of colour. There are also many seed beads within the tree.

In the background, I used a white silk thread to embroider the snowflakes. I like the subtleness, like an impression of flakes. Instead of cardstock, I attached interfacing and then added a white backing.

Stylized Christmas tree postcard

Christmas postcard

Decorating the workplace

It's so different from previous years. This was my office in 2018. My colleague and I had a great time decorating with things that I had brought from home.

Adding colour to our
workspace (2018)

Decorating the office plant (2018)

This is my present workplace - our dining room.

Working from home, in my dining room (2020)

It certainly is a lot cozier and the commute is very short 😊 I also love that Chevy is always near by!

What I learned

Chevy in my studio.

I loved the idea of making the bell decorations but once I was done, although I liked it, I didn't feel the need to make more - which is a good thing because I still have way too many projects on the go!
The snow frame is on my window ledge in my studio. It's so lovely to look at while I'm writing this post. The couched yarn and backing makes it just a little too thick for the frame so I had to tape around it. Since it's for my office, I don't mind but I'll have to remember this if I ever make more as gifts.
I'm really not missing my physical workplace. It's so much easier to concentrate in my quiet dining room. You can see that I'm not trying to work in my studio - that would be a recipe for disaster...just too many distractions there 😊.
Today I took pictures of my studio - it's pretty much finished. I'm hoping to write the post this week. Here's a teaser....