Reversible Christmas & Everyday {Apron}

 "There is no saying no to Grandma's cooking!"

When Amanda at Jedi Craft Girl posted that she was destashing two apron “kits” with these Matryoshka dolls on them, I instantly yelled "BABUSHKA!" out loud and typed "ME! ME! ME!" on her post.

The reason I had to have them is that our family is of Polish descent and I grew up hearing my grandmother calling the stacking dolls she had in her family room babuskas, which means grandmother in Russian and some parts of Poland.

When Christmas rolled around, I knew that I wanted to send her one of the aprons with some cookie mix in a mason jar. 

 I found reversible instructions on Riley Blake’s website.

The dolls are just adorable and festive for Christmas. 

I also think she will love the cherries on the pockets on the "everyday use" side.

As for the second one? 

 See the details HERE.

 I had to keep it for myself so I can have warm memories of my grandmother. 

She is a pretty important person in my life!

Home for the Holidays {Quilt}

"There is no place like home for the holidays."

This past Christmas, I was really striving to avoid the Great Gift Card Exchange both sides of our families seem to have created.  I don't mind a gift card, but I really wanted to do something "different".  However, my largest problem was that I was stuck. Mentally blocked. I could not think of a single thing to make or buy my parents for a gift.

Here I was on Christmas Eve morning, packing for our trip across the country the next day  and preparing for Santa's arrival and I didn't know what I was going to do.

I glanced over at my design board in my Ms. Claus workshops, as I finished wrapping a few more of Santa's gift and the quilt blocks that Buddy the Elf (elf on the shelf) had made a few nights before.

Amy Smart's Modern Tree block glared at me.  I recalled how quick I had made the two blocks and my brain fired off "Home for the Holidays" and I knew I wanted to make a quilt for my parents to commemorate this year.  My sister was traveling from Kansas with my nephews and my grandparents were going to be shuttled from North Carolina and we were flying in from Salt Lake City on Christmas Day to Virginia.  It has been many, many years since we were all together for Christmas.

The next challenge was the fabric.  My mom has a very "muted"  decorating style and Christmas is no different.  

Her tree is covered in white lights and crystal ornaments.  No color.

I had a layer cake with all the solid fabrics in her family room colors and I didn't love it.  I think I did about five fabric pulls from my stash that were all rejected.  I finally visited my fabric bundles and took a hard look.

Odds and Ends by Moda Fabrics kept drawing my eye. I'm actually proud of the fact that I had zero fear just ripping the bundle apart to take a good look.  In between laundry, packing, and making Christmas Eve dinner, I mapped out my quilt plan.  Amy's tutorial uses 7x9" blocks and I knew I needed bigger to be quicker. I settled on a 10x 11.5" block.  I started by cutting 11x12" blocks.

It made a nice lap size of 49 x 60" with a five by five layout configuration.

After all the bags were lined up at the door, kids sent to bed, the house tidied up, and Santa's packages all settled under the tree and stockings stuffed...I began to press, cut and piece the top.  At 10:30pm.

As the snow fell outside and the plows came by, I finished the last seam at 2:15am.

I didn't have a complete quilt, but I was happy to have at least a top to present them when we arrived.  It was well received and my mom requested I make it a wall hanging quilt.

I brought it home and instantly debated about the backing.

Since I knew it was going to be a wall hanging and I had a leftover block, I decided on a pieced backing,

For the quilting, I went with alternating wavy and swirl backgrounds and did the same "garland" swoops on the trees.

I used double batting because I wanted the quilting to be able to be seen from afar while hanging on her wall.

I do love how the quilting showed up on the backing also.

I pulled the green dotted binding from my stash!

Added an embroidered quilt label to commemorate the special occasion.

Quilt Stats:

Measures: 46" x 54"

Pattern: Holiday Patchwork Forest by Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter

Fabric: Odds & Ends by Comstock for Moda Fabrics

Quilted: Freemotion quilting on HQ Avante

My only regret is that I had to take pictures on a weird winter day.  The sun was setting and it really gave this quilt a muddy hue.  But Christmas seems so far away and I didn't want to wait one more second before shipping off to them.

Oh....and I forgot to mention...I have a second quilt for our home with the leftovers...

I'm calling it the Oh Christmas Tree Quilt.

Gift Box {Quilted Potholders}

"A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer."

As a parent, I often find it difficult to come up with gifts for teachers.  Particularly at Christmas time.  I grew up watching other kids give their teachers gifts for the holidays, but my mother never sent me along with any, so my frame of reference as a parent myself was, basically, clueless. When the older boys were all stacked together, I often was overwhelmed thinking about the monumental task of curating several gifts for several teachers they each had and never took it on.

When Button came along, I made a decision that it would be an area I would work on making more of an effort.

This year, Button as a teacher who seems game to take anything I send her way. This holiday, I happened upon this awesome Mason jar pre-filled with cookie mix at Target.  Just eggs and water were needed to finish them.  I thought it would be nice to send along some Potholders.

I did a fabric pull of some of my leftover Christmas fabric scraps, most from my Blizzard Quilt.

I found a quilt block that appealed to me at Fort Worth Fabric Studio HERE.

I definitely went off grid after her block instructions to make potholders that protect the back of your hands. I affectionately call them my potholder flaps.  I *may* have a tendency to burn the back of my hands on my oven. 

A lot.

The flap and the actual potholder each have a layer of Insul-brite and batting.  I quilted them very simply because it can get quite puffy with all the layers.

I always add hanging loops before I attach my binding to the back.

His teacher really was pleased  and mentioned at the Christmas party that she was hoping that I would make something for her. So glad I did!

While I was at it, I was feeling disappointed that I didn't finish all the Christmas ideas for our own home, so I made a set for myself along with some simple coasters for our family room (tutorial HERE).

Button's First Christmas

After five nightly visits, despite the fact that the "Santa conspiracy" was blown by ME this year, Bean finally roused his little brother Bunny.  

They arrived at the foot of the stairs at 0640.  

A new record! 

No, not early.  The LATEST they have ever woken up on Christmas Day!!

WARNING:  PACKAGES APPEAR LARGER THAN THEY ACTUALLY ARE.

We then heard Button saying "Hi Mama" into his monitor.  Which always REALLY spooks me.  I swear the kid "knows" I am on the other side of the camera!!

We allowed the boys to go through their stockings before Oma and Opa arrived from the hotel.

Bananas and Apples, Santa?  You shouldn't have!

A quick photo-op with Mom. And yes, my dear friend Kristin, I made them wear shirts this year so they aren't bare-chested in the Christmas Scrapbook Album or on the blog.

Are you happy now?

Santa package distribution and unwrapping commenced at 0700.

I want THIS one.

Everyone was a bit befuddled.  There appeared to be TOO many gifts under the tree.  However, everyone forgot that there was one more child under the tree and Mrs. Claus was also very sneaky this year.  She had the elves collect many LARGE boxes to wrap very SMALL packages!  

Tricky lady, that one!

Don't you just love this Santa's Little Helper beeehind!!!

Even though Button seemed unsure about the process, Bunny felt honor bound to mark the special occasion.

Right this moment, tucked into his special basket in his closet, he has saved the first scraps of wrapping paper of Button's first Christmas present.

I guess he wants his brother to know someday how very glad we are that he is here with us to celebrate a first Christmas!

Oma and Opa seemed to enjoy the event.  And, no, we aren't usually so formal Christmas morning, but we were headed to 10 am Mass!

 And we think Santa didn't disappoint this year (because he has in the past!).  Legos and jerseys were the big scores!

LSU Fan?

Bean thought he would never find the jersey he asked for...those sneaky elves had him fooled.

Not in a clothing box, but a huge priority mailing box!

UTTER RELIEF!!

 Butter saying "YES!" to the video game he thought Santa wouldn't approve.

 And Button actually got on the ground and in the thick of things when he saw the cool activity table with all the lights, sounds, and action!

All packages were opened by 0830. 

A new record....the longest time it ever took in our household.  

Button slowed things drastically......

Oh, and Mass after presents?  

Yes. 

I won't get into the horrible scene the last Christmas Eve Mass about 7 years ago.  Christmas Day is much more our speed.  

A place to sit.  No crowds. 

A reminder for the boys of the true meaning of Christmas.