a simple family room Christmas decor

We are finally all decorated for Christmas: the tree is all dressed up  and the pillows are out.

The color scheme is actually very similar to last year, but with some added red, and a little blue. I wanted to do a blue/green tree but every time I tried it reminded me of Frozen, which was not what I was looking for!

So we kept it simple, with the kids putting the ornaments where they wanted. I am happy that our teenagers are still interested in decorating the tree.
We added a few ornaments this year:

one from Scandinavia from my sister,

one from Lucketts during our last trip

and one cross stitched by my mom, with lavender in it.
To finish decorating the room, I changed the pillows on the couch, I do that quite often, nobody at home seems surprised! Usually we have mostly blue pillows, but now it is mostly red!

We had our first snow this weekend!

I "needed" a new pillow, so I revisited an old pattern from Amy of Nana Company

that I had previously made here

and just made it much bigger!

It is such a fun accent to the couch!

And it coordinates with the colors from the kitchen table topper

and cocoa bar, we have a very open concept house!

There are less than 2 weeks to go.....

And Lou is ready for it! She does not like to get her picture taken, but there was something on the coffee table she was very interested in, which I will share next time.

Last year Champagne tree:

The red and natural tree:

Happy day!

a simple and sweet Hygge gift basket with a mug rug, of course!

It is the season to think about gifts  for friends and family. So I made this one for a dear friend of mine who is in need of some TLC. I was inspired by the Hygge book "the cozy life" which I included in this "basket".

Hygge is a Danish thing (very popular here last year), in two words: candles and snuggle!

So there are a battery powered candle (safer than the real thing), a faux fur eye mask,

a nature inspired mug (from Pier I), some hot cocoa mix and some cookies.

Of course no cozy gift basket can be complete without a handmade part,

after all I am a sewer/crafter!

So I added a quick mug rug, without piecing but simple quilting

and some appliques.

(not very scandinavian with an Eiffel tower, but Paris is always a good idea😉)

I used some Christmas fabric remnants from other Christmas project

like my tree skirt and Christmas quilt.

A touch of red is perfect for this time of the year.

And it looks just so with the mug (it has a great sheen, like pearlescent!)

I feel like I should make myself such a gift.....

Happy sewing!

a hexagon Christmas pillow, traditional color with a modern twist!

I have been on a hexagon roll lately! After sharing my hexagon table topper with aqua and red petals, this is a rectangular pillow with applique hexagons in red, green, with a few other colors mixed in:

It is a modern take on the hexagon quilt, I was inspired by this tutorial from Modern Handcraft. Each hexy is hand basted around a paper template, a little time consuming, but perfect to play with scrap of precious fabric!

Then of course, the paper is removed, and the hexagons are placed on the fabric top and quilted in place.  I kept quilting even where there were no hexy.

And it looks just right under a traditional Christmas tree. Happy sewing!

an aqua and red Christmassy table topper

Now that we are officially in December,

it is really time to start getting ready for Christmas!

We are getting the tree this weekend,

but I already started adding holidays touches to the kitchen

with the cocoa bar and this lovely hexagonal table topper.

Simple and quite fun to make.

I followed (more or less) the directions from the book "Quilt petite" by Sedef  Imer

of Down Grapevine Lane.

But I was inspired the shortcuts from Jedi Craft Girl,

and I used wonder under to "glue" my petals!

However I like to remove the middle of the part of the wonder under

before ironing it to the back of the fabric.

It gives less of a glue-on aspect to the fabric, more appliqued look,

while still sealing the raw edges with the wonder under.

The only down side (besides the extra time)

is that it holds less to the background....

Then I stitched/quilted each petal with a thread color matching the fabric.

I like to hand knot all the threads and hide them on the back side,

it takes a while but there is no thread tale or over stitch.

Finally I quilted the rest of the background,

 not perfect and a little messy,

great time to practice more free quilting!

I cut it to a hexagon and bound it with the same red and white fabric.

it has a cute candy cane feel.

The back is actually quite cute in its own right.
I do not recall all of the fabrics I used on this mini quilt, they are all at least a couple years old prints, probably left over from my tree skirt and Christmas quilt from a few years ago.

So I still need to decorate the living room, but at least now, I have the perfect place to eat breakfast!

Happy sewing!

the new and lovely Dandelions are here....

Last year, just before Christmas, I shared my unclothed Dandelions, well all of them have found their new owner, fully clothed.
Today I am sharing the first two:

this one dressed in a red Liberty of London dress with a delicate French cotton lace

 and pink embroidered red felt boots;

and 

this one wears a simpler Liberty of London dress

and blue embroidered flowers on royal blue boots.

Just like in the previous year,

the deer are made of felt,

following this pattern from Posie.

They are super sweet,

I love making them, using many Liberty of London prints.

I am so happy I made one for myself,

which I will share soon!

Happy sewing!