In the Middle of it all...

As if I need one. more. thing. to. do. I just couldn't let these projects go. I loved the countdown blocks from HowDoesShe.com and really wanted to make them for Halloween. Well...they're done for Christmas- better late than never, right?

And, I have actually made Christmas books like these before, but the girls over at Eighteen25 had such a cute one, I just HAD to make a new one for this year!

I didn't use their downloads, but I did steal their super clever idea of putting envelops on the front and back cover, and went to their source for the calendar downloads.
I plan on using this organizer for a few years, so my back envelope has extra paper and tabs already cut out so it will always coordinate. I'm hoping to keep track of what cookies we make at the cookie party, what menu we plan for Christmas Eve and who got what for whom. I think it will be a treasured memento over the years. And, I actually started a Christmas Advent with my kids. I wrote little things that tie in our holiday celebrations to the Savior- such as: "Jesus teaches us to "love one another." Find some way to show someone you love them today." I printed the activities on cardstock, mounted them on festive paper and placed them, along with a small treat, in a bag. Each day the kids will open them up. I'm hoping it will help us focus on why we really love Christmas. The bags are numbered and to keep track of who's turn it is to open the bag that day, I am using four different papers (one for each child) as the background paper. They know that they will all get the same amount of turns (luckily!) so they can be patient when it's someone else's turn. I'm feeling a little more prepared for Christmas now and can't wait to spend time making memories with the ones I love the most!

Tree Skirt with gathering technique

When Kari at Ucreate said her theme for the November "Create with Me" was tree skirts and stockings- I knew I was in. I was hoping that a deadline would make me all the more dedicated to getting them done (I've been wanting to make them for years). Well, then life happend and I just haven't had the time to get it done. I figured I had missed the deadline and that was that. But, wait, a Christmas Miracle! Kari extended the deadline! I had already purchased the fabric during the black friday sale at Joann's (on Saturday- I was not about to wait over 3 hours to get fabric cut on Friday!) so I was good to go. I used the tree skirt tutorial included in the create with me post by The Sweet Life.

This is the skirt finished the way the tutorial explains, it's darling, but I wanted to add a couple more ruffles. And that's where the next part of this post comes in- I discovered a couple tricks for gathering long strips of fabric that may come in handy if you're ever making something like this. Normally you would run a gathering stitch the entire length of the strip you are going to gather, people will have you do two rows of stitching in case one thread breaks. (I know about the tension way of gathering on your machine, but I used it, and now my machine has major tension problems so I'm a little gun-shy to try it again)

So, here's my trick. I had four sections of fabric sewn together to make the long strip I was going to ruffle. At each seam, I stopped stitching, pulled out some thread from the machine and clipped the thread. Then I started stitching again. Now you have sections of thread instead of one long thread to gather along. (even if you have more than four sections of fabric and you can't use the seams as a guide, you can divide the length of your strip in quarters and mark them with pins, then do the same thing.)
Next, I found the four quarter positions on my tree skirt and lined up the quarter marks on my ruffle. Starting at the center point, you will pin the ruffle fabric to the base fabric. Then, take the end threads and anchor them around the pin (as shown in this picture), this will keep you from pulling out the thread as you gather it. Gather the fabric to the desired length and pin in place. Repeat with the remaining three sections, then stitch in place. I found it was much easier to keep my gathers even and it didn't shred the edge of the fabric as much as gathering the entire length of the ruffle.

I used extra wide satin blanket binding on the center circle of the skirt (it was what I had on hand. Then I made ties using extra fabric from the ruffles. I pinned the ties in place and folded over the raw edge of the opening 1/2 inch, then another 1/2 inch, making sure to catch the ties in the folds. I stitched twice down the hemmed edges and I was finished! I absolutely LOVE my new tree skirt. Now about the stockings......we'll see!

Giveaway!

I am so excited to announce my first ever give away here on Ameroonie Designs! My sweet neighbor Katie asked me if I would be willing to give away one of her wreaths on my blog and of course I agreed!

The Christmas wreath measures 12 inches across. The pink wreath measures 14 inches. The winner will get to pick which one they want and Katie will get it shipped off lickety split!

Aren't these lovely?

So, here's how you win. Go check out Katie's Etsy shop look around and decide what your favorite item is, come back and leave a comment. And that's it! Please make sure you leave some contact info so we can get in touch with you if you win- it'd be a bummer to have to give it to someone else ;). Good luck! The contest will run through Sunday Dec. 5 at midnight. We will draw the winner on Monday- keeping it short so the winner can enjoy their wreath as long as they can!

XOXO,

Amy

And thanks Katie for the great give away!