Christmas 2014 Embroidered Ornament Tutorial

Hi everyone:

If you're looking for a quick Christmas gift this year, you'll love this idea! It's simple and fast and so easy to personalize. 

Christmas 2014 Ornament

While I hand embroidered a snowflake to my ornament, you could certainly choose to use the recipient's initial, a word, such as Joy or Peace, or even "Christmas 2014". If you do want to stitch a snowflake, just download my FREE Snowflake Brrr design and use the smaller snowflake design in it.

If you still have some time after making the Christmas ornament, you might want to tackle the Snowflake Brrr design and create a pillow or wall hanging with it. I know you'll have time to create that project too!

Snowflake Brrr design by Chatterbox Quilts

But let's not get ahead of ourselves: let's learn how to make the Christmas 2014 ornament first!

You'll need:

• Two pieces of fabric - one for the front and one for the back. I used squares that were about 8" each.
• A piece of ribbon or rickrack about 6" long for the hanger. I chose a piece of coordinating rickrack.
• A piece of heavy fusible web, just slightly smaller than the fabric pieces.
• A CD, bowl or jar lid - something to trace the circle that will be the finished size of your ornament. I used a CD and found it was perfect for the size I wanted.

Trace the circle onto the right side of one of the fabric pieces. I used a Frixion pen so I could easily remove the traced line later. 

After tracing the circle, I embroidered the snowflake inside the circle, centering the design in the circle.

Snowflake embroidered inside the circle

After I finished tracing the design, I layered the fabric pieces together and cut out along the traced circle with pinking shears. I also cut out a circle from the fusible web with regular scissors, making sure this circle was just a bit smaller than the fabric ones.

Finally, a use for my pinking shears!

Front and back fabrics all cut pinked out

Layer the ornament as follows: back fabric, wrong side up; ribbon or rickrack, folded in half with raw edges in; fusible web; top embroidered fabric. Fuse the ornament together, following the manufacturer's instructions.

Layered up and ready to be fused

Hang your ornament and enjoy! (You did make one for yourself, didn't you?)

All finished and hanging in my house already

If you have additional time, consider adding some embellishments to the ornament. A running stitch or maybe even some beading all around the edge would be lovely (why didn't I think of that when I did this ornament?!). There are lots of ways to jazz up this little decoration. 

I had fun creating this ornament and it only took an hour to whip up.

I hope you'll try stitching your own embroidered Christmas ornament and would love to see your creations.

Happy quilting!

Telecast Thursday - Got 15 Minutes? Episode 10

Hi everyone:

Welcome to Telecast Thursday and the final episode in the "Got 15 Minutes?" video series. This week we're going to be finishing off this series by using our scissors. In 15 minutes a day, you can cut out fusible web appliqué shapes to help advance your project. You may even be able to cut out all the shapes for a project. If not, I'll show you what to do with the ones you have been able to cut out.

You can watch the video below or on my Youtube channel.

If you haven't seen the other episodes in this series, you'll can find them here. Subscribe to my Youtube channel to receive automatic notifications when new videos are posted. You can also click on the Chatterbox Quilts logo in the top right corner of the video to subscribe. 

I hope you've enjoyed this video series and found the ideas helpful. I also hope that you've actually been able to use some of your 15 minutes a day to accomplish just a little bit more on your latest quilting or crafting project.

If you have any other suggestions for using just 15 minutes a day to work on a WIP, please leave a comment below.

Happy quilting!

30th Anniversary Celebration in Beautiful Banff, Alberta, Canada

Hi everyone:

First a warning: this post may be offensive to some quilters as it doesn't contain any quilting information or photos. If you dare read on, don't say you weren't warned...

A few weeks ago we went to Banff, Alberta to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We stopped in Canmore, Alberta at The Sugar Pine Company, the local quilt shop, which just happened to have demos going that day and 10% off storewide. (Okay, this is the only quilting reference in this blogpost). I did buy just a few things that I absolutely needed or will need for a future project, I'm sure. After lunch, we heading into Banff to the Rimrock Resort Hotel. I'm told that the Rimrock has a gorgeous view of the mountains, but the fog was so thick that we couldn't see anything but the trees (no, not the forest either). 

View from our room at the Rimrock Resort Hotel - lots of fog and snow

We spent some time shopping in town and had a wonderful dinner at Melissa's Missteak, a Banff institution. The next morning we headed up to the Cave and Basin to look around and snap a few pictures. 

View from the top of the Cave and Basin

We also went into the Banff Indian Trading Post and I picked up a few souvenirs and some Christmas presents. 

Totem pole outside the Banff Indian Trading Post

No, I didn't bring home any of these for Christmas gifts

I remember going there when I was very young (just a few years ago!) and wondered if the merman was still there. Yes, he was and looked as scary as ever! 

Merman
Photo courtesy of www.calgaryherald.com

After this it was a quick trip to the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel - just behind the Prime Minister and the President of France - and then home. 

Just missed lunch with the dignitaries at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Of course the day we were returning was gorgeous and sunny so we stopped to take some photos on the way back. 

Since that week-end, it's been back to quilting, filming and editing for an upcoming project. I've got big news to share but I can't let the cat out of the bag yet. I'm hoping that I'll be able to let you in on the secret very soon...

Happy quilting!