The final countdown! On a roll another Christmas Pudding tutorial.

Welcome to the final Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party of 2016

If you have been following along throughout the year you will have a stack of handmade gifts all ready and waiting to be delivered on the 25th. If not, fear not there is still (a little!) time to create something unique for some of the special people in your life.

I have been on a roll with Christmas Pudding makes recently, so have one more Christmas Pudding themed make for you to round out the year :)

A Christmas Pudding Hot Pad!

To make one as a last minute gift you will need :

Supplies

• 10" square of quilting cotton for the back of the hot pad (Fabric A)
• 10" square of tweed spot fabric, or equivalent (Fabric B)
• 10" x 8" rectangle of cream waffle fabric (Fabric C) 
• 10" square heat resistant wadding
• 10" square cotton wadding (or two squares of heat resistant wadding)
• 2.25" x WOF strip of red quilting cotton for binding 
• 2.25" x 6" strip of red quilting cotton for hanging loop (or similar width ribbon would work too)
• Scrap of green felt
• Red button (approx 7/8" in diameter)

You will also need an 8" embroidery hoop inner, or something similar, to draw around for the pudding shape.

Step 1

Trace around the embroidery hoop or whatever you are using for a template on the reverse side of Fabrics A and B, and both of the wadding fabrics. Cut out the circle shapes from each. Using your template, draw a semi-circle on the waffle cotton and cut out.

Step 2

Layer up your fabric pieces in the following order ;

• Bottom Layer     -    Fabric A right side down
• Second Layer     -    First layer of wadding
• Third Layer        -    Second layer of wadding
• Fourth Layer      -    Fabric B right side up
• Fifth Layer         -    Fabric C right side up

Pin and stitch around the edge of the Hot Pad with an 1/8" seam, stitching through all the layers to stabilise them before binding.

Step 3

Fold the binding strip fabric in half lengthways and press. Open out the fabric and fold the raw edges in to meet at the pressed fold.

Starting at the centre top of the Hot Pad, insert the pad between the two folded sides of the binding. The raw edge of the hot pad layers should be at the pressed centre fold of the binding.

Pin and baste the binding around the Hot Pad, starting and ending at the centre top of the Hot Pad.

Using a small zigzag stitch attach the binding to the Hot Pad. The stitching will attach both the back and the front of the binding to the hot pad.

Step 4

Repeat the folding and pressing above for the hanging loop strip. Top stitch down each long side of the folded hanging loop strip.

Fold under 1/4" at each short end of the hanging loop and press.

Where the Hot Pad binding meets at the top, place the folded ends of the hanging loop over the ends at the front and back.
Stitch the hanging loop to the hotpad, sewing in a box formation to secure the loop. Make sure that the top line of the box is beyond the Hot Pad bound edge to fully enclose the raw edges of the Hot Pad binding.

Step 5

Cut out two holly leaf shapes from the green felt scrap and stitch to the top of the Hot Pad, slightly below the end of the hanging loop. Stitch the red button to the Hot Pad where the holly leaves join.

Give the Hot Pad a final press and tick another last minute gift off the list!

If you need some inspiration for your festive crafting, each month we add a brand-new Christmas or Holiday project to the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew archive. Click on the button at the top of the page to see all of the brilliant projects dreamt up to date by our fabulously talented guest hosts and be inspired!


As ever, we have a great giveaway prize for one lucky linker and this month's prize will definitely kick start your Christmas Crafting!

A Long Quarter of this lovely Christmas Stamp fabric and 1m of Merry Christmas ribbon to boot. I am sure that you will all have lots of creative ways to use them.

To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is  link up your Festive makes to this month's Link Party to be entered into the draw. Keep it current though no blasts from the past here! The Link Party is open until 23.59 GMT on December 31st so you can link up all those secret Santa projects that you worked on this month :)

The winner of last month's festive thread collection was Sandra, who managed to add another collection of Eunice bags to her burgeoning stash of handmade gifts and some great Snowman hand puppets.

So, now it is your turn to link up and see if you can win that giveaway prize.

An InLinkz Link-up

Check out the Christmas Pudding Wreath tutorial here and the Christmas Pudding Applique Teatowel Tutorial here.


As ever, a huge thank you to our lovely giveaway prize sponsors, who have been so generous throughout the year.

  

 

Figgy Pudding Teatowel Tutorial - Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew

Welcome to this month's Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party, where we encourage you to organise your Christmas and Holiday crafting over the year so that by December everyone is cool, calm and collected! Well, that's the plan :)

I love having linens that are only brought out at Christmas and have been gifting festive tea towels to the family since our time in Latvia. However, my stash of Christmas themed, linen tea towels bought in the factory shop in Lithuania has now run dry so it was time to get creative.

I give you my Christmas Pudding Applique Tea towel Tutorial !

To make one of your own you will need the following:

1 plain white 100% cotton tea towel 19" x 28" (approx)
Scrap of brown fabric for pudding approx 7" x 7"
Scrap of light fabric for topping approx 7" x 4"
Scrap of green fabric for leaves approx 3" x 3"
I small red button
Thread to match your fabrics
Fusible interfacing, same dimensions as your fabric scraps (I used a light fusible fleece so that my pudding would be slightly padded but you could use double-sided fusible web instead)

Step 1

Fuse your interfacing to the reverse side of your pudding, topping and leaves fabrics. Trace a 5.5" circle on the interfaced side of the pudding fabric.

As you can see I used a cake tin lid for my template, so draw around anything you have to hand that will work :)

Measure 2" down from the centre top of the traced circle and draw a line across the top of the circle through the mark you just made. (It doesn't matter if the line is not exactly straight as it will be covered by the topping fabric later)

 Cut out the traced circle and then cut along the marked line to give you the base of your pudding. Set aside the pudding base for later.

Step 2

Trace a semi-circle on the interfaced side of the topping fabric using the same measurement/template that you used for the pudding.

Place the top pudding piece that you cut off earlier on top of the traced semi-circle and draw freehand the wavy edge of the topping below the straight edge of the top pudding piece. See below.

(Make sure that your freehand line does not come completely up to the bottom edge of the pudding top)

Discard the pudding top piece and cut out your traced topping shape

Step 3

Draw two holly leaf shapes on the interfaced side of the leaves fabric and cut out.

Step 4

Decide where you want to applique your pudding to the tea towel. If using double-sided fusible web fuse the pudding base to the front of your tea towel. If using fusible fleece as I did, pin and baste the pudding base to the tea towel front.

 Step 5

With matching thread blanket or satin stitch around the curved edge of the pudding. (The straight edge will be covered by the pudding topping piece)

Matching up the curved edges, and making sure that the straight edge of the pudding is covered, fuse or pin and baste the topping piece to the tea towel.

Blanket or Satin Stitch around all edges of the topping with matching thread.

Step 6

Repeat fusing and stitching for the two holly leaves on the top of the pudding.

Stitch the red button on where the holly leaves meet.

Finished in plenty of time for Stir-Up Sunday!

If you need more inspiration for your festive crafting, each month we add a brand-new Christmas or Holiday project to the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew archive. Click on the button at the top of the page to see all of the brilliant projects dreamt up to date by our fabulously talented guest hosts and be inspired!

Of course it wouldn't be a Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party without a giveaway and this month's giveaway is sure to spark your imagination!

 This very festive thread bundle has been generously donated by Tikki Patchwork

If you haven't come across Tikki Patchwork before you should definitely check them out and whilst you are there sign up to their newsletter to be sure of being in the know when new products hit the shelves or the sale signs go up! As I can personally testify their customer service is second to none :)

Last month's winner of the Animal Coin Purse pattern was Kathy at Running with Rocket who was quick enough off the mark to link up her own version of last month's Snowman Drawstring Bag tutorial from Sandra Sews

If you want to be in with a chance of winning that festive thread bundle then link up your Festive makes to this month's Link Party to be entered into the draw. Keep it current though no blasts from the past here! The Link Party is open until 23.59 GMT on October 31st so you have plenty of time to get stitching :)

An InLinkz Link-up

As ever a big thank you to all of our generous sponsors who provide such great giveaway prizes throughout the year

  

 

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

Handmade Christmas - Part 1

Now that our youngest son's birthday has passed (last week) we are officially allowed to mention Christmas in our house!

So I decided to get a start on some of the handmade presents I am hoping to give this year. I have had lots of ideas spinning around in my head, but it is now boiling down to what I can get the appropriate supplies for locally and what I actually have time to do.

First up some pineapple chutney for my foodie son and daughter-in-law,

Before the big day I will search out some Christmas fabric and my pinking shears to make covers for the jars I promise!

Next up a bracelet from memory wire for my eldest son's girlfriend

This was actually a kit that I bought a couple of weeks ago and was so easy that I will definitely be out buying more memory wire soon. It must have taken all of 10 minutes in front of the television to do - definitely my kind of project :)

Finally I got around to using up some of my blocks from Quiet Play's Say Cheese Polaroid Block swap to make a doll quilt. The doll and quilt are for my niece's daughter, I am not quite sure what that makes me to her or her to me!

I had great fun sorting through the blocks I received picking out the girliest ones!

Now that I am finally reunited with my stash I had the ideal backing fabric - bright pink and flowery, not something I would normally use but perfect for this.

I hope she enjoys playing with this quilt as much as I have enjoyed making it.

Just in case you are thinking that I am really on top of things I am admitting to this disaster, a stollen that didn't rise!

 It wasn't entirely my fault as I went to what was billed as an "Edible Christmas Gifts" cookery class and we ran out of time to prove our stollens for the second time, which meant taking it home and having to leave it overnight to prove. I think the freezing cold journey home didn't do my poor stollen any favours and it could have doubled as a brick the next day!

Unfortunately the stollen wasn't the only disaster in the kitchen this weekend. I dropped my Christmas pudding when taking it out of the steamer (I know it should have been made weeks ago!) and the pudding basin cracked in two! Cue a hasty switch to another bowl, but I will only know on Christmas Day whether it survived the fall or not. I am hoping everyone will be so full of the festive spirit they won't actually notice that the pudding is a rather strange shape :)

Hopefully the next bout of handmade activity will be less disaster prone!

I hope your weekend was productive too.

Buttons, Baubles and HST's

I have been wanting to try making buttons for ages, but have only just got round to making them with polymer clay, and what fun it was. Before Christmas I had a go at making Christmas pudding and Candy Cane earrings from clay for the craft stall at our charity Christmas Bazaar and was really pleased with how they turned out.

So when I found the right glaze and a texture mat in a local shop I was really keen to have a go at some buttons for my cushions, and I finally found the time this weekend. One of the great things about using the clay was that when it didn't quite go to plan I just gathered it all up and rolled it out again, which certainly beat unpicking stitches :) Making the buttons was really straightforward, after you have kneaded the clay for a couple of minutes to get it pliable, you roll it out stamp it, punch holes with a needle and bake it. Once baked I highlighted the stamped pattern with silver paint on some of the buttons and left others without any additional highlighting and then glazed them and left them to dry. I could have sanded them before painting and glazing them but didn't have any sandpaper so didn't, but I think I would in future as it probably gives a more professional finish.

Apart from the texture mat and an acrylic rolling pin the only other equipment I used to shape the buttons was an icing nozzle to cut out the round shapes and a darning needle to punch the buttonholes, so not much of an outlay! I am delighted with my buttons and can't wait to have another go at making them. The red ones I used to finish off the back of my reindeer cushion (the first of my 12 WIP's in 2012 to be finished!!!) and I will use the green ones on the back of my Shades of Green cushion (hopefully, the second of my 12 in 2012 WIP's!).

As we had more snow over the weekend there wasn't much incentive to go outside, so as well as playing with clay I also got the opportunity to tackle my first block for the HST BOM by In Color Order. I was delighted to be able to source all the fabrics needed from my stash, so no need to brave the elements for supplies. As I have no idea where we will be when the quilt is finished at the end of the year, this one is purely for pleasure.

I do like the pace of a BOM, as having made this block everything has been put back into the cupboard until the next block is revealed. I suspect though as holidays and life intervenes later in the year the schedule might not seem quite so relaxing! If you have completed a BOM quilt before you can let me know what to expect :)