It really feels like Christmas in my sewing room today! I think I just gave myself the best present ever. …..
Did you ever have that feeling of intensely looking forward to Christmas because you knew you were getting that present that you’ve always wanted? But then there was also a little bit of trepidation that that “ultimate” present wouldn’t live up to your expectations? And then Christmas finally arrives and the present is even better than you’d hoped for, and the elation is enormous? You can tell I’m excited, because I’m babbling…..
Anyway, I’ve just had one of those rare experiences. I bought myself something, I’ve mustered the courage to try it out, and opening the box wasn’t actually the pinnacle of the experience. Yes!!!!! High fives all round!
It’s the last day of the Spring 2018 Art with Fabric blog hop, and my turn to show you my quilt interpretation of the hop theme “1+1=3”.
What does “1+1=3” mean to you and how would you quilt it? My first thoughts were to produce a set of quirky critters that captured the essence of a young family. But May has been seriously crazy and I had neither the time nor energy in the end to whip up such a pattern from scratch.
The other connotation I was strongly drawn to was the mathematical impossibility of the “1+1=3” statement. And this led me down the path of optical illusions and the deliberate act of placing shapes and colours such that the brain sees things that don’t exist. So that is what I have explored.
I ended up with this mini quilt, which I have called Illusions of Christmas.
Let me tell you more about this little quilt, the inspiration source and how it came about.
Psst…… If the green pieces in this quilt look square and straight to you then the illusion isn’t evident. If this is the case and you want to see the illusion right now, get out of your seat and stand back from your screen. When you are too close to the quilt your eyes are not fooled into seeing what is not there.
Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today I wish, I wish he’d go away…
(Hughes Mearns, public domain)
Another Colour Inspiration Tuesday – and finally, that ornament tutorial…..!
Well, thanks to you guys, I have learned another new thing this week! As you are probably aware by now, I have been working on writing up a tutorial on the Christmas Bells ornament I created for last week’s Colour Inspiration Tuesday. But I still wanted to give you a mood board this week, and somehow link it all together.
So, this week, when I noticed that my Hoya plant is in flower, all my bloggy wishes came true…… I got a photo for a mood board and another idea for an ornament using the same technique as for my bell. For my Hoya carnosa has star shaped flowers, and stars are definitely relevant to Christmas. I stole the shapes and colours of my Hoya’s flowers and plagiarised them into this:
And in the process of working through this week’s Christmas Stars idea, I found out something. Did you know that Hoya carnosa (also known, among other names, as the common Wax Flower) is an Australian native? I didn’t. I had always assumed all Hoyas were exotics. It turns out that there are at least seven Australian Hoyas, and Hoya carnosa is native to Queensland (Australia) and several other locations in Asia. I love learning new things, especially happy things.
Perhaps you like learning new things too. Then you might like to try making your own Christmas ornaments like those I have been making this week….. Christmas Bells, Christmas Stars and Christmas Trees. Oh yes, I made a Christmas Tree version as well…… if an idea is fun, you should flog it til it’s dead, right?! Of course! hahahaha 🙂
How to make “String Art style” Christmas Ornaments
The inspiration to make Christmas decorations in a string art-like style came to me from a fusion of ideas that started many many moons ago. The first seed was planted when I discovered Deb Layt, an Australian quilter who at the time was embellishing her quilts with a netting made from pearl cotton couched onto soluble stabiliser. She calls this netting geoweb. If you have ever made freestanding lace on soluble stabiliser with an embroidery machine, it is essentially a cruder, hand-directed version of this. I have dabbled with this technique over time, making the occasional bookmark and adding highlights to art quilts such as the hot air balloons on the quilt I entered into this year’s local state guild show.
Now, I have many times eyed off string art pieces as pre-cursor ideas for thread painting or quilting designs, but to date, I have never acted on these ideas. But in seeing Emily’s ornament, I was reminded – hmmmmm, I could make “string art” tree ornaments with that geoweb technique…….
And then the idea sat there in the gloomy depths of unresolved creative thoughts until last week. When I suddenly fused it with the ideas that I have already laid out for you in the Christmas Bells Colour Inspiration Tuesday post. Here is how I did it (and how you can do it too).
You will need:
A sewing machine set up for zigzag/satin stitch
A thick thread for the backbone of your ornament. I suggest starting with a size 3 pearl cotton, but I have also successfully used thinner (size 8) pearl cotton, as well as thicker cotton twine from the hardware store.
Sewing machine thread – rasant, poly-cotton or 100% cotton will do. Put the same thread in the bobbin as you have running through your needle. This is a good opportunity to use some of those old or cheap threads you have somehow accumulated that will (should) never end up on a quilt – you will have the most success if you match the colours of your thread to your pearl cotton and don’t use fancy threads (rayon, metallic etc) until you are comfortable with the basic technique.
water soluble stabiliser (sorry, I don’t know the brand of mine, I purchased it as yardage off a roll and have had it a long time). The stabiliser I am using was originally purchased to facilitate machine embroidery on towels. It is 100% soluble and clear, it is not the disintegrating fibre, opaque type sometimes used for appliqué.
a biro, and a paper template if you do not wish to draw your own design freehand. I have supplied you a downloadable sheet of Christmas templates for the 3 shapes I used. Update: there are now also instructions for a Christmas Bauble shape option in a guest post on Days Filled with Joy.
beads and ribbon for decoration and hanging.
What to do:
Step 1
Trace the outline of your shape onto the water soluble stabiliser. Biro works well for this and doesn’t leave traces after washing out the stabiliser. I have tried using permanent markers and found they partly transfer from the stabiliser to the couched threads.
You do need to know that your finished ornament will end up slightly smaller than your original design. How much smaller will depend on the thread you are couching onto the stabiliser, the brand stabiliser you are using, the tension settings on your machine and how tightly you can keep the stabiliser stretched while you are sewing.
Trim the stabiliser around your traced shape, leaving sufficient margin that you can comfortably sew around the edge of the design while not sewing your fingers! Cut out a second piece of stabiliser the same size as the first and lay it on top of the first. Secure the two layers together temporarily using pins.
Step 2
Set your machine to a very small zigzag stitch. I set mine on the lowest width and stitch length possible when I am couching pearl cotton. I used the decorative foot, which has a wide groove underneath so that it runs over raised surface stitching more easily. While using a foot that has the centre line marked is very helpful to see where your pearl cotton should lay, a special couching foot is totally unnecessary for this project.
Lay the pearl cotton on the outline of your design, starting in a position where you will not be required to immediately turn any corners. Leaving a tail, sew enough stitches along the length of the pearl cotton to secure it to the design. Snip off the pearl cotton and thread tails.
Continue couching the pearl cotton around the main shape until you reach the beginning again, overlapping the start point slightly to secure the beginnings of all threads. Ignore the hanging loop and any projecting shape outlines (like the bell ringer) for the moment. We’ll come back to them.
Once you have stitched all the way around the main shape you can remove the pins, as your stabiliser layers are now fixed itogether by stitching.
Step 3
With the needle in the down position, turn your work so that you will next sew across the design. It is easiest to make couching turns if the needle is down on the inside of the corner.
Sew across the design to the opposite edge. Make sure you catch the edge couching with a few stitches, then turn again and sew across the design in another direction. Repeat until you have filled the design. Make sure you catch the edge each time you finish crossing the design.
As you travel around the design you will eventually end up near a feature that needs adding….. take the opportunities to do this as they arise.
Step 4
Once your couching is dense enough to look great, secure the end with a few backstitches and trim off the threads.
Thoroughly wash your piece to dissolve the stabiliser. If you have stitched correctly, the couched shape will be quite stiff, self-supporting and require no further treatment. Dry your piece and decorate as desired.
Decorate as desired……
To the bell ornament I added a green bell off an old cat collar plus a remnant of purple ribbon. I think the ribbon was about 30cm long…. I am not going to remove it now to measure it. You know how long it takes to make bows look good!
To the top of the Christmas Tree ornament I added a cherub button left over from an Advent quilt I made many years ago. I would have preferred a star, but I am trying to be good and use what I have. I also added beads from my collection and three rings as “ornaments”. Do you know what the rings are? Eyelets! I stitched the decorations on, but you could use glue.
Adding a hanging ribbon to these ornaments is easy…. Just thread it through one of the holes at the top!
Tips for making the “Christmas Stars” ornament
For the ornament to match the Christmas Stars mood board, I decided to see how far I could push the boundaries of this technique. So I used cotton twine for the backbone, with rayon thread for the white and yellow sections, metallic thread for the maroon centre and also a pink rasant thread for the detailing. The rasant is stitched over the finished ornament – I did not couch any thread under this stitching. The pearl beads and bead cap in the centre were inherited from a friend’s mother.
Using the twine and fancy threads was more difficult than pearl cotton and standard sewing thread. My tips? For twine use a wider zigzag. For fancy threads make sure you drop the upper thread tension on your machine. And sew slower.
When I wanted to change thread colours I did not cut the cotton twine, I just anchored the couching thread, swapped the top thread and started again where I left off. For the star I used white sewing thread in the bobbin regardless of which thread I had on top.
And there you have it!
I hope these instructions make sense….. if not, please ask questions. Because if you are wondering something, it is likely that others are also wondering the same thing.
Enjoy your creative time leading up to the holidays. If you make a string art-style ornament I would love to know….. there are so many shapes you could try…. what about a dove, a snowman, baubles, a stocking, a snowflake…..? You are really only limited by your imagination, (and time of course). And just so you know, shapes with corners are easier than those with curves.
Wouldn’t these make fabulous decorations to finish off a special gift?! Speaking of gifts, I am off to Days Filled with Joy to see what else Joy has put on her 12 Days of Last Minute Homemade Gift ideas list. Don’t forget to keep an eye on this too.
P.S. If Suffolk Puffs (Yo-Yos) and hand sewing are more your thing, why not give my friend Evija’s Christmas Ornament tutorial a try? Evija was my partner in the 2017 Ornament Exchange, and she sent me these two beauties that are now on my tree. Enjoy! 🙂
Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Celebrating the Holidays with Inspiration from Real Life
Here in Australia, sometimes it can be hard to reconcile the major seasonal holidays with the weather. Spring is now in full swing and summer is doing its best to come early this year. So here I am, merrily decorating our Christmas tree in ornaments which, on the whole, celebrate winter….. while quietly pondering whether I should just abandon ship and head to the pool instead…..
But, not everyone here is as confused as I am. There is at least one local that does our summer Christmas wholeheartedly, with absolutely no inhibitions. It is not a person though, it is a street tree. For the rest of the year, this tree is actually a bit on the plain side, possibly verging on ugly. A funny, almost stunted looking tree, unassuming, lacking in any apparent vigour and vitality. But come November and December, it does this!
This tree is a hybrid from the Brachychiton family. Two Australian natives – the Kurrajong tree (white bell flowers with pink/red insides) and the Flame Tree (scarlet red bell flowers) – can be crossed to get hybrids like this one that produce masses of pink bells.
To add to the fun, because the tree is so unworthy the rest of the time, I forget how amazing it is for the few weeks that it flowers. So, every year the kids and I get a nice moment of sudden realisation that the “Christmas Bells” are back, heralding the end of school and promising Christmas.
How to respond to such extravagant Christmas Spirit?
Well, the obvious answer is to produce something Christmas flavoured in dusky pinks and green. A “Christmas Bells” quilting motif or quilt design perhaps? Well, these bell flowers actually put me in mind and mood of a small Christmas project I have been musing over for a couple of weeks, ever since the Ornament Exchange Tour. And I would have made it in pink but I couldn’t lay my hands on my pink pearl cotton yesterday. So purple had to do. Since I still have purple and green on the brain from the last few weeks, and our purple Bougainvillea is still out in full flower, I admit that wasn’t a hard compromise to make.
This is what I created in response to my thoughts around Christmas Bells.
How to make my Christmas Bells Ornament?
Would you be interested in a short tutorial on how to make this ornament? I wanted to do the tutorial for you today, but there are just too many other things that need attention before the end of the week. I am hoping I might be able to write it up for you next week though. How does that sound?
Sorry for the tease (or maybe it is just a sneak preview?), but it seemed silly not to show you what I made in a rare quiet moment in response to my musings around today’s Colour Inspiration Tuesday. November is simply a crazy month for our family! It’s the same every year. Update: the tutorial is done – you can find it here!
So on that note, I must be getting on with those other things, but I wish you a lovely and productive week and hope to catch you back here on Thursday with my One Monthly Goal. Yup, last minute, as usual! Did you really expect anything else? 🙂
P.S. BREAKING NEWS!! Last night Clever Chameleon arrived on Facebook….. I know, not exactly earth shattering, but another step forward for my baby blog. 🙂 If you’d like to follow via Facebook, I’d be very glad of your company! Thanks a million!!
Welcome to the 2017 Ornament Exchange & Blog Hop! This year, there are 47 amazing bloggers participating in the exchange. The rules of the challenge were simple: be partnered with a fellow blogger, create a handmade ornament for $15 or under, create a tutorial, and ship the ornament off to a new home!
Introducing my Ornament Exchange Partner
My 2017 Ornament Exchange partner is the amazing Evija Roberts of From Evija with Love. Evija has a wonderful DIY, crafts & furniture up-cycling blog, where she shares all the creative things she and her cute pug Coco get up to.
Evija’s preferred style of ornament for this exchange is traditional, in silver and white. Luckily for me, I also got bonus intel…. last year Evija did a post about her new Christmas tree and some of her family traditions, so I was able to see exactly what I was aiming for! 🙂
How the Drum Ornament came to be
When I signed up for this blog hop, I had a stack of ornament ideas in my head. But none of them were conceived with the simple elegance of silver and white in mind. And since I’d used up all my silver fabric scraps on several projects last Christmas, I was effectively handed a clean slate to try something different, and an excuse to go craft shopping. Actually, that’s pretty much my definition of Christmas!! Whoop!
I went my local craft store not having a clue what I might make., but assuming colours would be no big deal. But when I got there I discovered all sorts of fun Christmasy fabrics in stock, but nothing in just silver, or in silver and white, or even predominately silver. So, I bought pieces of the two most silver textiles I could see and went home to invent “something”.
Soon I was happily humming “Pa rum pa pum pum, rum pa pum pum, rum pa pum pum…”. My supplies had spoken. After tinkering for a while, I realised I had serendipitously purchased exactly the right things to make a drum ornament!
PA RUM PA PUM PUM! ….. Go on, hum along as you take a look at my tutorial. 🙂 If you do not yet have the Drummer Boy carol firmly stuck in your head, either you are made of very ear-worm resistant stuff, or your education is lacking somewhere and you should google it…… Enjoy!
Insul-fleece, ordinary fleece or other heavy non-fraying material such as quality felt – You will need a slightly larger piece than that of the feature fabric
6 small beads ( I chose 4mm clear rainbow pearl beads that I had on hand)
6-8″ scrap of thin ribbon to match your project (I used white ribbon snipped from new clothing… you know, that ribbon added to clothes for display hanging purposes….. why waste it?)
cardboard tube (the cardboard tube insert from a hand towel roll or similar)
thread to match or complement your feature fabric and beads
hot glue and gun (or ordinary glue and some patience!)
a very small amount of air-drying polymer clay (steal it from your kids/grandkids if you can)
hand-sewing needle, scissors, masking tape or other strong sticky tape, pencil
Optional supplies:
glitter
sewing machine and iron (for sewn version as pictured)
your favourite non-permanent fabric marking method (such as chalk, wash-out marker, freezer paper) for marking hexagon shapes
glue stick (for people who do not like to sew)
Notes on my specific supplies:
The feature fabric I used is called X17 Sparkle Xmas Hexagons (cream) from the Spotlight Apparel Fabric range. It was the hexagon print that directly triggered my idea for the drum ornament. However, there is no need to actually have a hexagon print for this project. Your favourite yardage or scraps cut into hexagons will do equally well.
I also chose to use Insul-fleece (by Legacy) for the main body of the drum purely because it has an Aluminized Polyethylene coating on the back that is shiny silver. …….ooooooh, shiny…… 🙂 . If you don’t need the silver effect, feel free to substitute felt or fleece in your favourite colour instead.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1
Trace out 6 hexagon shapes onto the paper-backed adhesive and iron onto the reverse side of your feature fabric. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for ironing on your brand of adhesive. Cut out your hexagons and remove the paper backing. Note:If you are using a fabric printed with suitable sized hexagons like I did, you can just iron on the adhesive without pre-marking the hexagon shapes.
Alternative method:If you want to do a no-sew version of this ornament, simply mark out 6 hexagons on your fabric and cut them out. You don’t need to use the iron-on adhesive.
Step 2
Lay your hexagons onto the soft white side of the Insul-fleece, (or on your felt). If you would like to see borders of the backing fabric around your hexagons on the finished ornament, space your hexagons out accordingly.
Adhere your feature hexagons to the Insul-fleece or felt with a hot iron.
No-sew method: Use the glue stick to adhere your fabric hexagons to your chosen backing textile and skip step 3. Please do not use a glue stick if you intend to machine sew your hexagons! It will be no fun if you gum up your machine!
Step 3
Sew around the edge of your hexagons to permanently fix them to the backing textile. Use a thread colour that blends with or adds to your design as you wish, keeping in mind that the sewing will be visible once the ornament is completed. Do this step before you cut the hexagons out of the backing fabric – because sewing around individually cut hexagons is too fiddly….. ask me how I know…… 🙂
No-sew method: Skip Step 3
Step 4
Cut out your 6 hexagons. You can either cut the hexagons flush with the boundaries of the feature fabric or if you have allowed for it, with a border of fleece/felt.
Step 5
Place two hexagons reverse-sides together. Join them together by sewing a few stitches on the spot to create an anchor point in one top corner and then the bottom corner directly below. This can be done either by hand or machine.
Step 6
Open up your work so that you can lay the third hexagon behind the second hexagon. Join these two hexagons with a few stitches in the free top and bottom corners of the second hexagon. Repeat this step until you have a chain of 6 hexagons.
Step 7
Form your hexagon chain into a circle and sew the top and bottom corners of hexagon 6 to hexagon 1. Quietly trim any corners that haven’t quite lined up to get a nice straight top for your drum. Your feature fabric should be on the outside of the circle and your drum should now look like this…..
Step 8
If you are making a drum that is thinner than your cardboard tube, cut the cardboard tube lengthwise.
Now, overlap the cut edges to create a narrower tube that fits snuggly inside your hexagon circle.
Secure the tube at the correct diameter with tape.
Note: If you are using the largest size hexagons from my template, a standard (Australian) paper towel roll insert should fit inside your hexagon circle unaltered, so you can skip this step.
Step 9
Shorten your cardboard roll to a few mm less than the height of your hexagon circle.
Next, cut two fabric scraps into rough circles somewhat larger than the ends of your cardboard tubes.
Snip the overhanging fabric from the edge in towards the tube so that the fabric bends easily over the tube. Secure one circle of fabric to the top of the tube with tape or glue to form the top of your drum.
Repeat this process with the second circle of fabric to form the bottom of your drum. I used Insul-fleece for the top of my drum and a white fabric scrap for the base.
Step 10
Fold your ribbon in half and secure both ends to the tube (with glue or tape) so that the loop will emerge from the top of the drum for hanging.
Slide the completed tube assembly into your hexagon circle. Secure with a little glue inserted between the tube and the hexagon circle.
Step 11
Each hexagon should have two corners poking out from the circle. Join these two loose corners to each other with a few hand-stitches so that they come together in front of their own hexagon.
Once each corner is secure, stitch a bead onto the point for decoration.
Step 12
Create two drumsticks by trimming two toothpicks or bamboo skewers to size (for small drums use toothpicks, for larger drums use skewers).
Add a small ball of polymer clay to the end of each stick. Optional: Knead glitter into the polymer clay for a little more sparkle on your drumsticks.
Attach the drumsticks to the drum with a few hand-stitches or a little glue.
Step 13
Send a picture of your fabulous creation to dione @ cleverchameleon.com.au so I can share it with everyone and we can see how clever you are! Then enjoy your new Christmas ornament and have a safe, magical Christmas!
Here’s a couple of variations of the drum ornament that I made: with borders around the hexagons – one with a simple solid purple feature fabric.
FIND ALL 47 HANDMADE ORNAMENT TUTORIALS BELOW AND SHARE YOURS TOO! Use Hashtag #2017OrnamentExchange so we can see your creations on social media.