One month later...

I did sew during the month of November, but I guess I just never got around to taking pictures or recording it here.  Sorry!  But, I'm back in my sewing saddle, and I have several things to share this week. Hopefully I'll get lots of pictures of all the goodies I've been sewing.

First to share are new Christmas ornaments.  I took out all my Christmas decorations the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Within an hour of opening up the ornament box, Henry had shattered a glass ornament into a million little pieces.  I had plans of sewing some ornaments for our Christmas tree, but after the tragic ornament accident, I knew if we were going to have anything on the Christmas tree it would be sewn.  I guess I could have bought fabric or plastic ornaments but where's the fun in that?!

Over Thanksgiving while we traveled, I did lots of cutting, and then I spent all last week sewing and sewing and sewing.  I feel like I should have more to show for what I made, but each of the ornaments I made involved both machine sewing as well as hand stitching.  These labors of love are time consuming!

First up I made 6 of Anna Maria Horner's Holiday Hoots.  I've loved these for 2 years now, but never made any for myself.  I made some for my mom one year, and I admired them when Annee first made them a couple Christmases ago, but with so much other holiday sewing to be done, they never quite made the list.  This year they were prioritized.

I omitted the sequins and didn't do any accent stitching on the wings, but all the same these owl ornaments are something to hoot about!  Ha!

Next I used Dana from Made's tutorial to make initial ornaments.  These were super simple and rather quick. 

George really does like his ornament even though you'd never know it by his somber expression!

 The slowest part is cutting out the letters and machine sewing them.  Once you get that out of the way, the simple stitching around the circle is a breeze.  The hand sewing on these were done in under an hour.  Not too shabby.

While the initial ornaments went quickly, the 5 mini houses took me 5 hours minus the design and cutting time.  Talk about a labor of love.  

However, I had a good book to listen to which made the time pass quickly.  I also sewed them assembly line style which helped.

The mini houses are so cute, and part of me wished I made more, but then I think of how long it took to make 5, and I'm okay with not having more.  Maybe I'll make 5 more next year.  (Or maybe I'll just be totally happy with what I have!)

That's a grand total of 16 new ornaments on the Christmas tree.  I'll post a picture of all my new ornaments on the Christmas tree once I decide if I'm done making ornaments.  I have one more ornament that I've been designing in my head as I'm sewing other Christmas decor.  Should my ornament ever be more than a fleeting thought, I'll be sure to share.  Maybe I'll even get a little tutorial written for it.  It could be a little Christmas present for all of you who didn't give up on us over the last month.  I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Back to the sewing room/dining room table.  The Italian will be happy when my need to decorate every inch of the house with Christmas decor dies down so we can use the dining room table again.  It's looked like this for over a week.  (The sewing machine is on the table as well, but sadly didn't make it into this shot.)  

I had set a deadline in my head to have Christmas decor sewing done by December 1st, but with no one really enforcing the deadline, I was able to get an extension.  My new deadline is the end of the week.  I'll let you know if I get another extension.

Happy sewing!