Christmas Candles

Candles are fun - and floating candles are even more fun, for some reason.

I love floating candles, especially because my kids love them. And, the Christmassy holly candles just go well with the red rose. (Like I mentioned in the tree-skirt post, I like roses with "Christmas flowers!")

And candles and Christmas remind me of those places where the Bible calls Jesus "The Light" ...

"The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light:
they that dwell
in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined."

Isaiah 9:2

And, I also love the places where the Bible points out how Jesus fulfilled the things that were prophesied about Him in the Old Testament.

The people which sat in darkness

saw great light; and to them

which sat in the region and shadow of death

light is sprung up.

Matthew 4:16

More Fleece-and-Jeans Quilting ...

In the past few weeks, I've been sewing a lot of denim & jeans ... with pleasing results. :-)

Here's the latest fleece-and-jeans quilt.

(Apparently, it's all the rage to take quilt pictures with one's feet in the picture. No one's sure why. But, since I was wearing my favorite socks, I can go with it here ...)

This fleece-and-jeans quilt is a wedding gift for a friend who's getting married soon - so I had fun with the little custom detail of including their initials with a heart between ...

It's about the size of my couch, so it makes a good (big) throw-size quilt that's warm & fuzzy ...

Putting congratulations & best wishes into tangible form - into something warm and cozy - into something unique and customized - that's my kind of fun!

New Decorations!

I'm not a big decorator. And I'm OK with that.

But every now and then, a fun idea seems worth the trouble ... so, here's my latest Christmas decorating effort.

About a year ago, I read in somebody's quilt blog (can't remember which one!) that quilt bloggers sometimes decorate their walls with favorite fabrics in embroidery hoops. 

(Update: I found a couple of the links that inspired me: See some great pictures here, and a quick tutorial here.)

More recently, I heard that regular people like this idea, too, especially for Christmas fabrics, since the hoops look a little like Christmas-tree-ornaments. (Thanks for the inspiration, Sara!)

My new-favorite Christmas fabric that was leftover from the tree-skirt (see yesterday's post) made it into the biggest embroidery hoop. Add to that a couple of Christmassy remnants I'd already bought, and a couple of Christmas-colored fabrics that were given to me, and the rest of the embroidery-hoop frames were filled!

While not strictly a Christmas print, the one in the lower left is one of my favorites, since I love seeing cardinals in the winter, and since the house in the "picture" is a great representation of home & family, which are such a blessing.

I like the way this little set turned out. I'm enjoying my little fabric-collection decoration so much that I'm trying to figure out what to do with it after Christmas - Debating about maybe switching out the fabrics, to match the seasons ... Or finding more thrift-store hoops for another set of fabrics for when spring is on its way, so that I can keep this set for the Christmas box!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So - My Christmas tree has a TREE SKIRT!
For some reason, I feel very accomplished, having made a tree skirt for the first time. Ever.

I love that it only cost me a couple dollars, too. My favorite thrift store had this great jumper-dress made out of really neat Christmas fabric. I couldn't wear the jumper (or didn't want to?) - but I realized it was the perfect size/print/colors for some Christmas sewing.

So, sew I did. Actually, it was mostly serging, which made it nice. 

I love that this fabric has little shiny-gold highlights. I also love that this Christmas print has roses along with the holly and the poinsettias (and the other random flowers I don't recognize). It's "Christmassy" fabric, without being outlandish.

I'm happy that our Christmas tree has a "real" tree skirt. It would seem that the kitten is happy about this, too.