Hopeful Homemaker

After making my HOME Christmas bunting with my fun little Christmas light adorned house blocks, I decided to make an ornament as well.  My daughter and her husband recently moved to a new apartment, and I have a son who was married earlier this year.  It’s their first Christmas together, so a little HOME Christmas ornament felt right.

Technically, I made three.  Obviously one wasn’t enough, right?  I know I’ve said it several times recently, but I am especially enjoying my HOME quilt block this year.  Every time I finish one, I want to make another.

Here’s how I made my HOME Christmas ornament:

I started with the same 4″ blocks, foundation paper pieced, and embellished with Christmas lights.

Once your blocks are sewn, cut a piece of batting and a backing fabric square to match the size of your block.  Mine are all 4.5″ square.

Stack them with the batting on the bottom.  Add the HOUSE block second, facing right side up.  And finally, place the backing square wrong side up, on top.

I stitched them a bit differently than I did the bunting squares.  For the ornament, I started stitching on the top edge, about 1″ in from the right side.   You can see a small “x” in pencil at the points where I started and stopped.  Stitch around the sides and bottom of the block, maintaining a 1/4″ seam allowance.  Finish stitching and back stitch about 1 inch in from the left side on the top.

Carefully trim all four corners, and make certain you don’t clip the seam.  Carefully turn the block right side out.   At this point, it only needs a loop for hanging, tucked into that final open seam.

This is where I did a little bit of experimenting.  For my first block, I cut a piece of ribbon about 8 inches long and turned the raw edges of the block in.  Next I inserted the two raw ends of the ribbon into the seam and pinned it in place.  For this ornament I stitched the closure by hand.

On the second block, I decided to see how it might look if I topstitched the opening closed by machine.  To my surprise AND satisfaction, I liked the way it looked.  The seam at the top didn’t feel distracting to me.

As I finished the first two HOME Christmas ornaments, I wondered how difficult it would be to embroider a small word on the ornament.  Perhaps their names, or the year, or “first Christmas”?  In the end, I settled on “joy.”

I carefully penciled the word on, then clipped my batting square to the block before embroidering.  This prevents the threads on the back of the block from showing through, since I stitched through both the batting and the block.  So cute!

I’m going to have a busy holiday season, and I’m trying now to set my mindset for it all.  I settled on this sentiment:  welcome to the house of joy!

For this last ornament, I settled on a third option to finish it.  This one I did a little quilting on.

Like the second ornament, I stitched the top closed by machine, but kept going and sewed around the outer edge of all the white space.  I wasn’t sure how it would look to sew into the colored corners, and I know there are a lot of layers of fabric there.  This is why I kept to the white.  Next I stitched around the outer edge of the little green house.  You can see the quilting lines on the back:

This last ornament lays more flat than the other two.  I suppose I could have stuffed one like a pincushion to give it more substance, but I didn’t think of it at the time.  (Note to self:  this block could also make a fun pincushion.)  Either way, it was fun to experiment with three slightly different methods of finishing the ornament.

Do you have a preference?  I’m happy with all three.  And there is one more HOME Christmas project still to come:  a stocking.

I have had years where the holidays came and went and I didn’t do a bit of holiday themed sewing.  It made me a little sad.  I am grateful this year to have squeezed it in with plenty of time to enjoy these little projects.  I hope you’re able to do the same!

My mini HOME Christmas blocks didn’t sit for long!  I wanted to do something that would showcase them and especially those cute Christmas lights.  Without further delay, let’s look at this cute HOME Christmas bunting, ready to hang for the holiday.

I used five of my six 4″ HOME quilt blocks to make this bunting, and I alternated the house colors.

It makes me smile, and also makes me excited for the holiday season.

Much like the cute little French knot Christmas lights along the rooflines, I also love another small detail.  I used a light mint green for the double fold bias tape connecting the houses, and wanted a little something extra.  So obviously I cheered a little inside when I found an itty bitty pink rick rack to include.  I stitched it on top of the bias tape after the bunting was put together.  Here’s a good closeup:

Want to make one?  Let’s look at how I made mine.

First I cut backing pieces and batting pieces the same size as each block.  These all measure 4.5″ square.

Place the pieces in this order:  batting on the bottom, HOME block on top of it right side up, then backing on top right side down.  Lay them all exactly on top of one another.

Starting at the top right corner, sew 1/4″ around the side, bottom, and then the left side of the stack.  Leave the top open for turning right side out.  I like to clip the two bottom corners.  Be careful not to clip the seam!

Turn them right side out you’ll have these cute little blocks.  They’re like little pockets.  Arrange them in the order you like, and decide how close together you want them.

I decided to space mine 4″ apart.  If I was making a second bunting, I would probably put them a little closer together.  Slip the open top side of the block into the double fold bias tape, pin or clip them in place, and then stitch down the length of the bunting.

First I sewed the bias tape close to the edge to secure the blocks.  Then I went back and topstitched the mini rick rack in place.

I didn’t sew the ends closed until after I added the rick rack.  Then I tucked the raw ends inside and topstitched it closed.

And that’s it!  My HOME Christmas bunting is complete!

I’m not done with my HOME block yet.  I also made a stocking and an ornament.  And I’m still dreaming of a Christmas quilt made of these darling little 4″ HOME blocks.

After playing so much last month with my moody little HOME blocks (which became this and this), and then making my HOME beach hut pillow cover, I wanted to sew more blocks.  I chose a Christmas theme, using the 4″ HOME quilt block size and alternating red and green colors.  Now I’ve got a small collection of mini HOME Christmas blocks.  And let me tell you, they are CUTE!

Happy sigh.  Placed next to each other, I really like the secondary patterns in the corners.  This would also be a fun theme to explore in a larger project.

Since these are Christmas houses, I thought they might like to have some little Christmas lights.  Why not?  The question was, white or colored, and how to do it.  I decided to try colors, hoping to play up the candy shop color scheme in these blocks.  First I selected six bright colors, and next I got out a ruler to measure the length of the roofline.

I decided that a 1/4″ spacing looked nice, and it allows me to rotate twice through all the colors with the first color on both edges and center top.  I marked my lights with Sharpie, making tiny dots that aren’t difficult to cover with a French knot.  Let the embroidery stitching begin!

And they are so much fun!  I love these blocks with their little lights.  Of course I had to keep going until all of them were fully decorated for the holiday.

Once I finished these mini HOME Christmas blocks, I looked at a 6″ Christmas themed block I’d sewn, and figured, why not?  Using the same six colors, and the same 1/4″ spacing, I marked more lights and started adding French knots.  Naturally we needed another line of them on the second roofline as well.  I mean, who doesn’t love Christmas lights?

I’ve discovered my new favorite embellishment for these little blocks.   Obviously I need to do something cute with them.  I’m thinking more than one something cute.  Stay tuned for more!

I’m headed back to my sewing machine.  Have a great day!

-Jennifer