Christmas Gifts 2020 Part 1

An assortment of the ornaments I made

     I usually start on my Christmas gifts for the family in January or February.  That gives me time to sew while I can't be outside working in the garden.  I was all ready for 2020 and then everything shut down and we weren't going to be able to gather as we usually do.  I had to come up with something I could easily send to my siblings.  I chose to make ornaments that I could slip in with their Christmas card.

Gingerbread couple

     I chose to use a design from Designs by JuJu.  The file included both regular applique and a file to make an ornament.  I opted to make the 5x7 size.

Back of ornament

     To start, I cut pieces of felt 5" x 7" for the back and embroidered the year, 2020. I now know I should have cut them slightly larger as the ornament finished 5x7 and some room was needed around for the cutting.

Snowman

     I made two or three of each of the designs, sometimes changing the colors.  These each took about 45 minutes but they were fun to do.  It's a good thing I have lots of scraps from all the quilts I have made.  It makes it easier.  

Rudolph

     I hooped a pice of muslin for the base and floated tearaway stabilizer underneath.  It then was just a matter of stitching the outline for the fabric, laying the fabric piece on top, stitching the outline, remove the hoop, cut the fabric to the shape and keep repeating until all the fabrics were stitched and cut and the rest of the embroidery then took place.  I had a lot of fun choosing fabrics.

Penguin

     After all the stitching was done, then it stitched the outline of the ornament.  I then used painter's tape to put the embroidered felt onto the back of the hoop and then stitched the final outline.  I then unhooped the muslin and used my pinking shears to cut around the edges.

For Miss M

     I did use some non Christmas fabric for my granddaughter's ornament as she loves pink and purple.  She really liked it.  I spent a lot of extra time in my sewing room before Christmas but I do have my gifts for Christmas 2021 done, as long as we can get together again.