Monday, December 16, 2019

Eli Needs a Santa Hat

Eli loves Christmas...mom leaves all this great stuff for him to play with all over the house.


I'm making two Tall Tree wall hanging quilts in hopes of displaying some cross stitch ornaments. I've got one quilted. Before this top made it to the quilt frame...Eli vomited on it...ewwww! 


So I had to wash a top that was a mass of bias edges. Thank goodness I had already removed all the paper from this paper-pieced pattern. The dried top was a wonky mess. I did my best to straighten it out with ironing...and it was looking good on the quilting frame...but as soon as I unpinned it the borders began rippling out of shape.

I will try to block the tree after the binding is added but my confidence in this project as the answer to displaying cross stitch ornaments is wavering.


I am enjoying a quilt that came out perfectly square when I quilted it last year. I need to add some more Christmasy stuff to the top of the treadle desk...more stuff for Eli to attack.

I have a few more quilted Christmas items.
It is a huge challenge to get nice photos of my quilted stockings I hang in my breakfast nook.


I cherish these stockings the most...


Each stocking took me about 40 hours to make.


The designer, Jodi Warner, used to release a new stocking every year. 


2010 was the last year she came out with a new stocking design.


I still have her designs from 2009 and 2010 that I want to make.

Oh well...maybe in 2020!

And speaking of Eli...


When I walked in the door from an afternoon dog walk...I caught Eli removing a few ornaments from the tree...three were on the floor below him.

He really would look cute with a kitty-sized Santa hat...or maybe he is really a Grinchy cat...hhmm.

9 comments:

Mary said...

Your home is looking so festive with all the handmade Christmas decorations. What a collection of gorgeous things. I especially love the quilt hanging over your sewing machine.

We have a cat too (Yoshi) who loves to knock the ornaments off our tree.

Carole @ From My Carolina Home said...

What lovely decorations, love all your stockings!

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I just love all the handmade ornaments - it took a lot of work over a lot of years to get all of them - your family must treasure them. I love the cat but they can be so naughty with Christmas trees!

Rebecca said...

I vote for Grinchy Kitty!

Love your stockings....

Sally said...

Eli is a saucy little guy! We purposely didn't put ornaments on our tree because the Skipper would think we'd put out new toys! I wish we could decorate the tree...maybe next year when he will be almost 3...our older cat could care less about the decor or the tree. That little quilt above your old machine is amazing. All those points! Sheesh!!!

Suz J said...

It is hard when cats and dogs do their best to undecorate the festivities... but being sick on something is going a step too far! Hopefully you will be able to wrangle that quilt back into submission. I have heard that using a bias cut binding can help with fixing wavy quilt edges although i have never tried it.

Donna quilts said...

Imagine how tempting the tree ornaments are for Eli! My cats are 16 years old, so although curious, they don't "attack" the ornaments, but rather enjoy napping on the tree skirt.
I can see why those stockings are your favorites - all those little teddy bears are adorable.
Would spray starch and blocking help your tall tree quilt?

Ramona said...

Your home just explodes with beautiful Christmas decorations. I just love these stockings, too. And your tree with all of the ornaments... gorgeous! Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

I fixed a wonky wall hanging by using invisible thread to ‘slightly’ gather the binding (inner edge of the binding, on the back) where needed. It seemed to work well. That’s a great idea to hang decorations on a tree wall hanging ... that’s my kind of Christmas tree,