Greetings

This year, I wondered what I would put on my front door. I figured I had a wreath - somewhere. While I was waiting for December 1st to arrive, I came upon this little hanging.

It’s called Emma’s Tree. The pattern came from one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. One of the members, Miriam, lost her daughter (a mother of two little girls) to cancer. As a way to get through her grief, she came up with this pattern. She has given it away for free providing people attach a little note as to it’s reason for being. I have made several for family and friends in various colours. This one was made for my mom who loved the colour red.

Leaving with a gift

Both daughters have now left. Christmas in February went by quickly but was filled every day. Both girls got in some family time and some visiting with friends time. Avatar even made it on the list and there were eight of us that took in the 10:00 p.m. show. 
We brought Laila to the airport last Sunday morning and this morning we took Ayla to the airport.  She is on her way back to England as I write this.

That bag she has is her one carry-on luggage and I can attest to the fact that it was HEAVY.

 

Just making sure all the paperwork is here.

 

I asked Ayla if she wanted an Emma's Tree in a different colour than the Christmas one I made her and she said yes but she wanted it to go with her decor. She said her room was black and white - with red. The first one I cut up and put up for display was way too red so I cut some more black and white squares from the fat quarters that she selected and had her help to arrange them the way she wanted. It has a curtain ring hanger on the back so that she can hang it on her wall. I am currently working on a new bag for her but since she said there was no way that she could squeeze it in to her luggage, I didn't rush to finish it. When it's done, I will show the finished bag. She chose the fabric and the lining from my stash and all I had to buy was cording for the handle, a zipper and interfacing.

Craft night and Emma's Tree

My daughter, Maili, has wanted to do a regular craft night. We were supposed to get together to make Christmas ornaments but that never happened. So, in order to keep to some sort of commitment she gave me 12 "coupons" so that we could have craft night (or afternoon) once a month. Last month she wanted to make a floor pillow. I had no need for one but I did help with the drawing of the pattern, the measuring of the fabric and I was the consultant when it came to sewing it together. The top and bottom fabrics came from my stash and looked like they may have been curtains at one time. The side fabric is an old curtain that she bought from Value Village or Goodwill and decided to recycle because she liked the colours.        

This is some of the fabric she was going to use but the top yellow fabric was discarded in favour of the more neutral colour that I had in my stash.

                                         
Clever idea. Since we didn't know initially how big or how small or even what shape to make the floor pillow, Maili decided to use Christmas wrapping paper from the roll. I just folded over one corner and cut it into a square and we went from there. We ended up with a round pillow that was made by folding the square into quarters and using a pencil with a string attached to draw a quarter of a circle. (you hold the end of the string in the middle and then draw a line with the pencil - like you've learned way back when)

This is the end result all sewn by my daughter. she double stitched all the seams since it will most likely get a lot of use and wear. She does wonderful hand stitching so that is what I told her to do to close off the side. I just measured the paper pattern and it is 27.5 inches and I am pretty sure that she used half inch seams and the sides are 15 inches since I used my 15 inch square to cut the fabric. Quick and error-free. It is stuffed with scraps of fabric and batting and it also has an old winter coat that my husband donated. She thinks it's too big and it did take a lot of stuff to stuff it with. There was even enough fabric that she cut a rectangular shape to make another floor cushion BUT we don't have enough stuff to fill it yet.

Other things:
I have been busy doing other things. My two other daughters come home this weekend (one from London, England and one from British Columbia) so I have been trying to get the house in order. It will be nice to have the whole family together since they didn't come for Christmas. 
I have also managed to make another Emma's Tree. I plan on giving it to my mom and replacing it with the one I made her at Christmas. This one is more of a generic colour and can stay up in her room all year round if she wants. 

I photographed it sitting on the new floor pillow before it left my home.  I love the colours and will be making more in just various greens. It has a flat batting (I don't know the type or the name - could be a piece of pellon) and I machine quilted it just to hold everything in place. I also sewed a ring in the back so it can hang on the wall.

Oh, one more thing. I really don't like hexagons and would never make a grandmother's flower garden quilt BUT just maybe I would put a couple together to make a wall hanging like this one -
http://laplandyellow.blogspot.com/2010/02/zo-af-en-toe.html
Click on the photo to see it in all its glory. Simply beautiful!!! Marja does wonderful work. Use google translator.

Update on London and Emma's Tree

So now that I have sent my goodies to London and the little girl has received them, I can show you what I have been working on. Some friends of Ayla's went to London to visit relatives and they were kind enough to offer to bring her whatever we wanted. I hurried up to finish these so that she could do a bit of decorating for Christmas - a little bit of home. She is doing well BTW, and both she and Allie have found jobs. February is the month that she and her oldest sister plan on coming home so we will be having a family get-together then.

Here is the completed Emma's Tree. I found some fabric snowflakes and sewed them on with a bead in the middle of each. It is just lightly quilted to hold the batting and backing in place. Ayla called it a piece of art.

Since Ayla will not be home this year for Christmas, and since her stocking is at home, I made her this Santa Mitt to take the place of a stocking. I bought the kit way back in October when Judy and I went to the creative Sewing and Needlework Festival. This kit was put together by my favourite Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan quilt store, The Quilt Patch. I wasn't too keen on the fabrics but was persuaded to sew it with all the fabrics in the kit. I hoped Ayla would like it.

It does have a thin batting and I machine quilted it just to hold it together. The lining is a thin fleece-type material. I am happy to report that Ayla opened these yesterday morning and she loved them. Now, I have to make a few more grown-up stockings for a few of the other family members. The ones that we have used for years and years are a bit childish but this is the first year I was given permission to make new ones. A new tradition I suppose.

Emma's tree and giveaway win

One of the online yahoo groups I belong to is called Learning Fibre Arts or learningfa. One of the women who belongs to the group, Miriam, from Ireland, lost her daughter to cancer a couple of years ago. In order to cope while her daughter battled this disease, Miriam spent hours in her sewing room just cutting fabric. She made this tree in her daughter's honour after she lost her battle with breast cancer. Emma left behind two small daughters of her own.

It is not finished as you can see. It needs a tree trunk and then it needs batting and the backing. I think I may embellish it before I put it together.

I won a giveaway at Carol's blog. She is a Scot in Tennessee. She had several giveaways at the end of October. I love the book and have tried to decide which one I want to do first. None of them are very big and so they are quite doable. Aren't those fabrics great - sewing related - and that little square ruler will be coming in very handy. Thank you Carol.