Take a walk down Holiday Lane...

Welcome to my blog! 

Today I'm participating in the Holiday Lane blog hop with the lovely Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt. Thanks to our super-organized cheerleader, Pauline from Quilt'n Queen and Jillily

Studio for the great pattern!

Here's a photo of my finished piece; keep reading to read how I'm obsessed with Christmas villages, why my project is flat rather than stuffed, and how to enter the giveaway I'm offering.

When I first saw this blog hop, I knew I needed to be a part of it. My actual (porcelain) Christmas village spans a banquet table each December, complete with little evergreens, a mini nativity scene, and battery-powered street lamps. My high school boyfriend (who had his own collection!) got me started 17 years ago, and I've added to my village pretty much every year since. My favorite piece? A church that plays Silent Night that used to belong to my grandpa. 

My first fabric village was this nativity scene, which I recreated from a Christmas card my family received while I was in college. 

I sort of made this up as I went along, using fusible web and a lot of embroidery floss. I didn't know as much about sewing, and I made the border (cropped out here) out of batting. Hee hee. I just liked the texture...

This pillow still sits on my mom's couch every Christmas season. 

But back to Holiday Lane. You can see now why I wanted to be part of this blog hop. 

I also knew exactly what fabrics I wanted to use: a collection of homespuns and flannels that I'd been hoarding. My style isn't very "country," but there's something about a Christmas village 

that simply begs for homespuns and plaids.

Here are the options I started with: 

I auditioned my fabrics and chose the following:

Here it is pieced and appliqued, ready for some stitching embellishment. 

As I stitched, I decided some of the houses needed extra detail, so I added a few more windows 

and doors. 

Take a look at some of the stitching details up close:

I used some of the fancy stitches on my Janome to buttonhole stitch the outside edges of each house, and a cool icicle-looking stitch on the pine trees. The rest of the stitching was free motion quilting.

 Wavy lines through the snowy roofs, light gray zigzags creating "glare" in the windows,

Windowpanes on the windows, and back and forth stitching on the houses and doors.

Here it is as a pillow:

I made an envelope-style pillow and then a muslin pillow form. The muslin pillow form is too fat; you can't see all the houses. So until I redo that, the "pillow" is a wall hanging!

When I fix the pillow form, I think I'll also add some quilting lines into the red border, as it's too floppy and wrinkly compared to the rest of the piece. 

So there's my story! Time to get my Christmas village out to match my pillow...

Now that you've visited me, make sure to check out the other blog hop participants today. I can't wait to see what other quilters did with this pattern!

Wednesday November 21

Just Let Me Quilt

Simple Sew

sew.darn.quilt

 Color My World

Sew Maybe I Can

Handmade by Mary E

Sew Many Yarns

Pig Tales and Quilts

Tea Time Creations

Jane's Quilting

What's left? How about the giveaway!?!?

This charm square pack of Kate Spain's Flurry collection for Moda could be yours. Just in time for a last-minute holiday project! 

To enter:

1. Sign up as a follower or to follow my blog by email in the right hand sidebar, and then leave a comment to let me know you did so. (If you're already following, thanks! You're the best! Leave a comment here letting me know that.)

2. For a second entry, click here and like my Facebook page, and then leave a comment here letting me know you did so. 

3. Today is my birthday. So just for fun, in your comment for #1 and/or #2, tell me your favorite kind of birthday cake. I made myself pumpkin Kahlua cheesecake on Sunday. Yum! (And yes, I make my own birthday cake. I enjoy baking; my husband doesn't. I get what I want, which is not a store-bought cake, so I'm happy, which means he's happy too. Win-win!)

4. The giveaway will be open until 11:59 EST on Sunday, November 25. I'll use random number generator to select a winner from the comments on November 26. Check back on the 26th to see if you won!