Feeling Crafty...

What's with the late Thanksgiving Day this year? I should be up at the tree farm getting my pine boughs and wreaths and getting ready for Christmas.  But because this year's turkey day falls so late in the month, my internal holiday prep clock is all out of whack.  I want to start preparing for Christmas, but we haven't even thawed the turkey for Thanksgiving.

Here's the dilemma: My house is rather Southwest/Mediterranean in style - it can't make up it's mind if it wants to be decorated for the Cowgirl or the Tuscan wino in me.  Both personalities apply when it comes to my decorating style ( I think they call that eclectic).  Either way, the only time that I get to decorate with red (my favorite color) is at Christmas, so I impatiently wait for the Thanksgiving weekend so I can drag out all my red stuff.

Because we are having guests in from the East coast for a short visit before Thanksgiving, I guess that I will NOT start the Christmas decorating until next weekend. But in order to satisfy my holiday craving, I decided I could at least do a few crafty things for Christmas - and besides, don't pumpkins and poinsettias look pretty together???

Crafty Project No.1: A Wreath.  My great grandmother was evidently better at playing the piano than I am.  She had all kinds of sheet music, some of it dating back to WWI and WWII. My mother gave me a stack of her sheet music, much of which was deteriorating - we call that "vintage". I decided to make a paper cone wreath out of the pages that seemed less exciting - like the finger exercises books!

I cut the ragged edges from each page and rolled them into cones, affixing them with a hot glue gun.  When I had enough cones made I glued them onto a round piece of foam board.  I then made a second layer of cones that were slightly smaller and glued them on top of my first layer.

I used some black satin ribbon to make a hanger for the finished wreath and hung it in my living room near my grand piano. Note that I did succumb to my red Christmas fetish and brought out my red pillows for the love seat.

Crafty Project No. 2: A pillow to go with the wreath.  I had a small piece of fabric with musical notes on it. I decided I could add a poinsettia applique (in RED!!) on top of the music fabric. The finished pillow would coordinate with the new music wreath in to my little corner.

To make the poinsettia applique, I cut petal shapes out of a red and metallic tablecloth. I used a green print to add a couple of leaves for my flower. I appliqued each petal and the leaves onto the music background using a blanket stitch on my Viking.

Too cute...and it just set off the wreath on the wall behind.

Crafty Project No.3: A Table runner.  So back to Thanksgiving! My friend Micki wanted a Thanksgiving table runner for her very massive dining room table, and being the girl I am, I told her we could make one that would fit, knowing full well that the "we" is really just me.

She chose a gorgeous tapestry fabric and it had been sitting in my fabric closet for at least a month and a half.  Since Thanksgiving is next week, I thought perhaps she might like to actually have it for her dinner table.

Making a table runner involves simply cutting the fabric to the length you need and hemming it. Micki purchased half the length needed to fit her table.  I cut it lengthwise in half and matched the two pieces with a seam in the very center of the runner.  I serged the edges of the runner, turned them under and top stitched the hems.  (oh, and yes, I did miter the corners, but only because it was for her and not just for me! LOL!)

Looked great on my pool table...but I gave it to her this week!

I did have Dave drag all my plastic bins of Christmas decorations down from the attic...but they will wait patiently until next weekend...after Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day

Laurel