Holiday Fabric Craft Ideas

Hello everyone!

Kathy invited me to post here at our ASG Syracuse Chapter blog.

Since I was under the weather and missed a nice Neighborhood Group (NG) mtg yesterday (Sat. 11/14/09) of the DeWitt Darts, I thought I would contribute some links to the blog that I found while I was home sipping tea and surfing the www this weekend.

My name is Stephanie and I live in the F-M area East of the city. I'm a newer member of this local ASG Chapter, although I have been sewing since my teenage years (I won't count the doll clothes I made before that ;)

Over the decades, I have continued to enjoy dabbling in various arts & crafts, although as it happens, I lack the drawing skills of actual artists and sometimes feel a bit challenged to fully grasp the total effect a series of various color and texture choices might have on a finished design. Needless to say, I am always learning!

With the Fall & Winter Holidays coming up, I was looking for some fun fabric projects one could do that don't necessarily involve Machine Embroidery (ME). Now I happen to love do to ME work, but I know that not everyone does. Another time I'll post about some ideas that are for ME work, but today I thought that I would share some more general types of holiday craft project ideas.

Over at the Hewlett Packard (HP) site, I found an interesting Vintage Santa Wall Hanging. It incorporates vintage images from yesteryear that are printed off on specially prepared fabric to create a beautiful holiday theme item. I know some gals buy the ready-to-print type fabric, while others prepare some fabric themselves for this type of printing process, but either way it is a neat idea.

You'll find the link here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/acProject lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&extsubcat=holidayandspecialoccasions&extcat=quilting&extproject=vintagesantawallhanging

or just use a search engine and enter something like the following and the site will come up:

Hewlett Packard Vintage Santa Wall Hanging

Next I found a cute casserole carrier with a country moose design at the Thimbleberries site:

http://www.thimbleberries.com/pdf/THP00173.pdf

After that, I found a couple of versions of a Holiday Card Holder in a Christmas Tree Shape (done up like a memory board) at:

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/holiday-card-holder-669662/

or

http://www.allcrafts.net/f.php?url=www.wrights.com/wrights/class/12_xmas/treecardholder/treecardholder.

A Victorian Angel Card Holder Fabric project I came upon was here:

http://www.sewing.org/files/project/victorian_angel_card_holder.pdf

Then a Folded Star Trivet Tutorial for a neat pair of folded star trivets that intrigued me were here:

http://lieslmade.wordpress.com/2006/11/18/folded-star-hotpad-tutorial/

Of course, Thanksgiving is coming up around the corner, so finally, here's a link for a very nice looking Harvest Table Runner that anyone would love to have on their Thanksgiving table:

http://www.sewing.org/files/project/harvest_table_runner_cranston.pdf

and another table runner found here is also quite attractive:

http://www.cranstonvillage.com/uploadedFiles/falling-leaves-table-runner(1).pdf

Another time I'll share some more ideas I have found on the www, but I'll wrap up for today.

Here's hoping your Fall & Winter Holiday sewing is going well!

Time for some more soothing lemon ginger herb tea,

Stephanie in Fayetteville

Soup recipe from October Meeting

I got this recipe from one of those newspaper inserts where they advertise all the contractors and talk about taking care of your yard and winterizing your house-- I think it was in the Post Standard.

Gro Good Garden Vegetable Soup

Makes 8 servings

Prep time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 bay leaf

3 medium carrots, chopped

2 parsnips, peeled and chopped

1 medium turnip, peeled and chopped

1 pint Brussel sprouts, trimmed and quartered

1 3/4 pounds fresh tomatoes, chopped (can substitute a 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes with juice, chopped)

2 quarts chicken broth or vegetable broth (I used Wegmans vegetable broth)

1 cup baby lima beans

One 15 ounce can of great Northern or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat the oil in a stock pot over medium heat.

Add the onions, celery, and bay leaf and cook until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes.

Add the carrots, parsnips, turnip, and Brussels sprouts and continue cooking until the vegetables are just tender, about 5 more minutes.

Add the tomatoes and their juices and the stock.

Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.

Add the eans, salt, and pepper, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

November newsletter is out!

http://premium.fileden.com/premium/2009/11/12/2648865/November%20Newsletter.pdf

November 2009 Newsletter