Christmas Gnome Ornaments

 

My latest crochet obsession. It all started with a search on Etsy, and some patterns I bought and downloaded (and I may have to go back for seconds because SQUEEEEE!!). It reminds me of ALL the birds I crocheted a couple of years ago, and I even pulled out my tub of cotton yarn to use on these guys. When I did the stacking ring toys, the sheep I did in the cotton yarn was much more stable with the stuffing than the acrylic ones, so I looked through for Christmassy skeins.

Snowgnomes!!!

I've added string to these to hang them, as they are intended to be ornaments. I got a few different trim things to use for hangers, but I'm not satisfied with those, so more experimentation will follow. I love the hats. I love the huge carrot noses. I love the little twiggy arms. And this is only ONE of the patterns that I got!

There are also  some gnome nutcracker ornaments, and Santa gnomes with trees for hats. But I had to start with the snowgnomes. Can you blame me?

Two versions of this tall hat

Besides the Christmas flavored snowgnomes, I am going to make some Wintery snowgnomes as well and some that are just perfectly happy to hang around to make someone smile. Like me. They definitely make me smile!

Scattered Fans For Christmas

 

Now that the gifts have been given, I can talk about the fans some more.

scattered fan fabric box

I was inspired by one of my vintage quilting magazines to scatter fans on my new purse, but I discovered that there were more fans in my gift giving projects this year.

This became...

  

scattered fans purse

For instance, I started on some fabric boxes, and found that the fans still were fun. I wanted to give the impression of a fan, more than an actual fan block, so I worked with some beautiful blues for my sister in law.

Fan in blue

My niece is getting more greens, but some beautiful pops of color as well. (Blues can be beautiful pops of color, even within other blues, right?) On these boxes, I trimmed the fans in bias tape. I also gave peeks of the background fabrics, something that I liked from building the purse. 

A fan, and also, some scattered fan pieces on the left

I didn't really worry about making a perfect fan for these boxes, but I sure had fun with the piecing.

more pieces for the box sides

I couldn't resist leaving a little of the fuzzy selvage

One of the reasons I got drawn to the scattered fans was because my mother left me a fan quilt that she had been working on before she lost too much of her eyesight. I have decided to turn those fans into wall hangings, and this year I finished one for one of my brothers.

fans in a circle make a Dresden plate

I admit that if I had more practice with stippling, I would have quilted the blue areas. I am learning more about quilting by working on the Charitable Crafting quilts, but I have not practiced that. Yet. Still, I was very happy to find the backing fabric (it folds over the top to make a slot for a hanger for the piece) that had a vintage feel to it, to go with the vintage fabrics that my mom used. (well, they weren't so vintage when she was using them...)

The best part of that wall hanging is the feeling of working with my mom on a project that I get when I'm putting it together. I hope that my brother will also get memories of both of us in his turn. 

While I have more fan blocks to turn into wall hangings, I am taking a break for a bit, and moving on to other projects for a while. I feel like those fans are going to show up again, though. Somewhere. Some time.