Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Dr Seuss Christmas Quilt

My favorite color combination for Christmas is red, green, and purple. It gives my husband-- Mr Traditional--fits. You can see a better picture of the Merry crusty pictured in the upper right and another red christmas tree quilt here.

This is our Christmas tree. It's up on a table so that we can see it, and the table is crammed with other things so that the kitties won't jump up. The three Santas were made in Egypt.

I have been searching for French Noel decorations, but it's pretty skimpy. Lots of imported Chinese santas that you can find anywhere. Very little Father Christmas or things with french words. The exception is the ornament that says "J'aime le Pere Noel".

This is my Dr Seuss Christmas Quilt. I made it a few years back. I have my usual assessment of my earlier work: needs more quilting!

Still working on making Christmas, particularly name tags.
One of my family's traditions was to open one present for each kid on Christmas Eve. My parents always chose it and when we were younger it was a game we could all play together. When we were older it was always a book. My husband and I have continued the tradition of opening one gift, but it's pretty hit or miss. My husband can never remember what gift could be where. This year I made special tags and told him in particular that a quilt book would be a great choice.

I make these tags the same way I make a crusty (follow the Susan Shie link in my sidebar). The batting and backing are a quarter inch smaller than the top and I just fold the top back over and use embroidery floss to hold it down. I have no idea what stitch that would be. Then I stem stitch or quilt the words in.

For my tag I used a silvery Madeira thread along with white perle cotton to stem stitch the words. I like how it looks although it's lumpy. But all that fraying is a pain in the ass. Certainly wouldn't do a big project like this.

Here's the back of it. You can even see where I've sewn on the safety pin.


For my husband's tag, I used 3 strands of embroidery floss to stem stitch the word "open." I quilted "24 Dec" with white perle cotton thread and then wrapped the green floss through to get this great candy cane effect:

On Sunday we watched Christmas in Connecticut, a Barbara Stanwick movie about a Martha Stewart character who's actually a fraud. It's fun, but I got hung up this year on what a goober the sailor is. bleck, didn't like that character at all. I definitely choked on the spending 6 months worth of salary for a mink coat. Aiyee. No kind of clothing item is worth that. Never. That's a car or house remodeling.

We finished up Jonathon Creek Season One as well. Jonathon is a brilliant Englishman who creates magic tricks (for a stage magician played with a horrible american accent by Giles, sorry Anthony Stewart Head) and uses his skills to help solve murders. It's along the lines of Columbo or Monk, none of the grisly CSI stuff. The puzzles are always great and I have a thing for British crime shows. And nerds. 4.5 out of 5.

I can also recommend Jenny Bowker's blog Postcards from Cairo if you're not already reading it. Jenny is currently posting pics of her desert trek to see cave paintings. She's far more adventurous than I am, although that doesn't take much. No toilets or showers? I'm out.

I have to go now and wrap presents that are too oddly shaped to go in bags. They're for me of course. Now I'm not only choosing my own presents but wrapping them.

18 comments:

kimberlym said...

Purple for Christmas-very cool! I love the spiral quilting on the red tree quilt in your first link. The candy cane stitching is awesome-I love it!
I might have to check out that Jonathon Creek (I have never heard of it) but Monk is my favorite show-so if it's similar I'd probably like it-

Joyce said...

The gift tags are a wonderful idea. We used to open one gift in the evening of the 24th with our kids too. I always hoped (in vain) that it would keep them from getting up at 4AM. The revenge is that now the grandchildren are doing it to them. Lol.

Cher said...

like the recommendation on Jonathon Creek- have to add that to our list.
loved, loved the red Christmas tree wall hanging-and your quilt is great.
my mom had us wrap our own gifts when we were older..yes, we always peeked!

comicbooklady said...

I love your egyptian Santas and your grinch quilt! Awesome!

Kristin Shields said...

Thanks for the tips on the labels. I just finished the quilting on my first gift bag and I used the silver metallic DMC throughout, boy was it a pain to use! I won't do that again. I still need to sew up the sides. I also made a smaller one and just need to add the button and buttonhole. I have two more in the works, but haven't figured out how to quilt them yet. They have a large bird motif- any thoughts on how you'd quilt that?

Gypsy Quilter said...

Love the red, green, and purple. It's very Amish looking to me. Such a shame it's hard to locate traditional French ornaments. Any chance of finding an artisan market like those in Germany?

atet said...

What fun decorations! As for wrapping your own gifts -- at least you know you will like them!

Lynda said...

I share your frustration of getting French Christmas stuff. they don't really do Christmas - a friend of mine who lives near Nantes buys her cards from Marks and Spencer in England every year, because the French cards (when available) don't appear in the shops until it's too late to post them abroad! I love the Egyptian santas. We have a Chinese one - a real Chinese one, with almond eyes and a sun tan! I love the gift tags too - I'm a sucker for anything quick!

Judy said...

I do chose some presents of mine, and I'll even buy some of them...but I do make hubby wrap them!

Thanks for the tip...I added the series to my Netflix Queue. Sounds good!

Quiltdivajulie said...

I love that you're buying your own presents... (I've been guilty of this for many years ~ sure saves on hard feelings!).

And I LOVE the red/green and purple combination!

julieQ said...

I love that quilt!!! wonky and so fun!!!!

I also have contnued the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. I always made sure it was pajamas and a book for my son, and pj's for my hubby as well. I got pot luck, which was fun! I like your Santas' and decorations. I don't have enough patience to make my own wrappings, so you are definitely not the lazy girl you purport!!

Smiles, JulieQ

Carol E. said...

I buy my own gifts, too, at least for (that is, from) hubby. And this year I went shopping with my daughter and she got stuff for me while I was right there. Then I told son what to get for me. So I think I'll have no surprises this year. So far I have not wrapped my own gifts. But you never know. Your blog is just so much fun. You are a joy to know!

Tracey in CT said...

I wrap my own gifts (mostly, and I purchase most of them, too). The ones DH buys are usually, well, strange. So I'm better off buying my own, then I'm not disappointed.

I love the red/green/purple combination. It has a really Amish look going for it. Well, you know, if it was all marching nice and straight and even, but yours is way more fun!

I'm going to have to put Jonathan Creek on my Netflix list, it sounds perfect for DH and I. We love Monk and Colombo, and DH loved Anthony Michael Head in Buffy.

CraftyRachel said...

I bought that same ornament for an international secret santa ornament exchange! Fragonard has been reliable to find ornaments with French written on them. Last year I found "Joyeux Noel" ornaments at Monoprix, which also has not-too-ugly French Christmas cards.

Oh, and that is a wonderful color combination! Never considered purple, but it looks great.

Laura said...

I like purple too! My living room tree has a lot of purple and lime green ornaments on it as my living room is mostly a dark deep purple and sage green. It sure makes for a nice change. I love the movie Christmas in Connecticut. It seems like one of the first things I do each morning is run through the show guide on the tv and see what is on that evening so I can don't miss any have to see movie.

Unknown said...

The Egyptian Santas are wonderful--I've never seen a Middle Eastern spin on Santa before and it's very fun. Real multicultural stew--I love it

Elaine Adair said...

I am keeping your "Gift Bags" posts as NEW so I can get to making a bunch of them after the holidays. You have so many clever and creative ideas! Thank you.

Holly said...

I LOVE your tree, Tonya! That is a nice tree topper you have there. We don't have a tree topper because we can't agree on one! hehe. Isn't the woman supposed to have all the say in things like this? :)

Really nifty gift bags.