A Homemade Christmas

Thanks for stopping by today.

I have joined with 4 other bloggers for the annual Creating Christmas Link Party hosted by Jann of Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson.

I love creating and never more so than at Christmas - this year pillows seem to be my thing.

I made the little linen pillows and embroidered them in the summer on one of our long drives to and from Sacramento to see Andy.

Next I jumped on the plaid bandwagon with flannel - I chose a red, white & blue fabric that will stay on the sofa through winter.

I ordered a set of 8 tea towels from Bed Bath and Beyond and used 4 of them for guest room pillows.

I wanted one more pillow on the bed so I created an iron on transfer with a green background to break up all the red.

Things in the guest room were finished until I found flannel plaid gift sacks at TJ Maxx last week

and this wonderful vintage Santa gift sack.

I like to keep my options open for future projects so bed pillows are just stuffed into each sack

The red and white tea towel pillows ended up on the window seat in the dining room and they will probably stay right there through Valentine's Day.

The other towels ended up in the kitchen, but woe betide anyone who actually tries to use one of the towels.

 Steve says, "enough with the pillows!", but Lulu thinks the more the merrier!

Last winter I went on a walking tour of Los Angeles Kaari and Molly Meng of French General where I found cute little red hearts and candy cane beads for a garland.

The Christmas decor will disappear in a little more than 2 weeks, but the garland will easily transition to a Valentine vignette.

I had fun creating this MERRY and BRIGHT banner.

The letters are another iron-on project and you'll see from my next project that I've gone a little overboard with iron-ons this year.

I ordered wine sacks on Amazon and made a bunch of iron-on transfers.

We are always popping in at holiday parties and I like having the sacks on hand to grab.

By far my favorite and worst project this year was to make stockings for KC and her family.

It's difficult to tell in this photo, but they are done with the pick stitch and nearly killed my hands.

The creating time has finished and I'm spending the rest of the month having a Merry Little Christmas.

And now for a bit of "A Shabby Christmas", visit Debbie Goes Shabby.

 Cecilia of My Thrift Store Addiction shared  "A Rustic and Romantic Christmas".

Thursday Jann of Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson shared "A Dish Addict's Christmas".

Friday Katie of Let's Add Sprinkles shared "Nordic Christmas Ideas".

And now, it's your turn - please link up and show us what you're up to this Christmas.