The final countdown! On a roll another Christmas Pudding tutorial.

Welcome to the final Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party of 2016

If you have been following along throughout the year you will have a stack of handmade gifts all ready and waiting to be delivered on the 25th. If not, fear not there is still (a little!) time to create something unique for some of the special people in your life.

I have been on a roll with Christmas Pudding makes recently, so have one more Christmas Pudding themed make for you to round out the year :)

A Christmas Pudding Hot Pad!

To make one as a last minute gift you will need :

Supplies

• 10" square of quilting cotton for the back of the hot pad (Fabric A)
• 10" square of tweed spot fabric, or equivalent (Fabric B)
• 10" x 8" rectangle of cream waffle fabric (Fabric C) 
• 10" square heat resistant wadding
• 10" square cotton wadding (or two squares of heat resistant wadding)
• 2.25" x WOF strip of red quilting cotton for binding 
• 2.25" x 6" strip of red quilting cotton for hanging loop (or similar width ribbon would work too)
• Scrap of green felt
• Red button (approx 7/8" in diameter)

You will also need an 8" embroidery hoop inner, or something similar, to draw around for the pudding shape.

Step 1

Trace around the embroidery hoop or whatever you are using for a template on the reverse side of Fabrics A and B, and both of the wadding fabrics. Cut out the circle shapes from each. Using your template, draw a semi-circle on the waffle cotton and cut out.

Step 2

Layer up your fabric pieces in the following order ;

• Bottom Layer     -    Fabric A right side down
• Second Layer     -    First layer of wadding
• Third Layer        -    Second layer of wadding
• Fourth Layer      -    Fabric B right side up
• Fifth Layer         -    Fabric C right side up

Pin and stitch around the edge of the Hot Pad with an 1/8" seam, stitching through all the layers to stabilise them before binding.

Step 3

Fold the binding strip fabric in half lengthways and press. Open out the fabric and fold the raw edges in to meet at the pressed fold.

Starting at the centre top of the Hot Pad, insert the pad between the two folded sides of the binding. The raw edge of the hot pad layers should be at the pressed centre fold of the binding.

Pin and baste the binding around the Hot Pad, starting and ending at the centre top of the Hot Pad.

Using a small zigzag stitch attach the binding to the Hot Pad. The stitching will attach both the back and the front of the binding to the hot pad.

Step 4

Repeat the folding and pressing above for the hanging loop strip. Top stitch down each long side of the folded hanging loop strip.

Fold under 1/4" at each short end of the hanging loop and press.

Where the Hot Pad binding meets at the top, place the folded ends of the hanging loop over the ends at the front and back.
Stitch the hanging loop to the hotpad, sewing in a box formation to secure the loop. Make sure that the top line of the box is beyond the Hot Pad bound edge to fully enclose the raw edges of the Hot Pad binding.

Step 5

Cut out two holly leaf shapes from the green felt scrap and stitch to the top of the Hot Pad, slightly below the end of the hanging loop. Stitch the red button to the Hot Pad where the holly leaves join.

Give the Hot Pad a final press and tick another last minute gift off the list!

If you need some inspiration for your festive crafting, each month we add a brand-new Christmas or Holiday project to the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew archive. Click on the button at the top of the page to see all of the brilliant projects dreamt up to date by our fabulously talented guest hosts and be inspired!


As ever, we have a great giveaway prize for one lucky linker and this month's prize will definitely kick start your Christmas Crafting!

A Long Quarter of this lovely Christmas Stamp fabric and 1m of Merry Christmas ribbon to boot. I am sure that you will all have lots of creative ways to use them.

To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is  link up your Festive makes to this month's Link Party to be entered into the draw. Keep it current though no blasts from the past here! The Link Party is open until 23.59 GMT on December 31st so you can link up all those secret Santa projects that you worked on this month :)

The winner of last month's festive thread collection was Sandra, who managed to add another collection of Eunice bags to her burgeoning stash of handmade gifts and some great Snowman hand puppets.

So, now it is your turn to link up and see if you can win that giveaway prize.

An InLinkz Link-up

Check out the Christmas Pudding Wreath tutorial here and the Christmas Pudding Applique Teatowel Tutorial here.


As ever, a huge thank you to our lovely giveaway prize sponsors, who have been so generous throughout the year.

  

 

More Pudding? - Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew

It is getting closer! This time next month we will be one week away from the Big Day, so if you haven't already started your Christmas crafting then it really is time to start! Of course, help is at hand with another Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party.

If you need some inspiration for your festive crafting, each month we add a brand-new Christmas or Holiday project to the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew archive. Click on the button at the top of the page to see all of the brilliant projects dreamt up to date by our fabulously talented guest hosts and be inspired!

This month's guest host is the very talented Karen, who blogs at Practically Pippy, so you know that you are in for a treat!

As ever, we have a great giveaway prize for one lucky linker and this month's prize couldn't be more appropriate. Courtesy of the lovely Justine at Simply Solids, we have a FQ bundle of the gorgeous Northern Lights collection by Lewis & Irene, five FQ's of frosty goodness to add to your stash!

To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is  link up your Festive makes to this month's Link Party to be entered into the draw. Keep it current though no blasts from the past here! The Link Party is open until 23.59 GMT on November 30th so you have plenty of time to get stitching :)

The winner of last month's festive thread collection was Sandra, who managed to add a collection of Eunice bags to her burgeoning stash of handmade gifts.

I still have food on my mind for this month's Christmas crafting! Last month's Christmas Pudding Teatowel tutorial got me thinking, and after a rummage around the boxes that are currently passing for storage in my new sewing room I came up with this.

A Christmas Pudding Wreath complete with lucky coin!

The lace on this wreath was in a box of vintage lace from my mum, who was told by the lady who gave it to her that the lace is Honiton Lace made for Queen Victoria! I did feel a bit guilty using it on a scrap project but then decided that it was better used than lurking in a box!

I have written up a tutorial for the wreath which you can find here in case you would like to make one too :)

So, that's my Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew project for November, now it is your turn to get crafting and linking over at Practically Pippy and be in with a chance of winning that lovely FQ bundle.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

Figgy Pudding Teatowel Tutorial - Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew

Welcome to this month's Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party, where we encourage you to organise your Christmas and Holiday crafting over the year so that by December everyone is cool, calm and collected! Well, that's the plan :)

I love having linens that are only brought out at Christmas and have been gifting festive tea towels to the family since our time in Latvia. However, my stash of Christmas themed, linen tea towels bought in the factory shop in Lithuania has now run dry so it was time to get creative.

I give you my Christmas Pudding Applique Tea towel Tutorial !

To make one of your own you will need the following:

1 plain white 100% cotton tea towel 19" x 28" (approx)
Scrap of brown fabric for pudding approx 7" x 7"
Scrap of light fabric for topping approx 7" x 4"
Scrap of green fabric for leaves approx 3" x 3"
I small red button
Thread to match your fabrics
Fusible interfacing, same dimensions as your fabric scraps (I used a light fusible fleece so that my pudding would be slightly padded but you could use double-sided fusible web instead)

Step 1

Fuse your interfacing to the reverse side of your pudding, topping and leaves fabrics. Trace a 5.5" circle on the interfaced side of the pudding fabric.

As you can see I used a cake tin lid for my template, so draw around anything you have to hand that will work :)

Measure 2" down from the centre top of the traced circle and draw a line across the top of the circle through the mark you just made. (It doesn't matter if the line is not exactly straight as it will be covered by the topping fabric later)

 Cut out the traced circle and then cut along the marked line to give you the base of your pudding. Set aside the pudding base for later.

Step 2

Trace a semi-circle on the interfaced side of the topping fabric using the same measurement/template that you used for the pudding.

Place the top pudding piece that you cut off earlier on top of the traced semi-circle and draw freehand the wavy edge of the topping below the straight edge of the top pudding piece. See below.

(Make sure that your freehand line does not come completely up to the bottom edge of the pudding top)

Discard the pudding top piece and cut out your traced topping shape

Step 3

Draw two holly leaf shapes on the interfaced side of the leaves fabric and cut out.

Step 4

Decide where you want to applique your pudding to the tea towel. If using double-sided fusible web fuse the pudding base to the front of your tea towel. If using fusible fleece as I did, pin and baste the pudding base to the tea towel front.

 Step 5

With matching thread blanket or satin stitch around the curved edge of the pudding. (The straight edge will be covered by the pudding topping piece)

Matching up the curved edges, and making sure that the straight edge of the pudding is covered, fuse or pin and baste the topping piece to the tea towel.

Blanket or Satin Stitch around all edges of the topping with matching thread.

Step 6

Repeat fusing and stitching for the two holly leaves on the top of the pudding.

Stitch the red button on where the holly leaves meet.

Finished in plenty of time for Stir-Up Sunday!

If you need more inspiration for your festive crafting, each month we add a brand-new Christmas or Holiday project to the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew archive. Click on the button at the top of the page to see all of the brilliant projects dreamt up to date by our fabulously talented guest hosts and be inspired!

Of course it wouldn't be a Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party without a giveaway and this month's giveaway is sure to spark your imagination!

 This very festive thread bundle has been generously donated by Tikki Patchwork

If you haven't come across Tikki Patchwork before you should definitely check them out and whilst you are there sign up to their newsletter to be sure of being in the know when new products hit the shelves or the sale signs go up! As I can personally testify their customer service is second to none :)

Last month's winner of the Animal Coin Purse pattern was Kathy at Running with Rocket who was quick enough off the mark to link up her own version of last month's Snowman Drawstring Bag tutorial from Sandra Sews

If you want to be in with a chance of winning that festive thread bundle then link up your Festive makes to this month's Link Party to be entered into the draw. Keep it current though no blasts from the past here! The Link Party is open until 23.59 GMT on October 31st so you have plenty of time to get stitching :)

An InLinkz Link-up

As ever a big thank you to all of our generous sponsors who provide such great giveaway prizes throughout the year

  

 

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

Something old for somebody new - Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew

Welcome to the September Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party! Despite the glorious sunshine here yesterday, we are definitely on the run-in to that big holiday at the end of the year, so what better time to get started on those crafty gifts and decorations that you have been meaning to start since January :)

If you are lacking inspiration, each month we add a brand-new Christmas or Holiday project to the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew archive. Click on the button at the top of the page to see all of the brilliant projects dreamt up to date by our fabulously talented guest hosts and be inspired!

As an added incentive to get cracking on that crafting every month there is a great giveaway prize for one lucky linker and this month's prize, courtesy of Stephanie at Elephant in my Handbag is a cracker!

I am sure that you can all think of someone who would love a coin purse from this great pattern!

Not only has Stephanie donated the perfect pattern for gift crafting, but she is also giving all budding Ho, Ho, Ho'ers a 10% discount on their first purchase from her lovely online store. The discount code is naturally enough HOHOHO and is suitable for one time use between now and when this month's link party ends on September 30th.

Our guest hostess this month, Sandra, has been known to whip up a novelty purse or two in her time, so there couldn't have been a better fit of hostess and giveaway :)

My own Christmas crafting revolves around the arrival of this little fellow

our gorgeous grandson!

We have already managed to hurtle down the road for one visit and are busy planning the next, but in the meantime I have been working on a project to keep him warm and cosy this winter.

My new patchwork class were working on log cabin blocks and I decided to use that as an opportunity to do something that I have been meaning to do for a long time; make a quilt from my stash of used shirts. The shirts in question were discarded by my husband and sons, so there are some of grandpa's and uncles shirts as well as the new dad's!

I used all 100% cotton shirts except for one which was a linen and cotton mix, so I presume they will all be able to stand up to whatever our gorgeous grandson can throw at them :)

I am thrilled to bits with how this turned out, and can't wait to see the new man in my life wrapped up in it come Christmas.

So that's my Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew project sorted, now it is your turn so head on over to Sandra
and link up your Christmas and holiday makes for September and be in with a chance to win that brilliant novelty purse pattern. The link closes at 23.59GMT on September 30th so you have plenty of time to get that project finished and linked up, and don't forget to take advantage of that 10% discount code too.



Thanks again to all of these lovely sponsors who have provided such great giveaway prizes as an extra incentive to get those gifts done and dusted.