Christmas Windows 2022 and Heirloom Ornaments

I got a late start on this year’s window decorations since I was still working on my Stitchtober piece in November (it’s still not done…). I had seen some stars created by The House That Lars Built using a Cricut but since I don’t have or want one, I didn’t want to buy the template which meant I had to figure it out myself. I ended up with 12 pointed stars which is less than the originals but they worked and I liked the way they looked. I had a progressive size hole puncher so I decided to make a line of holes on each point starting larger and getting smaller at the center. Each star has two sides and I started out making holes on both sides. The hole puncher broke before I finished the last star but luckily I hadn’t put the penultimate one together so the last two have plain backs which is actually fine since they get the same amount of light shining through and you can’t see the holes from the street anyway.

The kitchen “window” decorations were also inspired by The House That Lars Built. This year’s Instagram #larscraftalong Heirloom Ornaments involved printing photos on fabric and then embellishing them with embroidery and stuffing them. It also involved ornaments made by famous people who do a live crafting session on Instagram. Mary Engelbreit was one of the crafters this year and rather than embroidering on a photo she was embroidering a drawing she had made of a snow person which gave me the idea of using gnomes. So I googled gnome drawings, found some cute ones, and figured out a way to save and print them. I embroidered them with red thread and then backed them with red fabric.

I also made some Heirloom Ornaments of my grandchildren and and one set of grandnibblings.

I was also inspired by another #larscraftalong participant, Robert Mahar who embroiders vintage photos. I made packets of two photos of the Baby Group Moms for a Zoom crafting session.

I made an Instagram post and Robert Mahar liked and commented on my post and shared Cheryl’s in progress piece.

And I think this is just the beginning…