Joy, Joy and more Joy

Welcome back to my second post for the 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop.  Because I am an over achiever, Sarah offered to let me split up my Christmas goodies over 2 days.  It took no time at all for me to say yes and for me to divide my projects between 2 days.





This hop stop is full of Christmas Joy.  Specifically, Joy of Days Filled With Joy.  You may be familiar with her work as she is part of this hop and posted on  July 16.  She does beautiful hand embroidery. Some sweet and simple some a bit more complex. All beautiful.

This month she is offering 3 of her sweet simple Christmas designs for free. You can find them at the link above in her Christmas in July Stitchalong.

I will admit that I have done some hand embroidery, mostly redwork, but since I got the embroidery machine I am having as much fun converting patterns to machine stitching as I ever remember having doing it by hand. With Joy's permission I have taken her 3 designs from her stitchalong and played with several  ideas I had using the machine.

I am not a creative person when it comes to drawing but I have a vivid imagination when it comes to applying others drawings to things.

First idea was taking one of the designs and doing a card.  I embroidered her first design of the month directly onto card stock then set it with some background card stock.  I must disclose from the get go that each design is supposed to have dots in the ric rack element.  I could't get that to come over into my machine.  The dots did add a lot to the block.  You will notice that in a couple of my ideas I tossed in words to make up for them.

Second pattern was released so I went with another card.  This one I embroidered onto a piece of canvas and proceeded to fray the edges.  Attached that to the base card with double sided tape.

When this hop was first mentioned I responded to Sarah's request of what we might be doing with "Christmas Ornaments".  I found that Joys designs lent themselves beautifully to stuffed ornaments.  I substituted actual cord for the design element cord and they were ready for hanging.

When I was thinking of making my first card using  canvas I used a rather large chunk.   When I took it out of the hoop I realized it was big enough to make a small draw string  Christmas gift bag. By the way, the canvas I have used for several of these items is a drop cloth from Harbor Freight. I originally purchased it to use as a table cloth.  After washing it I realized it was a great (cheap) item for quilty things.

Last summer I did a throw quilt of blocks that I constructed using raw edge applique. I really like the outcome of blocks done that way and thought I would give that a try here without using the embroidery machine function.  I did find that I'm a bit rusty. Like everything else it's a skill that needs regular practice which I haven't been doing.

I'm not sure what I want to do with this piece.  I used a large enough piece of fabric to make another bag but I'm not exactly sure yet.

Last but certainly not least I wanted to do something using all three designs.  Last winter I attended a quilt show and found this wonderful mini display piece.  After much searching I found it buried in a drawer and as I hoped it was perfect  for displaying all 3 of Joy's designs.

So my thanks to Joy for her patterns and inspiration. I've had a great couple of weeks playing with them and exercising my brain.

Thanks also to Sarah for this outlet for my play.

Below is a list of all of  the other players in this hop.  Please stop and see what each and every one of them are up to. You will be so glad you did.

Also below is the form for a chance to win the lovely  FIGO fabric fat quarter bundle.

Sunday, July 14th

L’Fair Quilts

Vrooman’s Quilts

Monday, July 15th

Sea of Estrogen

Mel’s Quilting Blog

Tuesday, July 16th

Days Filled With Joy

The Colorful Fabriholic

Wednesday, July 17th

Pampered Pettit

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Thursday, July 18th

Kathy’s Kwilts and More

Selina Quilts

Friday, July 19th

The Quilted Snail

Cloth and Paper Studio

Saturday, July 20th

The Inquiring Quilter

Anja Quilts

Sunday, July 21st

Riceford Streams

Sharon @ Vrooman's Quilts

Monday, July 22nd

Katie Mae Quilts

QuiltFabrication

Tuesday, July 23rd

Made by Marney

Selina Quilts

Wednesday, July 24th

From My Carolina Home

 Karrin’s Crazy World

Thursday, July 25th

Christina’s Handicrafts

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

And remember, too, there's a giveaway!  FIGO Fabrics has donated a fat quarter bundle of their new Christmas line, Wintertide...

...and one lucky reader will get to take it home!  All you have to do is fill in the form below with your full name and email address (don't worry, I won't use it for anything beyond notifying you if you win!).  Entries will close on Tuesday, July 30th, and I'll announce the winner here on Wednesday, July 31st - New Year's Eve in July!

Be sure to click "Submit"!!