Helping you create a home by hand.

One Small Finish and Three Teeny, Tiny Finishes

Very late last night, I finished hand sewing the binding to the back of my Christmas Mouse wall hanging.

Christmas Mouse Wall Hanging finished Earlier in the evening, getting the binding sewn on so that I didn’t cut off the points of the diamonds was an interesting challenge.

When I was sewing the half square triangles (hst) together, I used Pat Sloan’s How to Keep Your Points tutorial and was so pleased with how most of my points turned out.

But adding the binding to the front, completely covers the points making it impossible to see them.  So what I did was baste the binding on using 1/8″ seam and then I flipped the wall hanging over and stitched the 1/4″ seam on the back using the quilting lines as a guide.

Back of my Christmas Mouse wall hanging

I only had a few points that got cut off… but I know that the more I do this, the better I’ll get at it.

The Christmas Mouse was a free pattern from Joy Patch back in 2009.  I still have two more from that set that I want to embroider and turn into wall hangings.

Joy Patch patterns from 2009

Unfortunately the pattern for the Dec 25th Christmas Mouse no longer seems to be available but Dec 24th can still be downloaded for free here.  Dec 26th is here.

For the frame around the wall hanging, I used fabric leftover from making Judith’s stocking for the 2013 Santa Sack swap and some left from making my Holiday Celebrations quilt.   The binding fabric was a recent purchase because after three more small projects (that I’ll be posting about soon), I didn’t have enough of the first two fabrics left to make binding.   The background fabric is my favorite Kona Snow.

Each of those little hsts finishes at just 1 1/4″ square.  The completed wall hanging is 13″X13″.

When the sun finally shone late this afternoon (after a week of gloomy, cloudy, yukky, cold, blahhh weather), my trusty quilt holder-upper and I rushed out to the backyard to get a couple more shots to share.

Christmas Mouse Wall hanging

Close up of Christmas Mouse wall hanging

Can you tell I’m really pleased with how this turned out.  🙂

It’s also great to be able to check something off my 2015 Finish Along Q2 Goals list so quickly.

 

Yesterday and today, I also had three tiny knitting finishes.   In Wednesday’s WIP post, I showed you the start of some tiny Christmas socks.

I was converting a pattern I’d been given by Stephanie to knit them in the round, but when I got to the last few rows, I thought I was doing something wrong because the toe of the stocking was coming out way too short.  So I did a bit of googling about turning the heel of a sock and made some adjustments and ended up with this little sock.

Tiny Christmas Stocking

But I wasn’t ready to give up on the original pattern.  Stephanie had told me that her mother made lots and lots of these, so I knew it must be something I was doing wrong.

I decided to knit one in the flat and I was still stumped, until the light bulb went on… what I thought was the flap to make the heel of the sock was actually the top of the sock.  Finally it made sense!

Tiny White Knitted Christmas Sock

Once I realized how the pattern worked, I was able to finish converting it to knitting in the round.

Tiny Red Knitted Christmas Sock

Now I can use up the rest of the yarn I have leftover from making the mini mittens, hats and scarves when I was testing my pattern for Elven Winter Wear.

Three Tiny Christmas Stockings

But that can wait until tomorrow.  Right now it’s time to pop some popcorn and get back to reading Neil Gaiman’s Stardust (<-affiliate link).

Wishing you all a great weekend filled with Aloha!

 

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16 Comments

  • Corene
    December 19, 2015 2:57 pm

    Merry Christmas,
    Since I’m new to this website, what I’ve seen so far… it is an amazing site to be a member of, thank you. You are so very talented and your work is beautiful with that down-home atmosphere. I plan on making the Xmas Mouse Hanging for next year….first I have to find the red diamond fabric (does anybody know where I can get it?) and then come January, away I go. Sewing has always been dear to my heart…I learned on a treadle sewing machine while in a 4-H sewing Club back in Pennsylvania…I now I live in beautiful Pacific Northwest Washington and am so honored to have grown up in two of the most beautiful states in our country. Thank you for all you give and Happy New Year!

  • Leanne
    July 4, 2015 7:07 pm

    These are all so cute! I’m helping Adrianne with the FAL and I am to say that I am visiting as part of the 2015 FAL Cheerleading Team.

  • Heidi
    April 30, 2015 2:23 pm

    Adorable Christmas mouse! And the stockings are sweet too, they remind me of the silk stockings on my mother’s Cinderella Doll- The doll I was not allowed to touch!

  • Paula
    April 28, 2015 1:44 pm

    What an adorable little mouse. He is in the prefect setting and is going to look wonderful hanging up when Christmas comes around.

  • Benta
    April 26, 2015 3:32 am

    Lovely!!!!! Thanks for linking up

  • LINDA
    April 17, 2015 11:52 am

    HI,your Christmas Mouse is adorable!
    Want to make one similar>so pretty!

  • Nicky
    April 15, 2015 2:14 am

    Well it looks like you are all ready for Christmas! You will probably have two more hangings by then too! Thank you for sharing your mouse with us on #scraptastictuesday!

  • Marlene
    April 14, 2015 7:44 pm

    I love the way you finished this piece. I embroidered Christmas Mouse some time ago but it didn’t turn out nearly as cute as this! blessings, marlene

  • Susan
    April 13, 2015 11:54 am

    What cute, itty, bitty stockings! Nice hand model you used, too. 😉 I love your mouse, and wish he were still available, too, but it’s great to have the other two. BTW, I didn’t see any points cut off.

  • GeminiJen NZ
    April 12, 2015 4:54 pm

    Super cute mouse and those teeny stockings are just too cute for words!

  • Sandra
    April 11, 2015 10:20 pm

    Oh! Years ago we knitted these like crazy to sell at a bazaar (do they even have those anymore?!) in the girls’ group I was a part of. I still have a pair that I hang on my tree each year! What are you doing with yours? I love your mini quilt too, such pretty embroidery.

  • MaryAnne
    April 11, 2015 6:13 pm

    Your Christmas mouse is adorable! Laughed out loud when I read ‘quilt holder upper’!!

  • Beth – Cooking Up Quilts
    April 11, 2015 4:19 pm

    That wallhanging is adorable, and so small! I can’t imagine making such tiny HSTs, they look wonderful. I hate losing my points too – drives me batty! 🙂

  • Mary
    April 11, 2015 9:47 am

    I can magine how difficult it would be to keep those points when sewing “blind” to where they are.

    Those wee stockings are super cute.

  • Vickie
    April 11, 2015 10:45 am

    Oh my gosh! The wall hanging is beautiful and I love the tiny stockings! Thanks for sharing these wonderful projects. Enjoy your creative days!

  • Claire
    April 11, 2015 12:40 am

    Yep, I see those points. 🙂

    Because I like to stitch my bindings with a 3/8 inch seam I’ve been losing points and decided to add even a narrow border after this.

    I had no idea the Christmas mouse was so little. Wow!

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