I love to make one Christmas ornament a year and cannot wait until little Carter is old enough to help me. This year's Christmas craft is no-sew easy-peasy, but a young child will need help from an older child or adult. I used a glue gun, but if you are working with young children I recommend using a quick-dry glue rather than a glue gun. You may have these supplies already, but I'm giving you links in case you need to shop for a few items. You'll need wooden spools for the body, 1.25" wooden head beads for the head, red and white striped pipe cleaners for the legs and arms (here is the link for assorted colors), assorted beads for the hands and feet, fun colors of yarn to dress the body, white eyelash yarn for the hair, felt or ribbon for the scarf, and felt for the hat.  This would be a great school or party craft.

Here are links to more of my Christmas crafts:

A complete list of my free patterns and tutorials is here.

Happy Crafting!

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Tomorrow is American Thanksgiving and we surely have a lot to be thankful for this year! Our grandson has been with us for 3 days while his parents are on a wee vacation. They are coming back today in time for his first Thanksgiving and a Thanksgiving that we will all surely treasure. Even with him here I was able to get a lot done. The picture above is some candy made during a nap. This post writing is during another nap--thank heavens he is a good napper! Tonight when he's gone it will be pie making time and after that it's feet up, needles in hand.

It's a tradition around here to pop in on friends and neighbors for short visits the days before and the days after Thanksgiving; kids are home from school and want to see each other and folks who have moved away and are back for Thanksgiving want to make the rounds. And when there is a new baby, most people, happily, put you on the visiting list. We have never been so popular! Carter is all flirty smiles most of the time and so gave a fair amount of them to visitors during his stay. I noticed I don't really have many pictures of me with Carter and a friend took these last night. He had missed his late afternoon nap and so was feeling a bit pooped, so no smiles, but he held up bravely and would be held by everyone. This morning he woke up all smiles and so I dressed him in something cheery.

Carter is four months old now and so much fun. He is getting a lot easier and seems like a baby now and not so much of an infant. He loves to be sung to and danced with. He loves walks in the garden and wants to touch leaves and bark and moss. He pats while I talk and he listens intently. I pick lemon leaves and rosemary and mint and really just anything I think might have a scent, rub it between my fingers and hold it up to him. He sniffs and sniffs, it's so funny. He knows just what to do as we have been doing this since he was a newborn. We call it our sniffy walk and do it a few times a day. I love every minute with this little guy. We have a lot in common with both of us loving the Eensy Weensy Spider so much.

I went old school with my table and used my aunt's Lenox Harvest. The kids said they like it and want to take it one day, so this table setting is a little reminder that it's theirs for the taking! If you are celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope your day is special and you find it easy to find things to be thankful for. If you are hosting, don't get too pooped out! Best, Kristen

My stocking kit, The Hugging Penguins by Dimensions, arrived fully stocked with lovely 100% wool yarn, cotton floss, needle, color printed canvas, and instructions including stitch chart and color chart. I was amazed at the quality, the organization of the materials, and the price (unbelievably less than $25!). I would definitely use a Dimensions kit again and I'm happy to recommend it to you. But now that the stitching is done, it needs to be turned into a stocking. Blocking and finishing a stocking does not have to be done by an expert seamstress (I'm definitely not); a confident seamstress will do just fine. Below is a step by step tutorial on how I block and finish a needlepoint canvas into a stocking. 

But I may as well start at the beginning. Everyone in our family has a needlepoint stocking, and of course our newest member needed one too! Carter's parents ordered this kit from Amazon. The first thing I did was graph Carter's name out on paper using this free alphabet chart. After finding the center of both the name and the stocking, I worked out from there using the counted stitch technique. I gave the project it's own basket. I found it easiest to work one color at a time using the basketweave stitch because I find it distorts the canvas the least. But as careful as I am and as even a tension I try to maintain, my finished canvas has some bias distortion and is rumpled. Perhaps a frame would avoid this but I don't like to use them. Anyway, all that will come out in the next step. 

The canvas above is completely covered in the basketweave stitch, but the stitching is not complete. The final top-stitching will be done after it has been blocked and dried. To block the canvas, submerge completely in lukewarm water until it becomes fully wet. Gently squeeze out excess water, lay flat on a terry towel and roll into a jellyroll to remove even more water. On a blocking board and armed with T-pins or tacks, stretch and pin the wet canvas to shape. Tug and pull and it will eventually succumb! Let dry in a warm shady spot; it may take a few days.

The fabric glue is not completely dry in this picture, but it will be invisible when fully dry.

The link for Hugging Penguins kit from Dimensions. A sweet little stocking for my sweet baby grandson.

For a tutorial on how to hand finish a needlepoint Christmas ornament,
please visit this post.