Christmas Ornament 2017

If you have been reading my blog for any period of time you know that every year I join a Christmas ornament Exchange with like minded sewers in one of my yahoo newsgroup. This year I am doing something a little different. A group of us from this yahoo group text back and forth privately and it was proposed that we get together and and have our own exchange. There are 10 of us in the group and I was not sure I would be able to do the yahoo group one as well as that would have meant doing  15 ornaments. As it was I could handle ten, quite accidentally having bought enough supplies.

The rules for this exchange simple. We can use anything we want to make ornaments but they must be made by hand. In other words, I don’t have to sew to make them, I just needed to have hunted and gathered up parts and then assembled everything myself.

Every year I try to push myself to try something new and ever since moving to France I try to incorporate vintage into whatever I make. Normally that means lace, but not this year.

In August I was in Aachen Germany and while walking through town found a craft store. I found some bobbins made out of wood. I bought 10 of them. I had no idea what I would do with them but thought them worthy of my buying.

In September I was in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines France (Alsace) for the yearly quilt show and in the vendor area there was a Dutch woman selling charms by weight. The light bulb went off as to an idea for this year’s ornament exchange. Another vendor had a few vintage religious medallions for sale.

I was at a second hand store in late September near where I live and they had costume jewelry for sale. This is the best way to find chains for crafting. The price is always right. Add in a broken rosary or two to add interest. 

Here are the parts of the rosary I did not use, I am saving these pieces for another project.

So here are my starting point, a pile of wooden bobbins, old necklaces, a broken rosary and lots of charms.

On purpose I do not have enough of any one of the charms to put them on all ornaments so every one of them are different.

The bobbin has 5 usable holes at the bottom so that limits the charms. 

Here is the final result:

I am happy with the final result this year with a little jewelry for the tree. Hopefully those that receive them enjoy them as much as I did enjoyed making them.