Christmas Past- Past Christmas Freebies

Good morning, ya'll . Can  you believe July is coming to an end in a little over a week? This year is flying by. It is only 156 more days till Christmas, and I have been seeing so many beautiful Christmas ornaments and designs being stitched on blogs and on IG. So I thought it would be fun to look back at a year of Christmas stitching that I have completed. This includes the Barnyard Christmas designs and the Prim Winter series. There are a lot of photos and links to the previous posts for your visiting pleasure if you so choose. I hope this gets in you in the Christmas mood . 😃🎄🎅

 Chicken Sled , 

  Santa's Ride , 

 Special Delivery , 

Christmas Barn, 

Christmas Bucket,

 Christmas Tractor , 

Santa on the Farm,  

Mrs. Claus on the Farm ,

 The Stockings Were Hung 

,

   Santa's Visit  ,  

Hanging the Star .   

, Skiing on the Farm ,

  Farm Truck  ,

 Baking on the Farm ,

 and Christmas Goat .

Prim Winter Home, Prim Winter Peace  , Prim Winter Faith ,  or Prim Winter Joy  

A Cup of Christmas Cheer- Santa Mug 

Santa  Stamp

Frosty Stamp

Snowflake Sledding and Chickens 

Winter Saltbox  and Prim Winter Tag 

Mooey Christmas 

Christmas Eve Saltbox

Well that was a lot of stitching. I can not wait to put up my Christmas tree come November. Thank you so much for the sweet visit and as always...

Happy stitching, ya'll

Melisa

The magic of Christmas never ends, and the greatest gifts are family and friends. 

Hugs and Stitches!

Santa Mugs and a Vintage Santa Mug Doodle - Freebie

 Hello, dear friends. Come on in and pick up a mug of your favorite beverage and let's visit for a moment. 

Well November 1st has always been my Santa Mug Day- the official day I put up my big tree and bring out my totes of Santa Mugs. Not this year though.

My decorating got pushed back because I went to help my daughter decorate her tree. But that is perfectly fine. I  had a fun filled day decorating a tree even if it was not my own. My daughter's tree was decorated in the farmhouse theme. Most of her ornaments were purchased from Walmart,  and they were so cute.  As for me,  Thanksgiving decor was put up in the kitchen and foyer and the rest of the house began to be dressed in its Christmas decor. In the midst of all of this I have also been trying to stitch, quilt and do a little crafting. Wheew! So much to do and so little time, but it is my favorite time of the year.

So this year my "Santa Mug Day" has been stretched over many days . I love collecting vintage Santa Mugs. My collection began actually with one mug bought in the 1990's because it reminded me of my Granny's mug. Unfortunately, I do not know where Granny's mug went. Granny lived in a little  secluded log cabin on the mountain and having grown up during the Depression, she was a make do kind of gal, and she carefully saved what she had. I always loved Granny's decor. She would cut down a little cedar tree, and the tree was filled with old Star Brite ornaments, a crocheted gingerbread man, vintage Santas, colorful lights  and lots and lots of tinsels. As children, my sister and I  loved to blow the strands of tinsel on the tree. Granny also had one lone Santa Mug in her Christmas decor. This mug  started my deep obsession.

I now probably have around 50 Santa mugs, not all are vintage. They used to be easy to find in the thrift stores for less than a dollar, but they  are harder to find now .  I still love to search for them though. So what about you? Do you like to collect any particular type of mug for the Christmas season?

I do not use my Santa mugs to drink out of , but I do decorate with them or put little bottle  brush trees or sprigs of holly  in them.

These are a few photos from last year's display. 

In celebration of my Santa mug collection, I have began a small  embroidered quilt.

 I drew out a little Santa Mug to embroider on a piece of scrap fabric.  I used a stem stitch on my embroidery and color tinted the image with crayons and then set it  with an iron.  I then did a little piecing using scraps of red and green fabric to frame in this little Santa block. Now my little quilt is not finished, I still have some more work to do on it, but I still thought I would share this work in progress.

 I used DMC floss to do the embroidery work ; those colors are 3839, 899, 353, 318, and 304.

 I would like to restitch it into a little pillow and only do redwork. Hmmm , my mind is always buzzing with the next thing to do whether it is completed or not.  Are you that way? 

Last month I posted my little Cup of Christmas Cheer cross stitch. If you missed that, click here to go to that freebie.

 Illinoisstitcher on Instagram made the cutest little pillows ornaments for relatives for the season. She omitted the tree and just stitched the mug; so if you haven't seen her stitches; please check her out. She is very prolific and does such beautiful work. Of course I do want to copy cat her and make some ornaments too. Lol.  I have seen so many stitchers working on this Santa Mug stitch which warms my heart. 

 To go along with that stitch ,  I decided to post this little doodle for creative uses.  If you are interested, just click on here for the pdf.  It is a simple little doodle.

This can be used for embroidery, punch needle, paper crafts, wool applique or whatever you dream up.

I hope to get my little embroidery into the hoop soon and then displayed with my collection.  

                  

The other day, I was  searching for some yummy holiday recipes on the wide web, I found this recipe called Santa's Whiskers. Now I have not tried it, but it sounds very interesting and I plan too. I will have to let you know how they turn out. If you have ever had these I would love to know what you thought about them . 

Santa’s Whiskers 

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup of sugar

2 T milk

1 t vanilla or rum flavoring

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 c finely chopped red or green candied cherries

1/2 c finely chopped pecans

1 c flaked coconut

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter or margarine and sugar, blend in milk and vanilla or rum flavoring. Stir in flour, chopped candied cherries, and chopped pecans. Form dough into two 8 inch rolls. Roll in flaked coconuts to coat outside. Wrap in waxed paper or clear plastic wrap; chill thoroughly. Cut in to 1/4 inch slices. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for about 12 minutes or till edges are golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet to rack to cool.

Thank you  so much for visiting me today. I think I am about to pull out some mugs and continue decorating, and then I am going to  relax with  a little quilting.  Hope you are getting into the Christmas season. As always ... 

Happy quilting, ya'll,

Melisa 

A Cup of Christmas Cheer - A Vintage Christmas Freebie - " Santa Mug"

Good Morning . Can I interest you in a cup of Christmas cheer? I know , I know . Some  of you are saying it is too early for Christmas, but I have Christmas on my mind all year long. 

My all time favorite items to bring out come Christmas time is my Santa mug collection. They are all carefully wrapped and tucked away in a special corner in storage waiting for that  wonderful, glorious day when they are unpacked, unwrapped and put on display.  Oh what a festive, happy day! I need to have that special day marked on my  calendar - and call it Santa Mug Day!!!  Lol  Well I had to have a Santa mug cross stitch to go with my mugs. So here is " A Vintage Christmas- A Cup of Christmas Cheer or Santa Mug"  

 

I am over the moon and tickled pink over this stitch . And Hip Hip Hooray! It is going to be on display on Santa Mug Day. I think my Santa Mug Day will be November 1st. Do you want to join me?  I have another question- Would you think I was crazy if I said I want to put up my Christmas decor up right now? Lol. Don't worry.  I will be good and refrain. It is not even Halloween yet. 

 Being curious and always a lover of useless facts or information.  I had to do a little research to find out more about these precious mugs. Can I tell you what I learned? 

These adorable Santa mugs were first introduced in 1949 as part of a fun Christmas decor and kitchen items series offered by the Holt -Howard Company. This company  was started with a $9000 loan from  the families of founders ,Grant Holt and brothers, Robert and John Howard.  Most of their business was done through department stores and catalogs.  Their little Santa mugs were so popular that eventually the company created everyday use coffee mugs.

 Wasn't that interesting? 

Here is a photo of my winking Santa Mug. 

 This set is  dated 1964. 

 

Now let me tell you about my stitch. My Santa mug is on a cheery red cake stand accented by green stripes.  The mug is filled with candy canes and a little Christmas tree with red balls. My mug is based on the winking Santa, but if you did not want your Santa to wink just stitch 2 open eyes.  Easy peasy. 

I stitched this on 14 count Rit Aquamarine dyed aida. I then boiled my aida in tea water for just a few minutes.  I used 8 DMC floss colors which are #353 , B5200, 898, 899, 304, 310, 986,and  762 , but you can use what ever colors your heart desires. I just stitched out of stash. 

The design size of this piece is  73 x 100.    On 14 count aida that would measure  5 1/4" x 7 1/8" , but I have to admit mine was a little smaller because my fabric shrunk during dyeing.  I finished mine in an 8 x 10" frame. I used red and white gingham fabric from the Goodwill as finishing fabric and a white pom pom trim around the edges. 

I used 4   $.98 Walmart  Christmas picks to embellish the top of the frame. I just wired them together and then added a red and white gingham bow . The final embellishment was  a small  snowflake ornament on top of the bow. 

I hope you consider stitching this piece. Because I am not too tech savvy, each page is in a separate pdf download starting with the instructions. 

For the instruction page , click here  .

For the color chart pdf, click here . 

For the black and white pdf  chart, click here. 

. 

I have also provided a black and white larger print version of the chart. It is divided into 2 pdfs. 

For larger print of the  left side of mug click here . 

For the larger print of the right side of the mug, click here. 

 

Thank you all for coming to visit me and seeing what I am up to . I can not express how happy your visits make me .  May your day be filled with joy, love and happiness and as always...

Happy stitching, ya'll

Melisa

I would love to see your stitch. You can always direct message me on Instagram or use #pinkernpunkinquilting . 

I am not a professional designer, just a gal piddling around on her computer and wanting to share and thank this wonderful community. . I hope you enjoy this little creation.