Christmas House Ornaments

Over the years, I have collected many Christmas ornament panels. These panels are not made anymore, although eBay often has some vintage ones. I also have picked up many from bargain tables at quilt guild sales. Even though it is past Christmas, I am determined to make up my backlog of panels throughout 2024 so I am not caught by surprise with them still undone next Christmas. 

Each day I aim to complete a stage or two on one or more ornaments. The stages are 1) cut out, 2) pin, 3) sew, 4) turn, 5) stuff, or 6) stitch closed. It gets me in my sewing room for at least a few minutes each day, so days do not go by where I never quite make it in there. I intersperse these ornaments with other projects I may have in progress. I began this post in early January. This post is about the three house panels I had in my stash. Let's see how I progress throughout 2024 with other panels.

January 7th:
The panel runs the full width of fabric and looks like this before cutting out and yields 8 houses: three red, three yellow and two blue. The back side of each house is not shown but each is basically the mirror image of the front. 

First up, 1) I cut out and 2) pinned top with ribbon loop inserted. I use 4½" of ⅜" wide grosgrain ribbon for each loop, basically 8 to one yard of ribbon. I chose yellow for the loop since it not only goes with the yellow houses but also picks up yellow accents of the window glow or trim of the red and blue houses. All but two houses have yellow in them. 

At this stage the red houses are 3) sewn and 4) turned right side out.

Now the two blue houses have been 5) stuffed. As a reminder to myself, if I iron or finger crease the seam allowance at the opening where the stuffing goes in, it is easier to stitch the opening closed.

January 9th:
All eight yellow-ribbon-looped houses are 6) stitched closed on the bottom and are now complete.

January 14th:
I completed a second 8-house set from another panel but this time with red ribbon loops. I learned that straight pins are difficult to push through the grosgrain ribbon. Clips are easier for holding the ribbon in place until sewn. Here is the completed set with red loops.

January 17th:
I made a third 8-house set from another panel but this time with black ribbon loops. All houses have black in them and, although not necessarily a festive color choice, black goes well with the houses and distinguishes this set from the other two sets. I did not think that I would, but I like the black looped set best.

With the completion of this third set I have sewn up all the house ornament panels that I have. I can add 24 ornaments to the count of the others I have made over the years.