I love beautiful quilts. Maybe it’s because my mother loved to quilt. It seemed as though she always had a quilt in some stage of creation. Everyone in the family, which included me and three sisters, our six children, and five grandchildren own at least one quilt Mama made. And anyone in the community who had a baby during the time she quilted was given a baby quilt lovingly created.

My sisters and I have many quilts that were made by our mother, grandmothers, great grandmothers, and great-great-grandmothers. We don’t know the origins of all of them, but each one is a treasure.

We grew up in a large old farmhouse with my parents and paternal grandparents. My mother and grandmother were both avid quilters, as were many members of the rural community in which we lived. Individuals would create a quilt top, sewing it either by hand or sewing machine, and then host a quilting.  A bottom layer of fabric, usually unbleached muslin was topped with cotton batting on which the quilt top was laid. All three layers were stretched taut in a quilting frame supported by four corner quilt stands just high enough to pull up a chair underneath the edge.

Neighborhood quilters worked side by side, quilting the area in front of them in a pattern decided upon by the host. As the quilting progressed, the finished area was rolled under so quilters could continue until the entire quilt was finished.

After removing the quilt from the frames, the quilt owner finished the edges herself. She usually folded the backing over the front edge of the quilt, turning under the raw edges and hand hemming it to complete the quilting process.

Hand quilting is hard. I have quilted a few quilts with my mother, but my work was never as good as hers. The stitches of a good quilter are short and even. While you stitch with one hand, you keep the other hand underneath the quilt so you can feel the needle pierce all layers of the quilt. Needless to say, pricked fingers were the norm, at least when I tried to quilt.

I have a set of quilting frames that were my mother’s, but I seriously doubt they will ever be used by me. I intend to simply appreciate the beautiful quilts I own and the hands that made them.

I love to cut up the most antique quilts I have and create items to give to family members. I want them to have a connection to their heritage and also learn to appreciate things created by previous generations.

While clearing out my mother-in-law’s house to sell following her death, we found several antique quilts. Since I never saw my mother-in-law or her mother quilt, I knew these quilts were very old, but I do not know who made them. So, the quilts must have been made by my husband’s great grandmothers or great-great grandmothers.

One of the quilts found was in colors of red, green, and white. Acknowledging its Christmas color combination, I made several things to be used as Christmas decorations and gifts for family members. Here is a list of possible projects to make and then the following video shows some of the items I actually made from this one quilt.

A few suggested quilt projects include:

• Mantel garland of Christmas-related items, such as snowman, Christmas tree, stocking, mittens and triangular banners
• Pillows, in the shape of a heart, bell, and larger representations of the items in the previously mentioned mantel garland
• Wall hangings of portions of the quilt in an antique picture frame or old window frame
• Wall hangings of quilt pieces stretched in old embroidery frames
• Upholster the top of a stool or lid of a storage box with quilt pieces
• Potholders
• Coasters

In my recent YouTube video, I showed several projects that I made with this old quilt. I also included a download link for patterns to make the Christmas garland for my mantel. Check it out: Antique Quilt Projects –

https://youtu.be/bBjsmq3vaI4

To view items I made from this antique quilt, click on the first picture in the gallery below. Then click on the arrows on either side of the pictures to navigate from one picture to another.

Anything you make is a way to save and appreciate the beauty of antique quilts and the hard work that lovingly created them. If you are lucky enough to have antique quilts and know their origin, what a wonderful treasure to pass on to future generations. And creating small projects with them is a great way to share a piece of your quilt heritage with family members.

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I didn’t realize I had a hygge home! I’ve been decorating it for years to achieve exactly that, but I didn’t know there was a name for it.

Comfortable and cozy are the defining qualities of a hygge home. Hygge, considered a Danish or Scandinavian term and pronounced “hoo-guh”, is defined as “a quality of coziness that makes a person feel content and comfortable”. Isn’t that exactly how we want our home to make us feel?

Decorating our home in this way is one of the highest forms of self-care. Home should be our haven from the rest of the world, a place to rest and refresh. I know I always feel a sense of contentment and peace when I arrive at my home. It just seems to invite me in to stay and I love that feeling.

You may already have a hygge home. Perhaps you have some, if not all, of these 7 items that help to make a hygge home.

1. Candles, especially ones that are natural and organic and help to set the mood of a home are a vital element.
2. Lighting that is deliberate is another hygge element. The Danish people often spend a great deal for just the right lamp, one that not only provides light, but is also artistic in the mood it promotes. Fairy lights that seem to dance around the room are another common form of hygge lighting.
3. Houseplants help to bring the outside in. In especially cold climates like the Scandinavian countries, this becomes even more important and houseplants, along with natural and ambient lighting are just the trick.
4. A fireplace creates that cozy warmth like nothing else. If you don’t have a fireplace, it has been suggested that you can “stream” a fire on your TV screen! Even the suggestion of a fireplace may be enough to provide extra coziness.
5. If you don’t have a fireplace, you might find a comfortable nook provides a place of respite. Can’t you see yourself curling up with a good book and a mug of hot chocolate?
6. Layers of texture add to that comfortable hygge feeling. You can achieve that feel with texture in pillows, blanket throws, draperies and seating cushions.
7. Comfortable seating completes the hygge look and feel. Soft cushions with layers of textural throws and comfortable pillows just add even more coziness.

What about your home? Do you already have a hygge home and were unaware of it? How can you add to the warmth, comfort and coziness of your home as we enter colder weather of the winter months?

How about creating your own mood board of items that would make your home more of a hygge home? Check out mine below. You can click on the numbers to take you to a purchase page for the item.

1      |      2      |      3      |      4      |      5      |      6      |      7       |      8      |

If you want to know more about how to make your home more hygge, here are a few books recommended by those who know and write about hygge.

The Little Book of Hygge appears to be one of the most popular books on hygge. Click HERE for a link to it.

And click HERE for another link to two popular books (sold as a set) on Amazon.

Finally, coloring books are very comforting activities on the hygge list of a lot of people. Click HERE for a hygge coloring book.

I would love to hear how your home is already a hygge home! Or how do you plan to make your home more hygge? Just comment below!

The links in this article are affiliate links to products. If you make a purchase through them, I would receive compensation.

Now that you’ve been isolated at home far longer than you could have ever imagined, what are you going to do from this point forward?

• How’s your life working for you?
• What changes were thrust upon you? Are you happy with them?
• Are you happy with your home, the stuff you have, and where your stuff is located?
• Do you plan what you’re going to do daily? Or do you just let things happen?

I used to think I was an organized person. But now, having gone through two knee replacement surgeries over the course of the past three months, I have found myself just sitting and surveying my cluttered home. Of course, I realize that my husband has been carrying the household burden while taking care of me. He has cooked, washed dishes, cleaned (somewhat) and iced my knees on a regular basis. No extra time to handle decluttering! 

Now that I can move about more freely, I am overwhelmed by what I see needs to be done. I need visual order to feel calm. But I know what to do and how to take back charge of my life – the life I want to live. And that starts with simplifying.

Here are 5 ways you can also start simplifying your life. I’m starting with these to get back control of how I live. And my new knees are going to help me get there!

Get the right mindset—While you can make definite headway in a weekend, simplifying your life is going to be a process and that’s okay. Get your mind in that place where it’s okay to take one step each day toward your goal. A plan to simplify should be simple, right?

Things have changed. If your mindset is currently not where you need or want it to be, I have a solution to deal with this major issue that stands in the way of accomplishing your goals, simplifying your life, and being intentional about what you want to do from this point forward.

For under $10 you can clear away the cobwebs of your mind and set yourself up for success with a new normal mindset. Find out more: https://designingyournewnormal.com/

Spend just 15 minutes—In just 15 minutes a day, you can reduce clutter, put filters on your email, make a phone call to implement an auto-payment, unsubscribe from newsletters that clog up your email, or cancel a credit card you don’t use. If you are feeling like you just don’t have time to simplify, it’s a sure sign you need to! Decide on one small task to complete each day. Set a timer for 15 minutes and see what you can accomplish.

Are you familiar with the Pomodoro Technique? It is a way to help you stay focused on a task by working for a specified time, normally 25 minutes, followed by a short break of 5 minutes. If you’re looking for a good app to set reminders for your 15 minutes (or whatever time you want), check out these apps: Focus Keeper, Pomodoro, and Pomotodo.

Chose one place—What room or area makes you the craziest when you walk into it? What have you been meaning to clean out and declutter the longest? Start there. It’s taking up mental energy you can use for more important things.

Get your family or housemates involved—the common areas of your house are not going to stay decluttered if you are the only one maintaining them. Sit your family down and have a chat about why simplifying is so important to you and how it will benefit everyone.

Start by setting the declutter bar low if you feel overwhelmed. Start simplifying with something simple, like one drawer or one shelf in a closet. When you have a process that works for you, set the bar a little higher. 

Keep a donate box— Keep a donation box in an out-of-the-way place so that you can toss things in as you find them. When the box is full, take it to the donation center of your choice. Want to know “Where to Donate Everything in Your Home A-Z”? Click here: https://www.thespruce.com/where-to-donate-everything-in-home-2648117

Buy one, toss one—Make a new rule for the household: when you purchase a non-consumable item and bring it into the house, you must get rid of something. For example, if you buy a new pair of shoes, either throw out your old, disgusting running shoes or place a pair that is still good, but that you don’t care about keeping, in the donate box. This rule works in two ways—it helps you maintain the simple lifestyle you are creating, and it cuts down on impulse shopping. You’ll probably be surprised to discover that there’s no pair of shoes you currently have that you are willing to part with in order to have the new, shiny pair. Problem solved.

Unless you have the space to put additional purchases, your plan for a clutter-free home won’t work very long. This BOTO (Buy One-Toss One) technique will keep those neat spaces you just organized from becoming cluttered for lack of space.