Wehrheim Family Ornaments 2007 - 2016 (updated Nov 2018)

The last decade (sort of - only 9 years) of our family ornaments.

2007 was the 30th anniversary of that first Christmas when Jane put up a pair of socks for each person who was celebrating Christmas at our house.  So we decided we needed something a little special.  I found music buttons that played Frosty the Snowman and we put them inside these pillow type ornaments.  We each stitched the snowmen, customizing the hats and scarves with our own design and colors. If you squeeze his tummy he plays the tune.

2007 Musical Snowmen Pillows

In 2008, we got together at Jane and Brian's apartment in Chicago and made these stamped ceramic stars.  Stazon ink in numerous colors made the job easy.

2008 Ceramic Stars

The legend of the spider gave us an idea for these.  Carol found kits to make jeweled spiders - but the spiders only had 6 legs so we had to add a couple and subsidize the kits with jewels we found at Michaels.  We made these while sitting in a hotel room in Rockford IL over Halloween.  It was a fun Sisters' Weekend with a tour of the Sock Monkey Museum and shopping.
Jane made the tiny books with a very condensed version of the legend.  At our Christmas gathering, Carol told the whole story.

2009 Spiders and Legend

Jane visited in 2010 and we made these ribbon candies.  I think a stiffer ribbon would have worked better but they are still cute.  I have since seen these made with beads inserted in each loop to hold them apart).

2010 Ribbon Candy

A friend got married in January 2010 and had little snowflake cookie cutters as favors at the reception.  They had quite a few left and I had seen an ornament idea using cookie cutters and ribbon so I bought some of the cookie cutters and we used them for our 2011 ornaments.   Carol, Jane and I made these in a hotel room in Peoria between Wicked and the Cardinals World Series game 7 win  (#11 in '11).   We even had a rally squirrel - a paper mache squirrel we found at an antique store and we gave it a red ribbon.

2011 Snowflake Cookie Cutter

In 2012, Jane found an idea for making a folded paper star   When all folded up it made a small little square as can be seen on the left in the photo.  Then you open it up and slide the button down to hold it in place and it is a 3 dimensional star.  These were lots of fun to make and to play with every year when we put them on the tree.  Great-niece Sydnie helped with these.

2012 Folded Star

When planning the 2013 ornaments, we decided it was time to do some counted cross stitch again.  We looked through lots of ideas and settled on some fun Santa designs. These are stitched on plastic canvas and then backed with some foil paper.  Our niece, Jill, joined our team of stitchers again this year.

2013 Santa Squares

For the 2014 ornament, Jane offered to cut up an old Red Cross quilt that was made by our grandmother, Lena Pump Wehrheim.  These were popular during World War I.  The quilt had a white background with bright red crosses worked into it.  For many years it was the quilt that Jane and I used in our bedroom.  It had gotten frayed and threadbare.  This way we each have a little bit of the quilt.  Jane cut the stocking shapes (she said it was hard to make that first cut) and designed the ornament, then distributed the pieces to Carol and I to put together.  There is a little bronze bell attached to the top of the stocking (hard to see in the picture).  The bells were some that Jane had found in Aunt Nina's craft supplies.   The red tag stuffed in the stocking has a short write-up about the significance of the quilt.

2014 Quilt Stocking

In 2015, we had a Sisters' Weekend in Galena IL and started on these yo-yo circle ornaments.  We took a Big Shot die cut machine and cut out the felt circles in the hotel room, then divided them among the 3 of us with fabric yo-yos that Grandma Wehrheim had made. 

2015 Fabric Yo-Yos

In 2016, we made these paper silhouette ornaments at Jane's home in New Richland MN before a Sisters Days (not a weekend this year) in Stillwater MN.    Sadly, this was the last time Jane would be part of our ornament team as she died in 2017.  

2016 Sleigh Ride Silhouettes