Creatively Christmas 2014

While I haven't been blogging...
I HAVE been making.

Much of my making was Christmas gifts.  However, I have a bunch of patterns to share for things I've created and projects I'm in the midst of.  So if I keep on blogging you will have that to come...

Here are some snippets of our Christmas:

One of my favorite moments is on Christmas Eve when most everyone has gone off to bed and only the indoor Christmas lights brighten the room.  Under the tree is loaded with gifts.  It's very quiet, it's totally serene.  I have to stop myself from taking photos to try to make that special time hold still...

 

Once the morning arrives and the crazy kids awake (4 of these kids are mine, 2 are my sisters and the one at the top of the steps is my youngest sister who is 20 years my junior - so she is lucky enough to get to be part of the batch of kids yet), the Christmas crazy begins.

 

 



For the past several years it's been my goal to use all non-traditional wrappings.  My attempt is to use no paper wrapping at all.  Most of my wrap gets re-used from year to year.  In these photos of the wrapped gifts you can see a variety of wrappings: old clothing, sweaters, pant legs, shirts, skirts etc... made into wrap bags and tied with re-usable ribbons.  Only the handmade paper gift tags get tossed.  Also in the mix is mailing envelopes (you can see one on the far right with a tree drawn on it), handled shopping bags (which are then given as part of the gift), flannel backed and plastic table cloths (which I buy at the dollar store and re-use year after year - works great for bigger gifts), paper grocery bags, the paper and bubblewrap that comes in the shipping boxes from amazon, etc.... Once a gift is open the family returns the clothing bags, ribbons, etc... and I store them in a box to re-use the following year.

For my little niece Maisie, my husband and I co-created doll beds and bedding.  Maisie has three dolls (handed down from her mom, my sister).  There is a blond, brunette and red-head doll.  My husband fashioned them beds that stack in bunks or come apart as separate.

We trash pick wood and re-use old furniture quite a bit.  My husband probably didn't buy anything new to create these beds - he fashioned them all from the odd bits of wood and molding strips already in his garage.

Likewise - I did my part to dress the beds.  After all, these dollies needed a bit of soft and warm for proper sleeping:

Each doll bed had entirely handmade bedding (by me).

An old ikea curtain provided the means to sew hand-tufted mattresses stuffed with leftover couch pillow stuffing.  Atop the mattress was a double-sided flat sheet (easy for a toddler to make up the bed).  Once the doll was on the sheet she'd need a place to rest her head so I sewed a pillow and a coordinating pillow case (to match the sheet and other bedding).  Most of the sheets and pillow cases were made from thrifted vintage sheets.  Atop the doll were then a quilt and a blanket.  The quilts were all handmade (sewing machine made) by me.  Each quilt had a traditional pieced side and a more modern side.  Then, each doll received a crocheted blanket.  There were three total bedding sets, one each with a pink, orange and green theme.  My sewing machine was in the shop for 6 weeks before Christmas and I just barely got it back in time to complete the bed sewing.  WHEW!

I hope Maisie will love the doll items for years to come.

And then there were the hats.  My daughter got 4 (because I like to make hats in front of the TV while watching sappy Hallmark Christmas shows)!  The first one is slouchy and kinda Rasta in an acrylic-cotton blend.

Then there was the acrylic-wool blend purple and turquoise slouchy.  I should have photographed all the hats before giving them so you could see the actual hat other than just seeing it perched on a head with all the detail missing.

 

 This one was again, wool acrylic with a  very chunky yarn and a pattern I got from Moogly blog. Consequently - the white hat was my personal favorite and I might make one for myself.

This final hat was a beret with a pom pom - of course which you cannot see!  It's made from 100% Peruvian wool in a double green/blue twist.

Finally, I winged one final hat - in royal blue with red and white accents in my son's college colors.

It's an unwritten tradition to wear everything you get on xmas morning - so my son has a bow tie, a football jersey and a crochet hat all together.

An annual tradition is for each kid to have a crochet college bunting to hang in the dorm room.  This one is for the son on the left to hang at his college, Shippensburg, and has two little ships wheels included (I made up that ship wheel pattern and will share it).  I also used the capital letters pattern from moogly blog.  Do you love that blog? It's one of my favorites!

Remember what I said about wearing everything you get - take a crazy pj outfit and start adding hats and purses and OH MY!

In a house full of teenagers and twenty-somethings - this group gift was a HUGE big hit and they cheered for about 5 straight minutes.  The gift was a card game called "Cards Against Humanity" which is a very inappropriate version of Apples to Apples.  They have been wanting this crazy and very non-PC card game for a while.  Yes it got played that night - and I and my hubby joined in.  It's very inappropriately funny - but those of you with high morals or young kids would be abashed (I have neither the high morals or the young kids).

A few years back I suggested that the Christmas dinner meal be a casual one.  Since everyone stays at my home for several days before and after Christmas, things are a bit hectic... I figured an easy meal would help with the strain and stress of heavy cooking duties and it does.  Here is our Christmas table in which everyone dresses as he or she pleases, pjs are welcome.  We have 3 pots of soup (2 vegan since most of the family is vegan, and 1 organic but not vegan).  This year we had vegan veggie, vegan creamy broccoli and organic chicken noodle.  Typically I also provide a salad and this year it had arugula, baby kale, baby chard, baby romaine, baby spinach, organic tri-color quinoa, heirloom rainbow cherry tomatoes, roasted yam, dried cranberry, homemade sweet and salty pecans and balsamic dressing.  Often there is homemade bread but this time we had a few organic store-bought.  One whole grain and one with rosemary.  A big pitcher or pomegranate iced tea, some alcoholic beverages and the meal was a done deal.  I don't have fancy dishes enough for everyone, so each third of the table had their own dishes pattern. 

Around mid-day we had eaten some hearty appetizers: peppered salami and sharp cheese for the non-vegans and all the rest was vegan: hot salsa with chips, bread with spinach artichoke dip, anti-pasta salad with olives, peppers, artichokes and mushrooms, roasted veggies with cauliflower, carrots, onions and zucchini, tapenade with crackers, hummus, salted nuts... and a variety of other things that kept us fully satisfied with simple to serve type food.

 And a big bonus this Christmas for me?  I got to sleep in a bedroom and in a bed while the guests were here!!!!  Usually I have to give up my bed and my bedroom and I end up sleeping on a couch or a floor (as does my hubby).  But this year we re-did the "boys" room that was rather teenage boyish and yucky and turned it into a bedroom that we could offer to a guest. SO I then got to sleep in an actual bed in my own room.  And that was Christmas bliss.

I love to make and to give gifts at Christmas.  I don't as much like getting gifts.  However, my hubby gave me two bottles of wine, two yummy little boxes of chocolate and two new indoor scarves... all good stuff!

How was your Christmas?  What are your traditions?  Do you celebrate another holiday or a different religion?  If so, what do you do on Christmas when others are celebrating with lighted trees and holiday wrapping?

Next up - all the making and creating that's been happening for the past 6 months... to include some new free patterns for you!  TA TA and Happy New Year's Eve!  Sher

Creative Christmas 2013

I always feel very pulled in opposite directions around Christmas time with respect to blogging.  I am usually making more things than at any other time of the year.  However, so many of them are gifts that I don't feel I can blog about them.  At a time when I am receiving awesome inspiration from other bloggers, I offer none.

The best I can do is to offer the after affect of all that was hand made and given.  Maybe a few of these gift ideas will end up on someone's pin board for next year's gift making!!!

Here we go with a journey of holiday gifts via photos:

I had a strong desire to work with felt and embroidery for this year's gifts.  So, I purchased a holiday pattern set from Betz White.  Go here to see Betz's posts about her holiday ornament patterns.  They were available separately or as a set.  I purchased a set of four ornament patterns but didn't really like pattern #4 so I made only the first three.

Above are the hot cocoa ornaments.  OH MY were they cute.  Simply adorable.  However, the process of making them involved a LOT of gluing.  I have wonderful and very tacky fabric glue but it's so sticky and messy that I prefer to only use it in bits.  This ornament project involved lots and lots of gluing in almost every step.  So, the drying time between glued steps caused these ornaments to take a super long amount of time.  I loved how they looked but I probably would design a more sewing-related version were I to make them again.  I only made these four.  I gave away three and kept one for myself.

Another of Betz's ornaments was this peace dove.  I love it!  It was a lot of sewing and attaching little parts together.  I preferred this one to the cocoa cup in terms of the skills required to make it.  However, I only made two.  I gave one to my daughter and one to my youngest sister who is just beginning to collect her own handmade ornaments for her tree.  I would make this lovely bird again!

A third ornament from the Betz White collection was these felt wreaths - again, so so cute!  I made about 8 of them and gave away 7.  The pattern involved a lot of individual knot tying which got old after a while.  The pattern was ingenious and though I didn't like all the knot tying, it was so cute that'd I'd make them again.

Note the star bunting in the photo with the wreaths...  I loved loved loved the star pattern that I found on the MOOGLY blog.  It was a free pattern and so simple.  It is made in only two rounds and it was super simple and formed the most perfect star.  I will go back to this star pattern again and again.  I made a multi colored star bunting for my daughter and a red and white and black star bunting (santa star bunting, not pictured) for my other sister.

Another thing I crocheted this year was soap socks.  I purchased some special organic scented soaps from Trader Joes and crocheted a little packet for each of them with a draw string top.  I gave them as gifts to my daughter, my son's girl friend and another friend.  They can be used in the shower with the crochet part becoming a scrubby and the soap re-filled when dissolved or in a drawer as a sachet.  I made a very simple rectangle and folded it in half, stitched up one side, turned it inside out, stitched up the bottom, and threaded it with a crochet chain drawstring, no pattern, just winged it.

Here are my projects sitting in my craft room waiting to be finished.  Top left corner there are two double sided pot holders for my son.  One side was in Maryland State Flag colors and the other side was in Towson University colors.  All used 4 different stitch patterns.  One of my favorite pot holder patterns is what I call linen stitch.  I loved doing it in four colors - it turned out great and I didn't trim any ends when I switched colors, just let the old color hang until I needed to pick it up again.  It worked out great and saved time.  I wrote up a pdf pattern for my basic linen stitch pot holder but never posted it.  I'll see if I can find it and post it on Ravelry.  Find me HERE ON RAVELRY and stay tuned for that free pattern.

On top of my son's potholders is a little black box containing 6 Maryland colored coasters.  I forgot to photograph those before giving them.  Maybe there's a shot of them at Christmas time that I haven't discovered yet.

My daughter also got a set of colored and stripey pot holders.  I used linen stitch on the top one as well as just basic single crochet stripes.  On the bottom photo, I did a stitch new to me that I also learned on Moogly - it was wonderful and made a sort of a plaid design.  I loved it and will use it again!  Check that pattern here.

Above are three more close ups of the little soap sock.

Lastly, I made name buntings for my niece and nephew.  I used the same bunting pattern that I used last year to make my sons' college buntings.  However, I hand cut sticky backed craft foam to use for the letters on my niece and nephew's buntings.  My niece's bunting was pink/purple/yellow (her favorite colors) with a white scalloped border that I just made up.  My nephew's bunting was green/blue (his favorite colors) with red and a black pointy border that looked like little triangles.  I'm really hoping I kept the notecard of how to make the little triangle bunting so I can post it an make it again.  It was a great invention and I want to repeat it sometime in the future as well as share it with you.

Here are my sweet little niece and nephew with their buntings!  Fortunately my sister snapped a few photos for facebook when they opened them.  Oh yeah, I added little silver bells to the tip of Maisie's bunting and little blue bells to the tips of Quinn's.

Hope you enjoyed my holiday making this year.  I had tons and tons of other ideas for things I wanted to make for gifts, but... I didn't get to them.  SO... I have lots to do for next year!

Goodies and Gifts from Blogland

Blogland is the most wonderful place.

I read blogs.  I get to know their authors.  I listen to their tales, their stories, their happiness and woes.  I learn from them, am inspired by them.  I get patterns, tutorials, and lessons from them.  I've never met ANY of them but I spend every day with them.  It's a strange and wonderful place, blogland.  Most of the time, the authors of the blogs I follow don't even know I exist.  If I leave a comment, they know I am following them and reading their words.  Sometimes I get responses and comments on my own blog posts and then I know that people are really out there, reading what I write, following my blog, being inspired by my patterns and lessons and tutorials.

Blogland involves a lot of invisible sharing.  Blogland is a strange and wonderful place.

But sometimes, blogland comes alive.  It flies across the oceans of this world and it arrives RIGHT at your doorstep.  Sometimes the bloggers, pop into your life in a personal and tangible way.  Sometimes this happens and when it does, it is even a MORE wonderful and amazing and happy place.

Blogland came to my house by the way of Linda.  Sweet, kind Linda.

I didn't know Linda.  I had never heard of Linda.  Linda's blog was not one on my daily list nor was mine on hers (tho. we both follow one another now).  But Linda and I had a blog in common... Attic24.  I always tell the students in my crochet class... if you follow Lucy at Attic24, you will learn about crochet from the world's most famous crocheter.  They laugh but I tell them I am serious.  Linda and I both follow Lucy and read her words and wait for her stories, and thrive on her crochet.  And there, in the Attic, we met.

It was in THIS POST BY LUCY.  The post is all about things that to Lucy are cosy (cozy in the USA).  In the post I saw the photo below.  These hot water bottle covers are all over crochet blogs in the UK and Australia and other places in Europe.  I've never seen one in the USA, I don't know anyone personally who uses one.  I wasn't really sure what people do with hot water bottles.



So, I gulped.  Then I asked, publicly, in the comments section of Lucy's blog.  Within 24 hours, I had a personal email explanation from Lucy, I had many answers in the comments section from other Attic24 visitors BUT... I got a comment on my own blog from Linda who took it a step further and wanted to SEND ME an official UK Hottie!  I sent her my postal address and thanked her profusely at the offer.



But, guess what.  Linda didn't stop there... look what she did!

She wrapped up all kinds of goodies inside that package.  I could hardly wait to open them but I had to take the photo first.  Do you see the sweet wrap and tag with the flag in a heart.  LOVE!

WOW!  OH MY!  What can I say?  Too much goodness all wrapped up together and all for ME!!!  It wasn't my birthday or a holiday and it didn't even come from someone I know... can you believe this?  Shock, awe, amazement - all wrapped up.  Most of the items she had made - HAND MADE!

This SWEET little sachet with lavender was inside.  Can you stand how adorable those fabric prints and ribbons are?  LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.  Did I mention I love this?

And what about these awesome wooden buttons.  I will have to use them in JUST THE RIGHT project.

And even more.  I know, astounding right?  And I believe the little note book and needle book are both hand made.

But really, the piece de resistance...

Her beautiful crochet work.  The wonderful colors, the flower, the edging, the trim, the bow... what can I say.  No words are left.  I am floored, overwhelmed and TERRIBLY, undeservingly THANKFUL!

My husband came home and saw the pile of items on the dining room table and the overseas packaging sitting by its side.  I told him the story about the blog and the gifts and he simply couldn't believe it. Like me, he thought it was just the most wonderful thing!

I believe that Linda might just be off in Dubai to visit her family and grandson who have recently moved there.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Linda.  I love everything about this package and much much more!!!! (of course, you KNOW that I am already planning what I can send flying across the pond to YOU).

Up next, poinsettia pattern and tutorial, stay tuned. 

Lots of Holiday Making

I made a lot of gifts for the holidays this year.

I think one reason I didn't post much was because a lot of the crafting I was doing had a gift recipient who might read my blog.

One such gift I made was a quilt for my nephew, Quinn - age 5.

I made him a checkerboard quilt that I designed.  I don't know much about designing quilts, I just needed something that was easy.

My inspiration was a vintage fabric with a nautical theme and the fact that Quinn's bed is built into his wall like a captain's bed on a ship.

Here's my design process...not very technical.

Graph paper, crayons.

I used Red and Blue fabrics to complement the vintage ships fabric which I fussy cut and left as 12" squares.

I made random checkerboards using different sized squares.

I pieced them all together.

I took it to my Philly Modern Quilt Guild Meeting for Show and Tell and a bit of advice seeking (bad photo).

I pieced a nautical looking back - I love the way Modern quilters use design on both the front and the back of a quilt.

The quilting was very simple diagonal lines (on the machine) - I'm still learning...

The binding was my FIRST ever binding.  I made 2.5" binding strips, sewed them to the back and hand stitched them to the front.  I loved the process of hand-stitching.

I started the quilt top just over a week before Christmas and was finishing the binding just a few days before Christmas.

Quinn loved the quilt and I hope it lives on his bed and he gets a chance to snuggle in it often and for many years to come.