The Gifts

I kid you not, my grandmother would start in January making Christmas gifts for the family of over 30.  Everybody always got something handmade.  I only remember one time getting money from her and Papa for Christmas and that was so that I could buy a paint set.  She told me she had to get started early so that she could get them all done.

I usually start about October!

But I've had so much fun making things and getting them ready.  Most everything I'm doing for gifts is using vintage tops or unfinished projects and finishing them.  I did make my son-in-law a small Christmas stocking to match the one I made for my daughter several years ago.  I was informed by her that he needed a larger one to match the one that my grandmother had made for when she was little.  I would definitely need to start in January for that!

Her stocking has the little rabbits on it.  I traced off the basic size for Matt's, found a cross-stitch pattern with a pretty little tree with snow and made his stocking.  They are only big enough to put a wad of cash in, which they did not get this year!

This vintage quilt top is slowly being turned into:

 this!  I'm still trying to figure out how to finish it.  I think that I'll simply square it up with some white corners and try to find a matching red for a border and binding.  I've never worked with hexagons before so if you have advice on how to finish this, please let me know.

 

I have this one ready to go into the machine, but I can't show it yet.  Little eyes might be watching!

 

As a group project, my daughter had me hand applique these red and white designs onto a solid black piece.  The pattern is actually a dogwood pattern...I know, you probably don't see it, do you?

The pattern called for the three pieces pictured below.  Each section either had white tips or red tips and then when placed correctly, it made this block.  In the picture of the pink quilt, you can see the dogwood flower is actually made up of the large solid colors (pink).  Sally saw the umbrella and thought of a game her husband plays on his XBox.  We really did try to make it like this, with all the blocks made from the pieces of the blocks, but it wasn't coming out smooth.  So I decided to just applique all the red and white pieces on, after making the design.  That is when the quilt went from this layout like the pink quilt, to all the umbrellas falling.

 Then she is quilting art from the game, Resident Evil.

  

  

Above the quilted girl are quilted birds flying around her and the outline of the title of the game.  She's working on a grid in white now in the area where the umbrella designs are.  Her quilting is so cool and she does it so fast.  I think it took her about 2 hours to draw off the girl and quilt her.  I know, it's not to everyone's taste, but I think it will be perfect for Matt.  That's what making quilts for gifts is all about.  Finding something that you know the person will like and you will enjoy working on.

Our family gets together every Christmas day.  It's a little easier on us but not the kids now.  We don't have to try and get to all the grandparents' house, but now they do or the in-laws.  We used to draw names and then everyone got all the children (still in high school) gifts.  All those kids are grown now and we only have two young ones, so we started playing dirty Christmas.  I'm sure there is a dollar amount somewhere, but for me, there's no way to put a dollar amount on something handmade and I make my stuff.

I had some Christmas fabrics that I bought just a 1/4 yard of each a while ago.  I saw a simple block design that I had wanted to try out on the internet and so I made a lap quilt as my dirty Christmas gift.  I'm going to do another post on it and some of the pitfalls that I stumbled over while putting it together.  But this morning I got the binding on and it shouldn't take me too long to whip it down tonight.

 

The gift that my husband will be bringing for dirty Christmas involves this lady.  That's all I have to say about that right now!!!  Spoilers!

I really believe what Grannie enjoyed the most about the gifts of Christmas was all the time spent thinking about the person she was making it for and how they would use it.  In her own way, it may have been how she prayed over her family throughout the year, as she worked on those gifts.

Finished/Found/Unfinished Projects

I caved and went shopping on Black Friday.  But only the fabric store (and one stop at a clothing store for Sally).  I added the browns and yellows to my stash.  The greens and pinks were from my last stop at the store.  No idea what I want to do with yet, but just wanted something a little different in my line up.  Sally's going through my Framer's Wife book, so I pulled out my Dear Jane.  Maybe.....a Baby Jane or two!?

 I finally got all the quilts put away from the quilt show.  They make a nice little pile.

 While cleaning up the sewing room, I decided to move things around a bit.  I just can't find a set up that I'm completely happy with.  What I found were a couple of unfinished projects, so I finished them up.

I had started this scarf last year, but ran out of thread and would you believe I bought two skeins of the exact same thread a couple of weeks ago...I guess I really liked it.  So....this scarf is finished and listed on my Etsy shop now.

 I was trying to get a picture of how it can be stretched out to come up over the back of the neck....but look at that gray...no white hair.  That white streak keeps getting wider and wider.  I tell people I'm like that girl from the X-Men....every time I use my "power" the white streak gets wider.

 Another unfinished project was this baby blanket.  How funny that the pattern is for "November" from a monthly project crochet book.  So....I'm working on it now.

 I actually through a few unfinished projects away....half-made scarves that need more thread, the ugly quilted blue wall hanging.  I had enough of the blue to do another one and got it hand pieced this past week. I will not be quilting this with blue thread!

 Then I found these little stockings.  My aunt made mine about 30 years ago.  I've added to the collection with each member of my family.  I guess I need to do one for Matt and give Sally's her's.  I wonder if I can still cross-stitch...the eyes aren't as strong as they once were.

 I found these left over blocks from the purple quilt.  Not sure what I'll do with them yet.

So my sewing room is cleaned up and arranged....time for some Sunday sewing.  And I did pull out the Christmas decorations while I was putting the quilts away...just not sure when I'll put them out.