This is a static export of a blog I put on ice many years ago, that still has personally relevant content. No promises can be made around linkrot, styles, or working functionality.
It’s right around this time every year that I remember how much I dislike the season of giving. I love giving presents when I find/make just the right thing for someone; I dislike having to buy something just because itâs xmas. I hate, hate, hate being on the receiving end when someone clearly felt required to give me somethingâit takes all the fun out of being able to appreciate the thought behind the present.
Moof is only sad because he’s not allowed to eat the ornaments. Photo by Carl Pfranger.
Growing up, giving holidays were always followed by a series of trips to the store to exchange all manner of things that didn’t fit or really weren’t my styleâthat, or trying to find a way to donate things that couldn’t be exchanged (which generally didn’t happen, so they became clutter in a mini-hoard). So, that’s the long-winded bah-humbug excuse for why my tween and teen niblings are all getting gift cards this yearâinstead of having to go return things from us in the days after Christmas, perhaps they can go to the store with us while we’re in town that week and use their gifts on things that suit them best.
Gift cards are boring to unwrap, so I made a few gift card stockings as well. I personalized them with embroidered initials, and topped them with a bit of stashed fleece. Really, I was procrastinating on working on a quilt that I’ve lost the drive to finish.
The easy way would be a single layer with pinked seam allowances to stop potential fraying. I made mine with a lining, because it means neat insides and I wanted to experiment with ordering of seams (that is, sewing the lining, cuff, and outside for one half together, then to the other, rather than some complicated nesting process).
Charm squares are the perfect size for these if you want to make a few of your ownâyou’ll need four per stocking. The cuffs are 3.5″x5″ rectangles (quilting cotton can work there too, or stash bust some fleece/Minky scraps). You can download the template I used if you want to muddle through construction on your own.
Despite my current lack of Yuletide gaiety, I am looking forward to the vacation time and chance to head back to MO to see my family! What’s your favorite part of the holiday season?
Three presents down (including this one from last week), a handful more to go. I am making three of the cosmetics bags totalâthe finished one here, the one cut out and half quilted that is also shown, and one other.
Also, one more of the little zipper bags, and one or two other small things. By next Friday. Yikes! It has been fun working out the kinks in construction process for the big bags. I am not sure how to translate my finagling into a tutorial yet, though.
I havenât been quilting lately, but I have been coming up with great ideas for the new year!
From around the web this week: The Oldest UFO from the Quilterâs Newsletter Blog. Unlike the author, all of my unfinished latchhook projects are lost to the sands of time (I can think of at least three, one might have been finished). Did you do latchhook as a child (or adult, for that matter)?
Modern Mirage from Freshly Pieced. This is my favorite quilt I saw online this week.
Happy New Year! I canât believe it is already 2012. 2011 went by so quickly. Weâre en route back to New York today, but I have one more Christmas revealâan eyeglasses case that I made for Mom (to go with reading glasses I purchased), who claimed she only wanted to see us for Christmas, but constantly comments on Facebook that she doesnât have her reading glasses, so she couldnât really see everything well. Now she has glasses to see the small-scale of this glasses case!
I initially wrote up a tutorial, but then when I tried to follow my own tutorial, it just didnât make a lot of sense, so Iâll simply have to leave you with a few photos. I promise to fix up the tutorial sometime this month!
Welcome back to another Vacation Christmas reveal. I was far busier over the past two months than you might have guessed based on the frequency of my posts here. Now that weâre traveling to Missouri and delivering gifts, I can show you what Iâve been working on. These were the last of three types of gifts I made for the 10 nieces and nephews Carl and I have between our two families.
The two youngest nieces were a bit of a challenge for me. I made a bag for the older one (four) for her birthday a few months ago, so didnât want to duplicate it, and the youngest isnât yet two, so I wanted something else appropriate for them.
Welcome back to another Vacation Christmas reveal. I was far busier over the past two months than you might have guessed based on the frequency of my posts here. Now that weâre traveling to Missouri and delivering gifts, I can show you what Iâve been working on. These were the second of three types of gifts I made for the 10 nieces and nephews Carl and I have between our two families.
Boys are hard to sew for. I never know what to make. It seems like 90% of the projects out there that are age appropriate (6â10y.o.) are also very girly. But, when I came across Chez Beeper Bebeâs Nature Explorer Bag, I knew Iâd found my project. In the right colors and fabrics, itâs perfectly boyish, but still useful. Itâs also relatively quick and painless, which was awesome, because at Thanksgiving, Carlâs sister announced that sheâs engaged and he has two boys of his own, so that upped the number of these bags to five!
Welcome back to another Vacation Christmas reveal. I was far busier over the past two months than you might have guessed based on the frequency of my posts here. Now that weâre traveling to Missouri and delivering gifts, I can show you what Iâve been working on. These were one of three types of gifts I made for the 10 nieces and nephews Carl and I have between our two families.
Over the summer, I saw the Summer Reading Bag posted on Sew Mama Sew and knew it would be a great gift. It was quick to make, simple to put together and overall seems to be a great hit. I made these bags for the five oldest nieces, who range from 4â13.
Itâs Christmas week and weâre on vacation, but itâs time to unveil the finished Strip-pieced Lone Star/Star of Bethlehem quilt. You got a sneak preview last month, when I reviewed Natureâs Touch batting, so without further ado, here is the full quilt.
Iâve been waiting for snow to photograph it outside, but here we are Christmas Eve (well, when I wrote this), and Uticaâs had no snow stick yet this season. So, these photos I took inside will have to do.
I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season, whatever you celebrate! Here in my world, weâre gearing up to celebrate our first Christmas in our new home tomorrow, and after trying to weasel out of spending most of the day at his parentsâ house, ended up volunteered to host Christmas dinner (sans oven!). Weâre off on our annual end-of-the-year trip to Missouri (both Kansas City and the Lake of the Ozarks) to visit my family starting Monday. Once we get to MO, I have a full five daysâ worth of present reveals scheduled to show you.
Last Sunday, Carl asked me how long it took to make a quick quilt, and Iâclearly out of my mindâtold him I could make his Grandma one by Christmas. So I did. She wonât receive it by Christmas, seeing as we just mailed it yesterday, but it is finished.
(âŚyesterday, not now) ⌠and Carl, while frazzled shopping for Grandma at the third store and finding nothing, asked âdear, how long does it take to make a quiltâ? And, I, clearly drunk from shopping all day, said âit can be shipped off by Christmas, if we shop for fabric now, donât delay!â
Uhh, so that is how I got myself into making a quilt this week, on top of the other projects Iâm working on.
This has been a pretty big year for changesâwe adopted Moof back in March and now we have our new house, complete with an actual mantle in the living room! So, of course, Moof needs his own stocking to hang.
I donât know which of us actually came up with the idea, but Carl and I were joking a few weeks ago about how Moof chews on pretty much anything, so if we got him a stocking, itâd probably be chewed up. We thought it would be funny if he had a pre-âchewedâ stocking with child-like lettering.
