Category Archives: sewing

What I want for Christmas

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Dear Santa,

I hope I’m not too late with my Christmas wish list:

  1. Double point needle organization/storage roll.
  2. 14 inch needle storage roll.  The one I made years ago just doesn’t hold enough needles and I didn’t make the slots big enough.
  3. Circular needle storage case.  I don’t have many circular needles but they need to be someplace other than a clear zip bag.
  4. Professional organizer to organize my various craft, sewing, knitting, yarn, needlework, beading, polymer clay, and painting supplies and patterns.  (And if there’s time, my closet.)
  5. Cleaning person.  I have more important things to do than scrub the bathroom, iron, vacuum, dust, blah, blah, blah.
  6. Craft room designer and contractor to design and construct a craft room in my basement so #3 can do their job.  I have the money set aside.  I just need the plans and the person to make it all happen.

I have been good (enough) this year.

Thank you.

Everything takes longer

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I thought it would be a quick project but making felt ornaments without a pattern takes time.  A lot of time.  Ten times the amount of time one would think.

I did iron freezer paper to one side of the felt so I could draw my homemade patterns and cut out pairs that actually match.  Then I had to decide how to embellish the felt pieces.

I cut out enough felt for three Christmas trees, two teardrop shaped ornaments, one squatty ornament, and one heart.  I started on the heart.

It;s been a l-o-n-g time since I used embroidery floss and I couldn’t remember how to do the blanket stitch.  After a quick search on-line, I was in business.

I promise pictures of my slow progress.

Now that I’m thinking of it, I should have just used one color of felt and one color of embroidery floss.  White felt and red floss, dark green felt and light green floss, blue felt and white floss.

So many ideas, so little time…

Slowly but surely

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Soles are sewn on the seamless slippers for Dr. Professor.  I just need to get the in the mail.

Progress on Ms Ida.  Picked out the disastrous mitten tip I tried to Kitchener stitch instead of going with the pointy tips.  The Knit Picks Alpaca yarn is fabulous but sticks to itself.  The mittens should be warm if nothing else.  I went with the pointy tips after all.  This picture is old and doesn’t show that I’m finished with the mitten in the foreground but you can at least see what I tried to do there at the top.

I played on the computer last night when I should have been working on the thumb.   Did you know that if you search for images of “felt ornaments”, a plethora of felty goodness appears on the screen?

Felt ornaments

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So our Christmas tree is up but not decorated.  I want to make some felt ornaments so the twins can help decorate the lower branches of the tree.   I actually ventured out to a few stores Friday afternoon for some supplies.  No Black Friday mobs in the afternoon.  

Future felt ornaments

The white cutouts are some of my paper patterns that I’ll need to transfer to cardstock or thin plastic so I can reuse them.  Not shown are assorted beads and embroidery floss.
Starting new projects always gets my heart pumping and my creative juices flowing.  I have a few projects I need to finish before I dive into these…listed in no particular order:
    1. Musica mitts: one down, one to go. Deadline: December 22.  I’m using fingering weight yarn and think sport weight would have been better for a larger mitt.
    2. Three Spud & Chloe earflap hats: one finished, one waiting for strap, one waiting to get started. Deadline: December 10 for these two  and December 22 for the third one.

    Toddler size hats

    3. Buttons for the above mentioned hats.  Deadline December 9.
    4. Seamless slippers for Dr. Professor: finished except for sewing on the rest of the sole. Deadline: last week.

    Teal and heather green seamless slippers

    5. Soakers: One halfway finished, one still in a ball.  Deadline: December 10.
    6. Ms Ida mittens: One thumb to go.  Deadline: December 9 (though the recipient wanted them yesterday).  This is an old progress picture. 

    Ms Ida CLM right palm

    I must confess that these are not for the meek.  For some reason I could not get the thumbs right so abandoned the pattern and figured out another way to decrease and keep in the pattern.  Sort of….  If I’m brave, I’ll post a picture.