a year of Christmas: March edition

I picked a super cute little project this month from Stitch magazine. It's a little elf baby. I'm still not sure on all the rules about posting photos from other publications, so I'm going to tell you how you can see what I'm talking about. Go here, and then click on the Table of Contents tab. You'll see the little elf baby in the upper left of the page displayed. Go ahead, I'll wait for you... Did you see? Isn't he cute? And did you notice that I took you to the page for the digital download so you can get your own copy of Stitch to work along with me? You're welcome. Ha!

Now I'd love to say that I'm going to make one of these for each of my boys, but I know me, and I know I'll be lucky to get one done before mid-April, so I'll stick with one for now. Off I go!

FO: a year of Christmas: February edition

 Well here I am again. Late with a post. Are you shocked? Okay, stop laughing. I was going to blame this one on the short month, but I really can't. Not only was it a longer short month than normal, but that wasn't really my problem. I started thinking about this one in plenty of time, around the 10th. Then all of a sudden it was the 29th and I had a week of headaches that kept me from doing much of anything that required lots of concentration and eyestrain. (In case you read this post, they weren't migraines. They were just painful enough to be really annoying and to keep me from doing things to make them worse. OTC drugs don't touch them, and I really can't justify taking the good stuff when I can do everything but the stuff I do for me.)

Bird Ornaments, from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, by Joelle Hoverson
 

Anyway, enough moaning, and on to the FOs. I finished these a couple days ago, and finally had some good light today to photograph them. I love these little birds. This is a great pattern. It's pretty quick (for fiddly items, that is), and so far, I've not had one turn out wrong. I love that they each look a little different from each other; with their own little personalities, if you will.

yup, that's a view of my studio in the background. I know, I gotta work on the photos more.

Since I'm a silly girl who thinks too much about things, I matched them. The two on the right are for the kids, with the matching bellies. Mine has the red belly since I thought that print looked more feminine, and mine and Mr. R's have hangers that match the kids' belly's.

 I haven't decided if I'm going to embroider these like I did these. I'm leaning toward yes... 

(would it be cheating to use that as a project one month?)

The other reason I was late getting these done is because I've been a knitting fiend lately. If you have multiple hobbies, do you find that you seem to get more involved with just one at a time? Or do you spread your time evenly between your crafts? I've always considered myself 'shortly passionate'. I will dive into something with everything I have, but then fizzle out pretty quickly and move on to something else. I've finally excepted that about myself and see it as a quirk instead of a flaw. So, look for some knitted FO's coming up shortly. Oh, and look for March's Christmas project too. I better get busy!

a year of Christmas: February edition

 I decided upon my February Christmas project. I've had fabric to make the birds from this book (click on the first photo to see the birds) for a while now, but I didn't expect I'd get them done for this past Christmas.

If you've been following along, you'll know I made these birds for my two nieces (see them here). I loved how they turned out, so I thought having one for each of us would be nice. Plus, they aren't very Christmas-y, so working on them in February won't feel like absurdly drawing out the holidays. *smile*

So who's joining me? Come on, get Christmas crafting!

FO: a year of Christmas, January edition

I actually finished these about a week ago, but being wiped out with a 4-day migraine sort of delayed my life in general for a while. I'm officially recovered [finally] and am getting caught up on my blogging, sewing and knitting now that the house is [sort of] under control.

I really like these cute little ornaments. I completed them in about two evenings while listening to the tv, since it's hard to watch tv and see where you're poking a sewing needle at the same time.

 

One thing I will say, if you plan to make them, is to use thin tracing paper as your template, or find a way to transfer the design directly onto the felt. I had a heck of a time tearing the tracing paper away without distorting the felt and stitching. Also, the paper moved around a bit, causing some of my stitches to be crooked, but a bit of spray adhesive on the paper might have prevented that. My favorite thing about them is that the snowflake is stitched up with thread from a tin that belonged to my great-grandmother, hence the discolorations on the thread.

I'm not sure what I want to do for February's project. I'll have to go through my pins and magazines again and let you know what I decide on.

a year of Christmas

I mentioned yesterday that I'd be back today with a new feature. Here I am, so ppffftt to you doubters who thought I wouldn't show. *cheeky grin*

Anyway, let me explain my idea. Each year (as long as I'm not bogged down with baby blues or just settling in a new country, or both), around November, I start browsing through all the Christmas crafts showing up all over the craft stores and online. I make a huge list of projects I just MUST complete that year before Christmas. Then, by and by, the list doesn't get completed; usually because I'm working on gift-making, and because the list I create is so absurdly long, not only do I not NEED so many decorations, I just don't have the time either. So I came up with a plan: A year of Christmas.

How it will work:
I've made no ridiculous list this time. Currently I think my list has five small projects on it, mostly ornaments. Each month I will pick one item from the list to complete. That way, by the time Christmas comes this year, I'll have several new pretties to display. Since I've given myself a month for each one, and so far have picked small projects, it's something I should easily be able to keep up with.

For January, I've decided to go with the ornaments that I originally wanted to make for this past Christmas, since I already have the components together to make them. They are these, from Wild Olive. So cute and simple. I'll show mine off when completed.

felt ornaments from Wild Olive

Maybe some of you would like to join me in A year of Christmas? I'll be picking projects in a variety of medium so surely I would pick at least one that would suit your fancy? Or pick your own thing to work on. Then link up in the comments for all to see. Come on. You know you want to...