I was very crafty this Christmas. I guess it was all the time I sat at home
with nowhere to go. I am not very crafty
at all, I get totally stressed and never like the finished projects, which is
why I give most of them away, so here are some of the things I am actually
proud of. I think I am turning into a crafty
stay at home mom, only in thought, not in practice yet.
I made Aubrey a baby blanket that took all summer long. I bought the material in Boise, but just
couldn’t figure out what I wanted so it turned into just another thing we had
to pack. After we moved, I finally
picked a pattern and got started. My OCD
kicks in when I start organizing and it takes me weeks of rearranging the
pieces on the floor until I am satisfied, which is never 100%. Ask me sometime and I can tell you what is
wrong with every quilt I have made. I
sent my mom tons of pictures of the different choices and she was very nice to
help, but I don’t think she could tell the difference. I am pretty happy with the result.
I made 4 crafty items for Christmas. I was dreading making Aubrey a stocking for
Christmas after the trauma of making mine and Bob’s the first year we were
married. (Here is the post on that
adventure.) It took me two years to find
a stocking that was similar to ours, lots of digging in my mom’s craft drawers
and many trips to the store during Thanksgiving to make sure I had everything
before returning to the sticks. As
usual, it took many days of arranging, cutting, fixing, and doubting, before I
could commit with glue and thread. Every
time I look at it, I see something I want to change, but it’s done.
I wanted to make Aubrey something handmade, so I made a tag
toy. I should have been simple, but
that’s not how I work. Again I ransacked
my mom’s craft supplies for ribbon and spent 3 days just looking at them
deciding which to use and 3 more days figuring out where they should go so the
pink ribbons weren’t together and the polka dot ribbons weren’t too close and
that each side was different enough from the others so that it didn’t look like
I tried to make a pattern. And what
fabric to use because I only have bright colored thread that will clash with
most colors, and I don’t want it too girly, and not something that is the same
as a ribbon… Lots of brain power goes
into these little things. Is your brain
tired yet? All I had to do was sew two
pieces of material right sides together with the ribbon pinned in between and a
plastic bag pinned on one side, but not that side that is against the sewing
machine foot because that will make it
slide all over, so it will be in the middle when it is flipped inside out. Of course, remember that the ribbons have to
sewn pointing in so they will point out when flipped. This took more than one try obviously. Here is the result – one blue side with pink
stitching, and one red side with green stitching.
My next project was a hollow book for my dad. Bob’s brother-in-law made a couple of these
last year and I was pretty impressed.
Again, very easy instructions, but not an easy process. I found a book at the DI called “Deadly
Pleasures”, a collection of mysteries. I
filled it with chocolate and an ITunes gift card, two of my dad’s pleasures. It took much longer than expected to cut over
1,000 pages with a dull Exacto knife.
The blisters and the cramped fingers replaced the mental exertion for
this project.
Good thing Christmas only comes once a year. I better start planning now.
