Christmas Busyness!

Here is it almost December and I am immersed in Christmas!

My kitchen table is piled high with Christmas stuff!  I'm wrapping presents and making ornaments and wrapping ornaments.....lol. 

Remember a while back we talked about Kimekomi ornaments and  Stash!!! 

Well, I'm in love with the Kimekomi method of making ornaments and have made something like 24 ornaments since October 17.....and still have more to make....

Now as to stash!  When I first started with the Kimekomi ornaments, I had a small art bin that held, four 3 inch balls, 6 spools of ribbon, three or four fat quarters and not much else.  Things do seem to change rapidly in my stash world....sigh.  In roughly six weeks, I still have the orignal art bin, a plastic box  from my Grab and Go with fabric in it, several manila envelopes with fabric in them, two boxes with 4 inch balls in them, a revolving desk top organizer for tools, markers, etc.,  half a dozen colors of rat tail cord wrapped around toilet paper cores,  an empty dog food can, an empty instant coffee jar, and a lid from a Wendy's 99 cent frosty and it's growing exponentially.  However, I have decided to organize my stash from the get-go this time.  In fact when my husband asked what I wanted for Christmas I told him I wanted one of these http://www.joann.com/storage-cart-with-8-drawers-multi-16-25-x14-5-x39-75-/zprd_11362498a/.  It should hold considerable stash for a while to come.....I hope!

Anyway, here are a few of the ornaments I've made so far.

Well, it's getting late or maybe early...lol....as it's 7:20 a.m. and I've been up for three hours and I must get back to my ornaments.  Hope your holidays are grand!

Christmas is coming!

It's been a while since I posted anything, way back to June to be exact.

Although I haven't posted anything I've been very busy.  I'm working on a christmas stocking and have been since March and I'm almost done.  Also been working on a quilt, which is also almost done.

The subject today is Christmas ornaments!   For years I've drooled over the beaded and sequined ornament kits sold at Herrschner's like this one http://www.herrschners.com/zoomimage.aspx?pid=105185 , but have never gotten around to buying and making one.  Just could never decide which one to spend the money on and other crafts have ever been in the forefront.  A while back I stumbled onto this site: http://ornamentdesigns.com/ .

As I surfed through Alyx' pages I started drooling again...lol! And I went shopping for supplies!  Picked up most of the supplies needed but then I wondered if my fingers would hold up to that kind of dexterity...I'm getting slightly arthritic in the fingers and just don't always have the fine motor control like I used to.....something like I don't have the eyes I used to have either.....using a magnifying glass for my cross stitch work is getting close to being the norm these days instead of just a now and then thing....sigh.

Anyway, while surfing on Alyx' site, I came across the Kimekomi section and before I knew it I was ordering a book about it from the library. I've always wanted to make ornaments and have been looking for the best method (for me to do that is) and I think I've found it.  The more I read the more I liked what I read.....so I took the plunge and went shopping AGAIN!  

The method is called Kimekomi, pronounced key-may-ko-mee, and I've fallen in love with it!  I've done a couple of the simple designs that were in the book and thought, Hey!  This is kinda fun.  So I started thinking about making ornaments for my gkids instead of buying them.  Used to be I bought them Hallmark ornaments but that's outside my budget these days and I've never really been happy with some of the ornaments I purchased elsewhere so I thought ok, I'll make some Kimekomi ornaments that fit the gkids' interests.

Here is my first completed ornament, the design of which was in the book.  Needs vast improvement on skills but I will get better!


This is using a 3" ball. 

So since I wasn't completely disappointed I went on to think out my own design and here are front and back pics of that ornament!

 This is using a four inch ball.  Still not perfect, but I shall persevere!

A Good Week!....so far!

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated ouf 41st wedding

anniversary. 

When I woke up I found this scrumptious bouquet on the table.  In addition to funds to do some serious stash building, he gives me chocolate!  Does the man know me or what...lol....  We went out to lunch at Red Lobster and it was scrumptious too (thanks Tiff). 

Two typical old farts sitting there and rehashing our wedding day and missing those who are no longer with us that were with us 41 years ago.  We came to the conclusion  that all in all  it's been a hell of a ride....lol...!!





This week I purchased two new books. 

 Hand-Stitched Boxes by Meg Evans.  This book is oh so yummy!  It contains instructions and ideas galore to make a lot of different type boxes using different materials and many different techniques. 

Do you like plastic canvas:?    Do you like crewel embroidery, counted cross stitch or needlepoint?  Or do you just like pretty fabrics?  This book not only has all this and more, but it gives you different levels of expertise to guide you.  Everything from very simple easy to put together boxes, to the more elaborate and involved drop sided boxes.  I just luv those drop sided boxes.....lol

I've already picked out my first project....lol!  Needless to say it has a 5* rating for difficulty....lol.....Surprised?  I didn't think so.  Unfortunately, I'm going to need to do some stash 
building before I actually get started on it!





Chock full of information about goldwork and it's accoutrements.  Something I've been interested in learning more about but haven't got the necessary stash to go with it....lol....YET!

Anyway, I've got a lot of reading and stash building before I can much of anything from either of these books.







Finished with Auntie T's Gift

I am finally finished with my latest box.  It is for my husband's aunt who is celebrating her 90th birthday.  Auntie T is a remarkable lady.  She does more volunteer work than anyone else I know.

She has formidable handwork skills.  When I was expecting my first child I received a package in the mail and it was an extraordinary knitted baby afghan.  I was thrilled to receive it.  Auntie T is, I believe, one who will appreciate an item hand made for her.

So here is Auntie T's box.  The ground fabric is a cotton satteen jacquard.  The rose is a vintage pattern and hand embroidered with DMC Floss.

The red twisted cord was made with scarlet Trebizond silk.  I had originally planned to embroider the rose with this silk but found it very difficult to work with.  It snagged on every rough patch of skin I didn't know I had on my hands and fingers, which is why I switched to the DMC.  Couldn't stand the thought of wasting the silk so I made it into twisted cord and it turned out beautifully.

The red nylon ribbon was originally two inches wide so I cut a length into two pieces, one piece is 3/4" wide the other piece is 1 1/4 inch wide.  I stacked them, sewed them togther then gathered them to make the ruffle around the bottom.  Then folded a 2 inch wide length in half to make the band at the bottom and anchored it with a white silk twisted cord.

The inside is a luscious red satin and the embroidered birthday greeting is with white floche.

Almost there!



Getting to the end.  Here are all the pieces and parts for my newest box.  It's for my husband's aunt who is turning 90 in June.  The white fabric is a cotteon sateen jacquard.  The red ribbon is nylon.  Originally 2 inches wide, I cut one piece into two pieces lengthwise, sewed the two pieces together and gathered it.  The band going around the bottom of the box was folded in half as the ribbon was very transparent. The hand embroidered rose on the lid is a vintage style.  I ended up not using the gold metallic ribbon.  The red twisted cord is made from Tibizond silk.  I stumbled across a Utube video giving instruction about making your own twised cord at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj_GdyCXZ4A&NR=1.  It is not difficult to make and literally only takes seconds to make twisted cord.  It works really well and provides the advantage of being able to match colors with the floss used.




Glueing the ribbon hinge onto the middle of the lid to hold the lid to the box.  The white cord is a simple twised cord purchased from a fabric store. 




Lined with  lucsious red satin with hand embroidered birthday greeting.  I need to glue the upper lid to the box yet and still need to place the red silk cord around the top of the lid.  Almost done though.  All I need to do at this point is to glue the upper lid and twisted cord on top.  Check back in a couple of days for the finished box.



Bible Cover completed!

The Bible cover is completed.  I added  the four way medal (Scapular, Miraculous, St. Joseph and St. Christopher) to one of the ribbons and my granddaughter’s confirmation saint, St. Blaise, to another one.

I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. 

Remember your senior prom?

Sunny but colder today!  I thought we were done with winter but it's come back to haunt us.  Dipped into the 30's last night and supposed to again tonight.....sigh

Here's another finish for you to view.



Complete with rose corsage this young lady box is reminiscent of days gone by, when young ladies received white roses in a corsage to wear to the prom. 



Later the flowers would be pressed in a book for a keepsake (or in Mom's freezer depending on what century it was)  I can't tell you how many flowers were saved in my freezer. over the years...lol

 

Made with seafroam colored cotton velveteen and seafoam and gold lace it is lined with a rich gold satin.  It's simple but sweet and ultra-feminine.