Bed Jacket and Christmas Fabric

Well I finally finished the bed jacket, I’m just hoping it will fit my mother-in-law and that she’ll like it. If not I guess she can give it away to another lady at the seniors. The pattern is by Ceil Cummings.

Bed Jacket

And here are the Christmas fabrics that I bought on sale.

You can’t see it very well but most of the fabric has shiney gold in amongst the berries, flowers, etc. I wonder how well the gold washes up. I guess it won’t matter because whatever I make will only be hauled out once a year anyway.

Karen

Still Busy

Well I’d like to say Christmas is finally over but we still have John’s side of the family to meet on Sunday for dinner. I’ve been madly rushing to try and finish a bed jacket that I’ve been crocheting for my mother-in-law. This thing seems to be taking forever, probably because I’m using sport-weight yarn. I bought a cone of this yarn back around 20 years ago and I’m finally putting it to use. I’m wondering how much yarn was on this thing because although I’ve been going through it like crazy it seems like I’ve hardly made a dent in it. It’ll probably be put away and pulled out again when the grandbabies start arriving.

Today I bought some Christmas fabric that was on sale. I have had some ideas for projects for quite a while now but have never gotten around to them. I’ve decided to start working at the beginning of the year and carry on until December. I don’t know if I’ll actually do this but it seems like a plan. The material is just beautiful and a bargin at 60% off. Some of the pieces could be used for projects other than Christmas. The patterns are subtle and the colours rich, it reminds me of the Thimbleberry brand of prints.

I’ve also stocked up on more Christmas towels and yarn. I think I have about three years worth of  supplies now. These tea towels are really nice quality ones and at the reduced price work out to about $1.50 a towel. I cut the towels in half so I get two oven towels out of one tea towel. The yarn wasn’t reduced when I looked at the price but since it was Christmas yarn and the Christmas stuff was half-price I thought why not ask and so I was able to buy it reduced as well. I figure it’ll cost me about $1.50 to make one oven towel. It’s not very much but its the thought that counts. I love giving them to the seniors because they love getting a little treat. I put some peanut brittle with the towels I gave away this year.  It’s nice to be remembered.

I’ll post some pictures hopefully tomorrow of the bed jacket and fabric…assuming I get it done.

Karen

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Just a quick wish to everyone to say Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year. May God bless you all and your families during this holiday season and in the coming year and I hope all of the memories will be fond ones.

 Karen

Lots and Lots of Crayons

Well I had a busy night last night as the day was totally shot what with working out at the gym and going with my younger son to an eye examination. I started around 8:00 p.m. and worked until around 12:45 a.m. trying to finish off the crayon rolls I’d started the other day. They took longer than I would have expected but then again I’m a slow sewer and I was watching youtube clips as I worked. I just have a few more towels to make and then can start bundling stuff together for church.

More Crayon Rolls

I haven’t gotten anything for stocking stuffers. I think stocking stuffers are my nemisis as I’m always at a loss as to what to get for them. It was simple when we were kids as the big treats were lovely apples and oranges and other small treats. Now-a-days getting apples and oranges are as common as a walk to the grocery store to buy them. I find stuffing the stockings a really expensive proposition, perhaps if I didn’t have four adult kids it wouldn’t be as bad but I estimate that I spend well over a hundred dollars by the time I’m done. This is “hard to swallow” as by this time buying the Christmas presents for the kids has gotten well up into mega bucks as far as I’m concerned so what to do, what to do?

I’ve enjoyed seeing all of the helpful little gifts that people have been so creative to make and these would be great gift ideas but I’m running out of time and starting to panic – well as much as I ever panic that is.  There is also the fact that I’ve mis-calculated dates and somehow Christmas arrives on Tuesday instead of Wednesday like I’d planned so I’ve lost a day. I’m also apparently having company over for Christmas dinner on Sunday (or Monday) now, as well as preparing Christmas brunch. I guess this would be okay but I still haven’t cleaned the house or done other numerous chores – such as even sitting down and planning what the Christmas eating festivities are going to be about.

I’m reading this and thinking what a self-indulgent whine it is because the reality is we’re a middle-class family that doesn’t really have any money worries aside from the normal everyday stuff that you usually worry about. I’m “happy to have a roof over my head and food on the table” as the saying goes. There are so many others that are probably thinking “if only I had her cares and worries”.  So back on topic, what to do? Well getting off the computer and doing something would be a start, so with that I’ll close and post one final picture. If anyone is interested, it takes about an hour to do one of these crayon rolls, less if you have an asembly line going. The link to the tutorial is in my previous post.

Opened Crayon Rolls

Karen

More Christmas crafts

The time is running out and I don’t think I’ll be getting everything done that I want to but that seems to be the case every Christmas. I seem to be very inefficient with my time but I must say that I’ve done more crafting this year than normal so I’m thankful. I think I’ve gotten more done in part because this blog motivates me to continually post stuff, which was one of the reasons for creating it in the first place. I’ve also made more gifts because I feel a need to get away from the commercialism of Christmas and return to homemade gifts. The kids are older now so hopefully they will appreciate the time and effort that goes into making something for them, we’ll see.

I got the idea of the crayon roll from a site that Catherine over on Calidore posted - ”Sew Mama Sew”  http://www.sewmamasew.com/blog2/ and from that site a link to a tutorial by Cindy of the website “Skip to My Lou”  http://skiptomylou.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/

 I had trouble with the rick rack but will do better with my second attempt since I now know where to put the placement of the trim. I plan on giving a couple of these away to some of the smaller children in the church.

The hat gave me all kinds of trouble, which I guess can happen when you substitute one kind of yarn for another. I ran out of the yarn that I’d used in the scarf and when I went to buy some more I discovered they no longer make that kind of yarn so what I did was to use the same kind of yarn but in black and then pick up stitches along the brim and add a rolled brim for extra length. The hazards of buying yarn on a whim and then not using it for a year. You can’t really see the main colour of the hat but the scarf gives an idea of the colour. This hat and scarf set is modeled by Buffy the Kola Bear and her baby.

Lastly more Christmas hand towels to give away as small gifts to some people I know at church. I’ll be making up a batch of my famous peanut brittle and tucking a small bag in with them as well.

Karen

Colour Gradations

Well in the midst of frantically trying to get Christmas presents done, two of my orders arrived this week. One order was from Hawaii and had my three Shiva paintstiks – iridescent copper, silver and gold plus three jars of MX dye from Dharma (Kathy the owner of Hana Lima Hand Dyes had kindly sent them on to me). The other order was from ProChem and also had dyes in the package along with some urea and potato dextrin.

 I use the urea to help dissolve the dye powder into water; it is also used as a humicant in my tie-dye shirts to help retain the moisture. You want the fabric to remain moist so the dye continues to bond with the fabric. The potato dextrin is mixed up much like mashed potatoes and spread thinly onto the fabric. You let your piece dry and then bang it up a bit to crack the dextrin into fine lines. The dye is then applied overtop the fabric to give a crackle appearance to the fabric piece – something to try after the New Year. Hopefully it turns out better than the discharge fiasco.

Anyhow, I’ve done several gradations over the past two days and thought I would post them down below for people to see what the different colours look like. The first group of four I’d already cut out before thinking of using the camera. They look on the small side but still give you an idea of what the colour looks like.

ProChem’s: Rose Wine, Olive, Country Blue, Butterscotch

Dharma’s Burgundy

Dharma’s Navy Blue

ProChem’s Pagoda Red

ProChem’s Rosewood (more a peach in real life)

Karen

More Teddy Bears

I’ve been busy over the past week doing more knitting and crocheting  but mostly I’ve been busy making a Christmas present for one of my daughters. She likes flannel pj’s bottoms so I’ve been busy making up a pair of those. I had seen some teddy bear material in Walmart so winged it and bought two metres. Well sure enough I needed an extra .4 metres so I ended up having to buy enough for one of the leg patterns.

So what to do with the extra material? I decided that I would buy some matching flannel and make her a lap quilt to snuggle in to watch television at night. The quilt is just a very simple pattern and made up quickly. It took longer to do the machine quilting – again very simple stitch in the ditch quilting. Finally the binding which is always time consuming but it’s done and I’m pleased with the results and I hope she will be as well. The picture is kind of busy. I folded over the bottom of the quilt to show the blue flannel backing and the pj’s are folded in half.

Teddy bear pj’s and lap quilt

Karen

Winter Has Arrived

Well winter arrived sometime last night while I was asleep. We had a good visit with my daughter and future son-in-law and better yet the trip back home was a good one. Unfortunately this wasn’t so on another one of our Ontario highways where there was a 30-car pile-up on Highway 400.

The weather was milder this morning with the result that when we came out of church at noon we were all scrapping ice off the car windows from the freezing rain that had started during service.

Anyhow I’m home safe and sound and “snug as a bug”. I took a couple of pictures just for effect. The first three are interesting in that they show some squirrel tracks coming up to the front porch wall, then a peanut on our mailbox and then tracks continuing on along the front garden. I was wondering how the peanut got on the mailbox until my husband pointed out the tracks. The squirrel must have climbed the wall to get there. I guess with all of the snow he wanted an obvious place to stash the nut.

Squirrel prints leading up to front porch.

Peanut on mailbox.

Prints heading away from house.

Winter has come. Looking out across the street from front of house.

Backyard.

The pictures are kind of grey and dingy because that’s exactly what the day is – dull and overcast. The picture of the backyard was taken through the kitchen window because I was too chicken to go out on the deck in the cold.

Karen

Fun Fur Striped Scarf

Well I’ve been busy this week mostly just repeating myself knitting more scarves and making more Christmas towel holders. I’ve Teddy E Bear modeling again since he is a most excellent subject and is always co-operative.

The yarn I used for this scarf is called Fun Fur Stripes by Lion Brand Yarns. I didn’t realise when I bought it that the yarn would work out into stripes, it was on sale and I liked the colour so I grabbed it. It reminds me of a big fuzzy caterpillar.

I’m off to visit my daughter to have my eyes checked. She is an optometrist so for a Christmas present I asked if she could have a look at them and if possible I’d be most grateful for any discount that she might be able to get on the glasses. We’ll see I’m not sure if she can get anything off but I’m always hopeful. She asked what I wanted for Christmas and I said having to put up with me during an examination and fitting would be gift enough. She didn’t argue as I’ve been having rotten luck trying to adapt to my failing eyesight.

At a certain age you begin to lose the ability to focus close-up. I’ve always had problems with seeing in the distance but now my near vision is going as well so now I’m into the dreaded bifocals. Last time I went, the optometrist gave me some progressives – they didn’t go over very well. I’ve managed not to wear them for a year and a half but my old faithful glasses finally “kicked the bucket” as in the arm of the frame finally gave way.

I’ve tried contacts – you can get bifocal contacts but my brain couldn’t adjust to those – and I’ve had a hard time with plain contacts as well. If you wear the contacts for distance then you have to have a pair of reading glasses handy so you can see close up. It always seems blurry when I wear the contacts, it almost seems like my eyes produce too much moisture and it gets in the way. So as you can tell, asking Jen to look at my eyes is no little thing.

The day is nice and sunny so hopefully the drive will be a good one coming and going. There is a stretch along the way that’s nasty if it’s snowing so hopefully we won’t get any blowing snow.

Karen