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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Gifts We've Made

Little gifts we've made recently, for birthdays (we celebrated Holiday Season Birthday #5 and #6 this week, and that's just the folks who live within driving distance. There are four others on his side of the family....and we're about to add two more holiday babies between me and my sister-in-law. Oh my.)

I found this gorgeous piece of fabric at our local Joann's shop- I think it's brocade? Seems to be a polyester, just looking at it made the edges unravel! I purchased a square (44 inches square) of it, and sewed around the edges with the presser foot to check the fraying, and to give me a mark to fold on when I double-folded the edges to hem it. A brand new needle REALLY helped get through this thick, slick fabric! It didn't want to lay flat, either- the edges kept warping and pulling. We picked this one out to go on top of Mom and Dad's fancy, shiny, black grand piano- she has a gorgeous silver nativity set from Mexico that she sets up on the piano every year, and a old, old, hand-painted tea set from Europe that lives there the rest of the year. (It's a gorgeous set- maroon, each piece with a different hand-painted scene from Napolean's career.)

For a friend's daughter, quick clip-on earrings for the dress up box. I see a lot of these in our future, for little girls' birthdays.


I knit the green scarf you see Uncle Bear wearing here- turns out you CAN knit flat pieces on round looms! (Yes, I'm a Knifty Knitter...I don't even know how to hold knitting needles!) If you know how to loom knit, basically you cast on for 18 or 20 pegs (or however wide you want it,) knit off, and cast on in the OPPOSITE direction. Just go back and forth! Check YouTube for videos of how to finish the last edge- I can't find the video I watched, but there are LOTS of folks out there making tutorials on hacking with round looms.
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6 comments:

LunaMoonbeam said...

Very nice!!

Elizabeth said...

I can't believe how much you are able to accomplish while still being a busy mother of little children. I am very admiring of all you do.

Where are you going for Christmas Dinner?

Alexandra said...

Fabulous fabric! It looks like Japanese Chrysanthemums. I've been meaning to post about Mexican oil cloth. I bought some on ebay, an adobe brown to recover some dinette chairs - great for wiping down kiddo messes.

What I Did Today said...

That IS pretty fabric. Not a fan of sewing on slippery stuff though. When life settles a little bit I'm gonna have to look into becoming a Knifty Knitter myself. :)

Samantha said...

Awesome stuff! I am a huge admirer of your talents. :)

Anonymous said...

I think that's the same material that Molly's baptism dress is made out of. Beautiful!

And I LOVE the earrings. Thank you! I'm sorry I didn't have the return item ready.