Christmas Wrap-Up

Hullo There! I've been feeling a bit like Pooh these last few days, nothing but fluff between the ears & therefore not able to really think. (If only I could find a jar of hunny that big...)

Before we get too far into this new year - can you believe we're already a week in? - I promised to show you a few of the Christmas gifts I made. These first two gifts were done in collaboration with Lex. We made each parent a kind of photo collage, personalized for their respective hobby spaces. Dad is a master woodworker and Mom is a very skilled sewist. So, for Dad's collage we used clipboards, which can be hung on the peg-boards in his woodshop.


Here they are, before we put the hardware back on and added the photos. Btw, how cool is that woodshop themed paper?!


These are the finished project. We were pretty durned proud of ourselves!

Next up, the collage for Mom. We decided to do a quilt for her space, and we found some sewing-themed fabrics to include in the quilt. The blotches of color on the cream-colored fabric are actually buttons, and the blue fabric has straight pins all over.

We used the same photos for each collage, but Mom's were printed on special fabric that can be run through the printer. WAY cool. I think both Lex and I were surprised at just how difficult it was to sew the yarn around each photo. Really, it was hard - But the results were worth the trouble!

Finally, Ryan's gift. I had a pretty incredible brainstorm, if I do say so myself. I always struggle with gifts for Ryan. He is SO difficult to shop for. Well, that's not exactly true. I could give him good coffee, chocolate, whiskey, wine, or olive oil every year and he'd be perfectly content. However, that's a bit boring.

This year, I was struck with brilliance.

First off, I went to some of the local thrift stores and picked up 7 ties. Most were vintage, a couple needed some repair. Once they'd been cleaned and mended, I added the logos of two of his favorite sports teams to two of the ties. (Ok, I probably could have also made him a Cubs tie, but I route for the Cards, so there...)


Voila! One-of-a-kind MIZZOU and Timbers ties! He's been wanting a MIZZOU tie for a couple of years now, but they are SO expensive, and frankly not all that interesting. I printed the logos on the same special printer fabric used on Mom's quilt, then appliqued them to the ties.

The other five ties are days-of-the-week ties. You know, like days-of-the-week underpants, but he can show these off at work... I embroidered each ties with images to reflect some of his favorite things: listening to NPR, going to the farmer's market, bluegrass music, hiking, and beer.




For those of you trying to figure out the Friday/beer tie, that's a depiction of hops. I need to add to it, as it looks a little sparse. What can I say, at 1 am on Christmas Eve, that seemed a good place to stop. And, I must say the ties were a total success. He was pretty thrilled with them on Christmas morning, and several of his co-workers have been checking each day to see what the day's tie would bring.

So, that's my show and tell for today. Hope you've enjoyed seeing my/our little projects!