Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas 2009

It was a very handmade Christmas on my part this year. Easy for me, since I already had the resources on hand. My wallet isn't complaining either! ;)

I made a card for my husband, using paper from our wedding invitations and acrylic paint that I had around.

You can't really see it, but the red and white paint shimmer - which also makes it hard to photograph! I used a pencil to outline what I wanted to paint (the words, circle and bow) and free-hand the ornament's center design.

For my father-in-law, I made a collage of his dog, Angel. I've been snapping photos of her all year long so I would have a nice variety.

Angel is now 10 years old, and since my dog died at 11, I'm very personally aware how little time she might have left. I really wished I had done something like this with my dog... but instead of living in regret over that, I opted to make sure others won't regret a chance to remember their pet! Of course, it helped that I see Angel almost every week. :)


For my mother-in-law, I made some potholders.

Pooh fabric on one side, Christmas on the other. I'll say I learned the hard way to keep the quilting simple! It distorts too much otherwise, due to the special heat-resistant batting.


For my husband's brother and wife, I gave them a quilt. It's one that I had around for several years, but never had a reason to finish it.

It's also one of the few boy-ish quilts I have - good thing, since they're expecting a son in February.

And here you can see them opening the quilt. Christmas is always a great time to use up Christmas fabric. How did I get so much of it?!

Kenya's about 7 months pregnant in this photo. All I can really remember is that she's 14 weeks ahead of me, and I'm 19 weeks today.

Kenya's daughter hugging her pillow and pillowcase that I made.

I wasn't aware of it, but apparently Starla LOVES to surround herself with pillows in her bed. Couldn't have given her a better gift I tried! :D

For Chris's expecting sister, I made a quilt to match their theme for the baby.

I made an uneven 9-patch, diced it into fourths and mixed it up. I really wanted to use the green for the sashing and blue for the cornerstones... but I didn't have enough green.

I had finished the quilt on the 22nd, and she found out the gender on the 23rd. I did tell Chris to pray hard that she's having a boy, I didn't have time to make a new quilt! :P Lucky me, no remakes needed.

Hopefully there'll be many happy hours of snuggling.


I've also discovered that I only like making handmade gifts if I can SEE you open it. I want to see people's reactions over something I've put many hours of work and care into. Hence why there was a lot of homemade gifts for my family last year, but I'm not planning the same this year. Can't see them!

Leah

3 comments:

♪♪Melody♪♪ and Puddin said...

nice gifts. good for you.

Fabricmom said...

Love all your finishes. I am a big Pooh fan. I used the same fabric in a baby quilt this year.

You look great. Happy new Year.

Nanci said...

I completely understand wanting to see people open the gifts you made for them. I want to know if they really liked it or not. That's part of the fun of making it ESPECIALLY for them. It's not like they can take it and exchange it!! LOL

All your hard work turned out beautiful.