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