…my true love gave to me: a shirt with my life’s philosophy!
One of my looser goals for this year had been to craft for myself and not just for other people. It’s tough, man! Crafty types express their love via handmade items, and the idea of being even a little selfish and not putting others first feels foreign.
A couple of months ago, Michaels had a sale on long-sleeved t-shirts (buy 2, get 1 free) and I picked up a few. I live in t-shirts, but when the weather cools down the longer sleeves are a happy medium between your standard short-sleeved t-shirt and a sweatshirt. I hadn’t decided whether to embellish them or wear them as-is, and so they had been set aside after washing.
And then, while I was searching online for an appropriate SVG file for a swap I was in, I found the most perfect, retro-licious, bookish file – for me, not my partner. (Don’t worry, she got hers, too.)
I found a lovely, metallic-pearlescent heat-transfer vinyl in a peacock-green shade, and set to cutting…twice. It seems that although it looked vaguely like burnished metal, it is not considered metallic HTV by the Silhouette Studio software, and the machine cut right through the carrier sheet as well. Always check your settings! (This has been a public service announcement.)
It didn’t take me too long to get the more basic weeding done, but there were a lot of tiny bits and bobs to pick out, too.
This is probably the truest representation of the colour. See how it reflects and shines?
My shirt was red, and although red and green are certainly Christmassy, I was hoping the green wouldn’t look too dark, and that the design wouldn’t get lost.
I think it’s going to be OK!
Is it colourful? Heck, yes. But I don’t mind a little seasonal brightness.
…my true love gave to me: a flock of birds to hang on the tree!
Every year, Satsuma Street releases a new entry in the “12 Days of Christmas” ornament series, and every year I buy the pattern but don’t get around to stitching it until the following year. I’ve got enough stuff going on by the time the holiday season rolls around without trying to race through another project. All this to say: while this pattern was released last year, it’s new-to-me for this year.
Calling birds…get it? I love a good pun.
I think my favourite detail on the ornament is the rotary dial on the phone:
…although I wonder how that works with only eight buttons (finger holes?).
Along with the previous three ornaments:
Gosh darn, there are a lot of birds in that song. Didn’t Alfred Hitchcock make a movie about dense ornithological populations? At least they’re cheery-looking.
…Halloween, of course! I’ve been having fun getting my annual fix of Bobby “Boris” Pickett, sending Halloween-themed happy mail, and fitting in a bit of spooky stitching!
First up, “Eye Scream” (get it? Get it?):
That poor pumpkin looks so upset…but then, I think I’d be, too.
Ermahgerd! It’s a haunted hearse!
Both ornaments are from Satsuma Street kits I got as a gift. I didn’t think to take pictures of the backs, but I used black glitter felt to finish them off so they’ll sparkle from either side as they hang from my (strictly hypothetical) Halloween tree. The hanging loops are glow-in-the-dark Kreinik fine braid, because I love me some glow-in-the-dark.
…my true love gave to me: a meme that comes straight from TV!
It was quite by accident that I found this pattern for a Christmas’d version of Homer Simpson moving silently through Ned Flanders’ hedge, but knew right away that I had to stitch it.
Luckily, my local needlework shop (always support your local needlework shop if you have a choice!) had the requisite Christmas green aida cloth, so I was able to get started on him right away.
He fits perfectly in a 4″ hoop!
The backstitch really creates the illusion of the hedge, and the two little French knots for his pupils are the finishing touch.
…my true love gave to me: a French hen to go with my two turtle doves and partridge in a pear tree!
By the time Satsuma Street released their holiday designs last year, I was done with taking on last-minute crafting projects. (Excuse me while I snicker behind my hand.) That didn’t stop me from buying the charts, though: one of them was the third installment in the 12 Days of Christmas series, and since I had stitched the first two last year it was a given I had to do this one as well.
Mon dieu! A French hen!
I didn’t think to take a picture of the back, but once I was finished stitching and attaching the beads and sequins, I glued it to glittery white felt so it will shimmer no matter how the lights catch it.
The four calling birds have been released, so I’ve got at least one project for next year lined up already.
…my true love gave to me: a card with a greeting merry!
For the second year in a row, I signed up for the Christmas Card swap on Lettuce Craft, because who doesn’t like getting a little festive mail? Or mail in general, really?
Last year, I kept things fairly simple with a bit of embossing powder and die-cut messages (trust me, it’s simpler than it might sound), but this year I apparently lost all sense of reason when I saw the Christmas Trees box card on SVGCuts. This had presence, drama, and a great reason to play with some fun patterned papers that mysteriously find their way into one’s stash but don’t get used for being “too busy”.
Speaking of patterned papers: trying to decide on a colour scheme was pretty much impossible. In the end, I made three cards in a traditional red-and-green theme, and the other three using fun mid-century pinks and teals. The traditional set got gold stars and ornament hangers, and I used silver for the mid-century set. I stamped the back of each card with a fun, festive message that still left plenty of room to sign. The pattern came with a little train to attach to the inside front of the card, but I left it out to make things all about the trees.
I wouldn’t say that making six 3D cards was a mistake, but it sure was an undertaking. The actual assembly wasn’t so bad – I hit upon a rhythm and system that got me down to about 30 minutes of gluing and positioning per card – but cutting out all the different pieces and keeping them sorted until I could put them together was a challenge. I started by making little piles for each card, starting with the solid coloured base and then setting subsequent stars, tree bits, etc. on top, and then putting each little group into its own envelope to wait patiently to be glued together.
The other challenge came when it was time to mail them. When folded flat, they’re 7 inches square (or as square as you can be with irregular edges), which is bigger than most envelope sizes commonly found in stores. Sure, there are 9″ x 12″ envelopes for letter-sized paper, but that felt like overkill. I found some 7.5″ x 10″ “catalogue envelopes” at Staples which fit the bill nicely. And then…I worried that they would get bent in the mail, so I made little cardboard sleeves to give them a bit of stiffness. Some people helicopter-parent their kids; I do it to my crafts.
Luckily, my over-packaging seems to have worked: four out of six partners have received them so far, and they’re standing just as straight as they did before mailing.
…my true love gave to me: some Grinchy little guys for the tree!
In unpacking the Christmas decorations this year, I came to the realization that wow, there were a lot of cross-stitched pieces in there, and I might have a problem. There were cross-stitched representations of the cats, typographical hoops, and a whole bunch of ornaments stitched on perforated paper. (And that’s not counting the older ones, stitched on flexible vinyl Aida, that are blocky and weird by contemporary design standards.)
Of course, even if I had (re)discovered this sooner, it likely wouldn’t have stopped me from working up these guys. I had had the pattern in my Etsy favourites for a long time, and finally had the chance to stitch it.
Because the design is so small, and because my Q-snaps are…not that small, it was easier to cut a piece of fabric (iridescent Aida for the win!) large enough to accommodate three repeats of the pattern than to struggle and curse a piece sized for one. I folded the strip into thirds, found the centre of each third, and set to stitchin’.
When they were done I washed and pressed the whole big piece, then cut the thirds apart and mounted each one in a 3″ wooden hoop. I had briefly debated painting the hoops somehow (or maybe spray them with glitter spray paint) but thought the understated look worked well for someone who stole Christmas before promptly returning it. He’s definitely adopted a pre-epiphany stance here.
A friend has called dibs on one, and I’ll be keeping one, leaving me with an extra to hang somewhere or keep up my sleeve as a crafty add-on to a gift.
Is anyone else noticing a proliferation of celestial-themed everything out there lately? When I was in high school, that kind of stuff was everywhere, and I’m pretty sure my mom still has the moon-and-stars ironing board cover I picked out for her. I’d like to think I’ve matured since high school: I don’t plan my days based on my horoscope, have stopped following those “get this gift for the person in your life with that zodiac sign” guides that were a staple of every November or December issue of Seventeen and YM, and only use “Mercury is in retrograde” ironically. Lo, the fully-functioning adult, basing her life on fact rather than vague character descriptions.
All of that newfound maturity and composure was out the window when a zodiac swap was being planned on Lettuce Craft a few months back. As luck would have it, I had just finished a large-ish crafty commitment, and my fingers were itching for a new project. Surely this was written in the stars! Or…not. Due to a lack of interest, the official swap got cancelled, but the only other would-be participant reached out and asked if I was interested in doing a personal swap with her. Ooh! This was written in the stars!
My partner was a Capricorn. I’ve had a lot of Sagittariuses (Sagittarii?) in my life, but the only Capricorn I grew up with was my best friend from Gr. 3 – 10, and she just didn’t embrace the whole astrology thing. After doing a bit of online research, I was pretty well-versed in traits, colours, everything. And although we were only supposed to make one item, I wound up making two. It happened like this…
When we first exchanged questionnaires, one of my partner’s “wish” items was a zipper pouch. I was psyched, because even my rudimentary sewing skills should have been able to handle that. She went on to say she liked bright colours, as well as earth tones, but “not too much pink”.
When I got to the fabric store (any excuse for a trip there!) and found the section housing appropriately astrological prints, the designated Capricorn print was pink. Of course. That didn’t stop me buying a bit of it, as well as varying cuts of a few other prints. Nothing said I had to use the pink fabric for the entire pouch, right? Maybe I could combine them somehow. Sewing is one thing, but I’m not a quilter, a planner-of-attaching-pieces-to-other-pieces. I let my fabrics languish for a while (this is very much the approach I took to my t-shirt quilt, albeit over a shorter time frame), and started cruising the internet again.
Etsy saved the day with this fun embroidery pattern. Finally, something right in my wheelhouse! I wasted no time in downloading the PDF and transferring it to some Kona cotton I had bought a few years ago for the sole purpose of embroidering. The only thing I did a little differently was changing up the order of the stitches from what the accompanying guide recommended: the outline of the symbol was one of the first parts stitched in the guide, but I left it until the very end to ensure no other stitches (looking at you, lazy daisies!) would breach the edge of the design.
This was a complete joy to stitch. The pattern and colours were something I would normally never have done for myself or others in my immediate circle, and yet they worked together so well.
That still left the issue of my zip pouch. I found a zipper I liked and measured its length to determine how wide my fabric would need to be. From there, I cut strips of three different fabrics and sewed them into one big rectangle. Fun fact: despite much calculating on my part, my Franken-rectangle turned out to be longer than the zipper – still, better too long than too short, right? That’s what scissors are for! I decided the other side didn’t need to be as busy, and used just a single fabric for it, making sure it was the same as the outside strips on the other side to allow for some continuity at the side seam.
I cut out the word “Capricorn” and its symbol using the Silhouette and some metallic silver heat transfer vinyl just to stop the other side from being completely plain and positioned it at an angle for visual interest.
Oh, and used some elegant moon-phase fabric for the lining.
My partner said she loved everything, and I’m pretty sure my sigh of relief was heard around the world. Between reliving my horoscope-obsessed high school days and crafting something just a little bit out of my comfort zone, this was a really fun swap.
…my true love gave to me: a night known for being starry!
Earlier this year (or maybe late last year?), I read about a shop called CrossStitchObsession that produces charts of miniaturized works of art in cross-stitch form. The picture the article featured included a tiny version of van Gogh’s The Starry Night, and one of my nearest and dearest particularly admires that painting. This was a stocking stuffer just waiting to stuff!
I had my doubts when I first started – it really didn’t look like too much.
Gradually, though, a picture began to emerge.
Before long, anyone would have been able to recognize it!
It actually got harder to do the further I got! I’m not one for marking up charts to cross out what I’ve already stitched, and without that, trying to match up the blank spots on the perforated paper to the chart became quite the trick. There are so many shades of blue in this, and they all started to look alike after a while.
I backed it with some navy blue cardstock to give it a little sturdiness. The mini easel was one of those miraculous Michaels finds. They came in a pack of four, so I might have to stitch a few more mini masterpieces.
For comparison, here’s the original painting (image courtesy of the MoMA website):
That the designer(s) got that much detail into a 2″ x 3″ pattern is simply astounding. I’m so excited for him to unwrap it on Christmas!
…my true love gave to me: two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree!
“Wait, wait, that’s not how this works! You’re just supposed to use the format of the song to talk about what you’ve made, not rip it off word-for-word. You know better than that! Now, what did you actually make? OK…two…turtledoves and…a partridge in a pear tree? Really? Uh, carry on, then, I guess.”
I don’t collect much anymore. Sure, my tsundoku spiralled out of control during the pandemic, but books don’t count, right? One soft spot I have, though, is cross-stitched interpretations of “The 12 Days of Christmas”. I’ve probably got no fewer than six or eight different patterns, not to be stitched (yet!), but to be admired and the possibilities dreamt of.
Late last year, I was delighted to see that Satsuma Street had been offering, for the last two years, an ornament pattern for the first two days. Not only do I *heart* Satsuma Street, but stitching a single 3″x4″-ish ornament felt much more achievable than the entire 12 days at once – although I also own that pattern of theirs.
Anything that starts with colours like this has to be good right?
I worked on these at a nice, leisurely pace, occasionally setting them aside if something more pressing came along, but got the beads and sequins added in time for them to go on the tree this year.
I backed them with white felt for a little extra stability, and used an iridescent white metallic thread for the hanging loops.
She already has a French hen in this year’s ornament collection, so I’m sure you can guess what’s going in my virtual cart. I’m hoping she continues with this series, because I’d love to be able to display all twelve days, eventually…just nine more years to go, at the current rate!
The Witty Child 