Tag: christmas

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the fifth day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me: five gold rings.

The song that inspired this series of posts (“The Twelve Days of Christmas”, not that you probably needed me to tell you that) has an awful lot of birds in it. That realization first hit me a few years ago, and I mused that if that was my true love’s idea of a super Christmas gift (or gifts), it might not be true love after all. The partridge in the pear tree? Yum, fruit. Two turtle doves? A symbol of love, so…OK. Three French hens? Ooh la la, mais…pourquoi? And calling birds sound like a disturber of sleep and not much else. Despite that, I love Satsuma Street’s whimsical take on them each year, but I’ll admit that although I’m not one for jewelry, I was looking forward to the five gold rings as a break from all the birds.

Well.

When the 2024 ornament designs were released, I couldn’t figure out why there was another bird. According to their website: Did you know the Five Gold Rings is actually about ring necked pheasants?

Reader, I did not.

Despite my initial eye-rolling and sighing, I wasn’t about to stop the set halfway through. And…I like it. The design, not birds especially. The colours are lovely, and the gold beads really add something.

I’ve got it hanging with the others, and now just have to work my way through geese and swans before I finish my avian tour.

Thank you for looking – Merry Christmas! 🙂

craftmas, Other Crafts

On the fourth day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me, three stockings hanging.

(OK, I might be a stocking short, here…)

For the past several years, Lettuce Craft has hosted a Christmas card swap. As swaps go, it’s super low-key: you can choose how many people you want to exchange cards with, and then get your cards made before you sign up. Once sign-ups close, boom, you’re ready to send (and receive!). Who doesn’t like getting mail, especially when it’s a handmade card?

This year, I sent the tri-fold stockings card from the Merry and Bright kit on SVGCuts. They fit perfectly in your standard 18.5 cm x 13.5 cm envelope – that’s 7″ x 5″ for those who don’t speak metric – and were a fun way to mix and match patterns.

I stamped a festive message inside, and they were ready to go.

And just for fun, I did a variation with a green background:

Thanks for looking! 🙂

craftmas, General Sewing

On the third day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me, a stocking just for my kitty!

When my Baking Buddy became a cat dad earlier this year, I knew I wanted to do something special for kitty’s first Christmas. (Yes, he already has an ornament like that.) He’s always made sure that my furkids have something for the humans and their opposable thumbs to unwrap on their behalf at Christmas, and I wanted his new addition to have the same.

I found a fun paw-shaped stocking pattern (in three different sizes!), and also some fabric on Spoonflower that looks a lot like the cat in question.

Funny story…you’d think that having three stocking sizes to choose from would be enough, but you would be wrong. The regular-sized one sounded human-sized, and the mini felt too small. And don’t get me started on the jumbo! Now I understand Goldilocks’ struggle. In the end I used the pattern for the regular-sized stocking but resized the PDF to 3/4 its original size to strike a balance.

I also left off the foot pads and toe beans. I know! Toe beans! If I had been using a solid colour for the body of the stocking I would 100% have included them (because…toe beans!), but I didn’t want to cover up the fun pattern with them. Besides, human stockings don’t include toenails…right? Help me out here.

My favourite part – or maybe second-favourite, after the orange cat fabric – is the lining. I found a couple of scrap pieces of green cuddle satin in my stash, left over from a pair of pajama pants, that were just the right size and matched the darker green on the outer fabric admirably. It gives the stocking such a luxe feeling!

I filled it up with all kinds of toys and goodies, including a gift card to the pet store for future treat purchases…and am starting to think there might have been something to the regular size after all. Right now it’s hanging at kitty’s new abode, where she’s patiently waiting until Christmas morning.

Thanks for looking! 🙂

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the second day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me: two doves of indeterminate species.

If swapping (see my previous post) lets me make things I would never normally make and didn’t even know I wanted to make, then this is pretty much the polar opposite. As soon as I saw Satsuma Street’s “Holiday Glow” design on their social media, I knew I had to stitch it. At the time, it was an exclusive to the Jingle Ball, which meant I was out of luck. But patience is a virtue, and about a year later it appeared on their website, and with a discount code to boot.

There are a few things that stitchers love to complain about. Backstitch and French knots come to mind (the tedium!…although secretly, I kind of like French knots, and there’s no denying the definition provided by backstitch), but black or navy Aida cloth is a strong contender. No problem, I thought, this uses red Aida.

It turns out that even a relatively bright red Aida cloth can be a bit of a nightmare to stitch on and see the holes properly. Once I had a few stitches in place it was a little bit easier, but there was a lot of stitching by feel involved. And the metallics! I originally started out using DMC diamant for the gold and silver but switched to Petite Treasure Braid by Rainbow Gallery, and this may have been the single best decision I made all year.

(Note: I’m not sponsored by Rainbow Gallery; I just really, really love their Petite Treasure Braid. They’ll completely change your view of metallic threads.)

For all my moaning and apparent sudden-onset red blindness, the finished product was 100% worth it.

I found a 9″ x 7″ flexible hoop in a pale red at my local needlework shop and bought it on a whim. It’s not a perfect match to the fabric, but the colour works well with the thread shades and it doesn’t overwhelm the design.

My favourite part to stitch was the rays around the candle flames. Who knew a few straight stitches in gold and silver would add the perfect finishing touch?

Thanks for looking! 🙂

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery, Other Crafts

On the first day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me: a peacock but no pear tree!

While I don’t swap as much as I used to, it was impossible to resist the siren call of the Santa Sack Swap on Lettuce Craft this year. One of the things I love about swapping – besides the whole sending and receiving mail factor, because of course – is that it often lets me make something I might not ordinarily make for myself or my immediate circle.

Case in point: a felt peacock.

While browsing my partner’s Pinterest, I saw something similar to this and forgot I had clicked on it until Etsy innocently suggested this pattern from Elliott’s Playground. Clearly the digital takeover is well on its way. It checked all the boxes for me, so I downloaded and printed, and started combing through my far-too-large collection of felt.

I’m quite happy with how he came out! I weighed him down at the front so my partner can set him just about anywhere and have him balance, and he seems to do that just fine. Instead of wrestling with cutting out and then affixing teeny tiny black felt circles for his pupils, I used the pupil piece as a template and satin-stitched his eyes. But I think my favourite part was his crown (fan? The feathers sticking out of his head, in any case). It’s small and sweet, and really finishes him off.

The instructions also included variations for a white version and a Christmas version, so I may have to revisit this pattern for ornaments next year.

Thanks for looking! 🙂

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the third day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me: some hoops to spread a message jolly!

Because it wouldn’t be Christmas if I weren’t finishing up a project last-minute, right? (Don’t worry, it’s been nearly a week; I was stuck waiting on a sunny day to get photos.) I love Stitchrovia‘s designs, and the idea of the different fonts really grabbed me. There’s something weirdly freeing about not making everything perfectly symmetrical.

I had stitched one of her patterns for Mother’s Day and by happy chance these used a lot of the same colours so finding my shades was a snap

Close-ups:

I probably use 14-count opalescent aida cloth more than any other needlework fabric. Sparkles make everything better!

I think the green H was my favourite…

They’re a perfect fit in 4″ hoops, and have joined the collection of holiday hoops adorning the walls.

Thanks for looking – Merry Christmas! 🙂

craftmas, Other Crafts

On the second day of craftmas…

wittychild

…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.

Secret Santas, take note!

Thanks for looking! 🙂

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the first day of craftmas…

wittychild

…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.

Thanks for looking! 🙂

cooking

If Peter Piper picked a peck of peachy peppers…

wittychild

A couple of years ago, one of my mom’s friends from out of town came by with a box full of produce from her garden and homemade preserves. It was then that I encountered groundcherries for the first time, but of more immediate interest was the jar of peach-pepper jam.

“Is it spicy?” my mom asked, not unreasonably.

“Oh, no. If I can eat it, it’s not spicy.” She explained that she likes to spread a thin layer of cream cheese on a cracker (or several) followed by a smear of the jam, and the cream cheese helps dull any spice. Not the healthiest snack, surely, but she was right: it was delicious like that.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and my Baking Buddy and I were spitballing ideas for homemade Christmas gifts (yes, it’s September and I used the C-word), when I remembered the jam. He thought it sounded like a good idea, and that’s how we came to spend a Saturday morning slicing and dicing the produce we had carefully selected a few days prior.

We used this recipe, which I had confirmed was the one from whence sprang the jar that showed up a few years prior. My previous experience had been limited to freezer jam and not honest-to-goodness cooked and sealed stuff, so I was looking forward to practicing a new skill, too.

It made me think of peach salsa, albeit a deconstructed version, when we first added all our ingredients to the pot. There’s something so appealing about the vivid colours of the produce.

Before long, though, it started to get saucy.

Full steam ahead! This was actually a welcome relief, because when we first started out we were concerned there wouldn’t be any liquid to gel. The peaches were pretty firm and not really juicy, and the peppers didn’t seem to offer a lot of moisture, but by the time we got to this stage I was glad we didn’t try to “help it along” with any added water.

Aren’t those little 125 ml jars the cutest? They’re going to be perfect for tucking into a gift bag.

The beautiful pink-ish colour is just a bonus. I was expecting yellowy-peachy, but this is so pretty!

Our finished product had a bit more kick than the jar I had been gifted, making me think the recipe had been tweaked somewhat to include a bit more peach or a bit less pepper – but this is by no means unbearably spicy. We cracked open a jar to try it, and it’s got a sweet-hot zip that should be a hit.

Thanks for looking! 🙂

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the fourth day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…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.

Thanks for looking – Merry Christmas! 🙂