Sugarplums

Here are the sugarplums at the bottom of the stocking. The lollipops are strips of felt rolled up together, the ribbon candy is strips of felt folded back on themselves and stitched. All the items in this section are very 3-dimensional. It almost looks like you can pluck them off and eat them, but of course, if you tried you would just get a fuzzy mouth.



You can see that I was able to start stitching on the first foot of the fairy. I've completed parts up to 74; there's about 33% left.

Almost Half Way

I added pieces 40 to 50 and # 71 last night, about half the "sugarplum" assortment at the bottom of the stocking: A couple of lollipops, a couple of gingerbread people, a peppermint, and a candy cane. That leaves a couple of cup-cakes, a sugar cookie, another candy cane, and some ribbon candy. I'm not quite half way done.

However...

It was brought to my attention that I could not make a stocking for C, without making one for P. So I ordered another one. Stay tuned!

Felt Applique

I have very mixed feelings about felt applique. On one hand, some of the earliest stitching I ever did was with felt, and it opened crafting/stitching doors to me that I had never imagined before. When I was a kid we moved to a new country with a different language, and during the first couple of days I went to that school we worked on a Mother's Day present, making a scissors pouch from pink felt held together with button-hole or blanket stitch. I can remember gathering all my siblings together to get them to make more items for that great day. It must have been a very encouraging project; something I could do well without knowing Spanish.

When my daughters were young, I made this Advent calendar from a kit. It was fun, it stitched up quickly, and it has been loved for close to 30 years. The most fun was making the camels, because they had beads, braid, the best colors, and tassels. This year P and C were still vying to see who got to turn over what.



The stocking I'm working on now is more involved. There are many sequins and beads. Here's the top band:



and here's the Christmas tree.



Each of these represents about 15% of the total, so I'm about 70 % done. The Christmas tree was supposed to have 1/2 star sequins instead of all dark green ones, but once they were on I didn't feel like changing them. The tree still needs a couple of sequins on the cup-cake frosting, and the star on the top, but I like how it turned out. I'm really quite amazed by how much hand stitching is on this. The candy canes and peppermints in the top band are outlined with pink, there's chain-stitching around the gingerbread men, and the tree garland is stitched and couched. All the red on the tree peppermints and candy canes is embroidered, in satin stitch and outline stitch.

The next step is all the candy and confections across the bottom, totalling about 30 to 35% of the total. I'm hoping that will move very quickly.

I don't consider these projects art, they are definitely crafts, but felt applique can be art. Check out the self-portrait in this link. I'm very tempted to make at least a couple self-portrait dolls, but I don't know if I'm up to making over 50 of them. Of course, the longer I wait to start, the more I would have to make! Isn't that piece amazing?

Stocking progress

I didn't get a picture taken this morning, but I did make some progress on the stocking last night. It's really cute! The top band is completed, and I'm down to 85 numbered pieces to go. The tree is next. Of course there are 3 #29 left-handed candy canes and 2 #28 right-handed candy canes, and about 10 #30 peppermints. I don't want this thing to take forever.

The Birth of a WIP pile

So I got home from work yesterday, and my order from Herrschners had arrived. I received a paper catalog from them earlier in the week, and I needed something, so I picked up the phone at about 9 PM, and someone answered! Of course, there were after Christmas sales, and this kit was about 40% off, maybe even 50 or 60% off; bringing it from the "this would be fun to make, if it weren't so expensive" range into the "boy, can I afford not to get this" range. (I've been looking at this kit for a couple of seasons. It comes in a tree skirt too.)



Of course, as soon as I started opening the package C came over to check it out. She loves it when grandpa or grandma gets a package. When I pulled this out she was very curious.

G: Do you like this? Who do you think I should make it for?

C: What is it grandma? You could make it for one of your friends.

G: It is a stocking for Christmas, but I don't think any of my friends like pink fairies. Look at all the candies.

C: You could make it for grandpa. I've had "that" kind of candy (the candy canes).

G: I don't think grandpa likes pink fairies either. Do you know anyone who likes pink fairies?

C: I like pink fairies! (Her current career plan is to become a water fairy. When asked what they do, the answer is "they do everything about water.")

She was pleased to find out I was making it for her. We've also made plans to try all the other kinds of candy on the stocking that she hasn't had before. Plus, I've promised to help with the cupcakes.

She helped pour out the sequins and beads, and was an interested observer when I started cutting out the felt. She got a scissors of her own last fall, and has spent days playing with them. However, just before it was bed-time she came over and asked: "Are you done yet?"



Not quite! This is how far I got last night.

I do like that all the felt pieces are numbered consecutively. There are duplicate numbers. If there are two candy cane stripes the same shape, or flowers the same shape, they have the same number, but it is a useful tool for keeping track of how far you are. Out of 105 numbered shapes, I've completed 1-8 and 12-16, leaving 90 to go. (I wonder if that is really over 10% done already!?)

I do enjoy working with felt; tomorrow I'll show a picture of the advent calendar I made more than 25 years ago, still being used and enjoyed. But working on this will push back everything else on the list.

Current WIP (Work-In-Progress) list:
Complete 2 more temari for JTA
Finish the "sampler" temari to use for Kiku classes
Alphabet sampler
Church Etui
Advent Calendar pages
Jen's (queen sized) quilt
doll clothes
Noah Sampler

(The longer I think about this, the more projects I'm going to remember, so I'm going to stop now. Talk to you tomorrow!)

Neglected Temari

I did this one in the middle of my snow themed marathon, and forgot to post it. It is a c8 division. I made the bands about 5 threads wide, and then added the lacy over-stitching to that. Simple, very pretty, and easy to stitch.

Back to Work!

Well, it's back to work! I think I could easily get used to not getting up at the crack of dawn to go to work; and I loved living without an alarm clock for almost a week. I would have to develop a routine though, it is way too easy to turn your days into nights, just like newborn babies. I stitched, read/listened to audio books, and played computer games.

Here's the last (for now) snowflake temari. I realized that I worked these in the opposite of logical order, going from complex to more simple. This one actually didn't work until I used the silver to tack down the centers, then all of a sudden it was done.



Here's the whole set together. I'm very pleased with them. I thought I was done with this pattern variation until I went to bed and read Cosmo 7. In that book there are 2 pages with additional variations of this pattern! I think, though, that I will save those until next winter. (No two alike, just like real snow-flakes.)



I met the baby bunnies yesterday. I had mentioned before that White-tail and Peter turned out to be White-tail and Peta: These are 2 of their offspring (and one of mine, this is DD2 with me). The parents are now living at a pet store, to provide babies to the western suburbs (and they can probably accomplish that by themselves, if left to their own devices). The babies are much more cuddly than the parents, since they've been picked up and cuddled every day ever since they were big enough. You can see how they are snuggled in, very fun to hold, and very cute!



They will eventually live in different homes.