The gift of Blueberry Hill

So, remember when I said how much I adore Heather Ross?  And that I was secretly hoping to attend her Weekend Sewing Workshop at Blueberry Hill in August?  I may have dropped some subtle hints to my husband (okay, they weren't very subtle at all but when you really want something, is subtlety the best course of action?).

Chris had me pretty well fooled that I wasn't getting the gift of Blueberry Hill for Christmas but he did say we could talk about it as the summer drew closer.

After I opened all my presents on Christmas, my in-law's living room floor covered with balled up wrapping paper (it was a very generous holiday on all accounts), Chris called me into another room and gave me an envelope containing this beautiful card:

Heather Ross drew these lovely trees with three owls nestled together just for me!  On the back is a sweet note from her.

Then Chris gave me another envelope, containing this card:

On the back is another note from Heather -- this one saying that my husband had reserved a spot for me at one of the Weekend Sewing Workshops at Blueberry Hill Inn.  Do I have the best husband or what?

Both cards have taken up permanent residency on my inspiration board.

You simply must go read Heather's blog post about the workshop last year.  And check out the Inn's website.  It's not just a weekend of sewing -- it's like a retreat, or summer camp -- a time to learn, share, relax, eat gourmet food and, of course, sew!  The idea of sewing past midnight in a beautiful Vermont barn, with a group of women who love sewing as much as I do, makes me want to jump up and down with excitement.  I miss New England so much and don't get back there often enough.  Vermont is the perfect setting for this dream weekend.

Best. Christmas. Present. Ever.  I'm such a lucky girl!  While I'm not very patient, I love having something big to look forward to.  Thinking about the workshop will definitely get me through the winter ahead (and spring and summer...).

Is it better to give than to receive?

Here's a wrap-up of some of the handmade gifts that were given for Christmas.  Next year, I'll keep all gifts a secret until after the holiday because one person (possibly two) that I didn't think was a blog reader, was, indeed, reading my blog.  So, in an effort to not spoil any surprises, next year my lips are sealed!

My favorite thing to do was to pair a handmade gift with a little something else -- like this pencil case (Heather Ross fabric) with some Japanese erasers.

And this reusable coffee sleeve with a Starbucks gift card and a wish that I could sit and have coffee with a faraway friend.

 

I wanted so much to put something in this little basket (the pattern is from Zakka Sewing: 25 Japanese Projects for the Household) but I just couldn't think of the right thing.  What would you have tucked inside?

This lunch tote (with matching napkins) gave me the most trouble.  The pattern is from Cotton & Cloud and can be found here (and it's free!).  I used Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks laminated cotton for the inside, so it could easily be wiped out (the outside and napkins are from Amy Butler's Love collection).  It was my first time working with laminated cotton.  I was surprised at how soft and flexible it felt.  But I did have a bit of trouble sewing it.  I'm sure it was operator error and I don't blame the pattern or the fabric -- I just need more time working with this fabric. 

Another Buttercup bag, this one in a Marimekko fabric.  I used a leather strap instead of a fabric one this time and I really like the look of it -- it dresses the bag up a bit.

My father-in-law ended up with a gift after all!  I made him this ipod/digital camera pouch using a tutorial at Sew, Mama, Sew! that you can find here.

Even though there were a few moments where I wanted to pull my hair out, I had so much fun making these Christmas gifts and I wouldn't trade a minute of all that work.

As to the question of whether it's better to give than to receive...normally I would say yes -- I love giving gifts, especially when I find (or make) that thing that is "just right."  Giving makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside rather than my general cold and heartless mode (I'm kidding!  Really, I am).

This year I received a lovely present from my husband.  I'm so excited about it!  It definitely makes me feel that receiving was better than giving this holiday season, at least from where I'm sitting.  I'll keep you in suspense about the gift for now...

have yourself a merry little Christmas...

Wishing you peace and happiness!

We're heading out to be with family for Christmas.  I hope all of you are able to do the same.  I'll be back after Christmas to share some handmade holiday presents and upcoming projects for the new year!

The Christmas Tradition That Almost Was

A few weeks ago I saw a great little mitten ornament pattern on the Oliver + S website. Liesl, the owner of Oliver + S, graciously made this pattern available free of charge. On her personal website, Disdressed, Liesl shared that last year she made the mittens into a non-traditional advent calendar -- sewing one mitten each day, with the corresponding number hand embroidered onto each mitten.

Brilliant, I said, wishing that I could whip up a mitten per day until Christmas. With some encouragement and advice from Liesl (she suggested cutting out all the pattern pieces in advance), I decided to give it a go.

I was beyond excited about this project. That very night (back on November 30th), I sat down at the dining room table and cut out all 48 mittens pieces, assembly-line style:

 

Does the fabric look familiar? It's leftover fabric from Dag's jacket! I used fabric scraps to cut out the mitten cuffs and ribbon that I already had -- making this project entirely free.  While I cut, Dagim worked on his kung-fu:

Seriously, I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff.  Nobody in our house does this and he doesn't watch TV.  Boys really are different from girls, huh?

Each day, I sewed a mitten during nap time (I "cheated" and used a machine feather stitch rather than sewing the mitten by hand because I'm lousy at hand sewing). In the early evening, I gave Dagim his mitten for the day, with a small piece of chocolate tucked inside. Then we hung the mitten on the tree.

For awhile.

Well, for 9 days to be exact.

I just couldn't keep up with the mitten making on top of my Christmas presents. Chris encouraged me to let it go for this year. I was sad to stop the tradition-in-the-making but knew he was right. I have a tendency to take on too much (don't most of us?). I don't know when to stop or say no.

Fortunately, Dagim did not care that there were no mittens. He asked once or twice for his "treat" but then forgot about it. I hope to pick it up again next year and finish mittens 10 through 24.

I did finish his Christmas pajamas which is something I hope to do each year.  I'll unveil the pj's in their full Nutcracker glory in another post.  For now, here's a picture from the fitting:

In other holiday news (hopefully future posts will move onto a new topic), this was my first year participating in the Holiday Traditions Exchange through Meg's blog, Sew Liberated. I made a version of the holiday mitten for my partner:

I also wrote a letter with some pictures detailing our traditions, copied my favorite biscotti recipe and made a CD of holiday music.  Sadly, my partner did not reciprocate with the exchange (making it not really an exchange at all).  The  deadline to mail the package was over a week ago so I've stopped holding out hope.  So, I'm not sure if the exchange will become part of my holiday traditions or not. We'll see how generous of spirit I'm feeling next year!

All Wrapped Up

This post is a wee bit overdue.  A combination of sewing like crazy, wrapping presents, mailing packages and a sinus/head cold thing have made it difficult to keep up with everything.  As we approach the homestretch, I'm alternating between cool and calm (I've got this one in the bag) to completely panicked (I'll never get everything done in time!).  Right now, it looks like most everything will get done.  A couple things have been removed from the list (more on that another day).  But, for the most part, I'm feeling confident about sewing almost everything I intended to sew this holiday season.

I can't post pictures of some presents until after the holiday (since the recipients are likely readers of this space).  But I'm pretty sure I can post about these two presents without ruining any surprises (I hope).

First up is the Buttercup Bag.  This is the third Buttercup that I've made and I absolutely love this purse (after the holidays, I'm finally going to make one for myself).  And, get this -- the pattern is free!  You can find the pattern at Made by Rae.  Another thing that makes this pattern so awesome is you only need two fat quarters of fabric!  My mother-in-law's extended side of the family does a Christmas drawing each year (there are far too many people to reasonably gift everyone).  This bag is for the gal I drew in the drawing this year.

Here are all the pattern pieces, cut and ready to assemble:

Pinned together and ready to sew:

Finished:

 

 

Then I had this brilliant idea (well, it seemed brilliant but I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of it) to use the torn-off selvedges as ribbon!  I really like wrapping presents and this was a fun (and free) way to tie the wrapping into the present (pardon the pun).

The other project is a little zippered cosmetic bag.  I used some fabric from Amy Butler's Love collection:

Tucked inside, a Sephora gift card so the recipient can purchase some cosmetics of her choosing.  (I'm a big fan of themes -- theme gifts, theme movie nights, etc.)

All wrapped up with selvedge ribbon:

So there you have it -- this is what I've been up to since we last conversed.  I thought Christmas was on Thursday this year.  When I realized it is actually on Friday, I felt like a bonus day had been awarded to me!  Maybe I really will get it all done...

What about you?  Are you feeling overwhelmed by the holidays?  Do you need to remove a few items from your to-do list?  Or do you have all the presents wrapped and under the tree?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This weekend we put up our first Christmas tree (yes, you read that correctly: our first tree -- Chris and I never bothered with this tradition before this year as it just seemed like too much trouble).

We went to a Christmas tree farm to cut down our own tree.  This seemed important to me.  As a kid, I always had an artificial tree.  I knew I didn't want to do that.  So we drove an hour from the city to a tree farm.  We took a hayride out to the field and walked around in the cold, hunting for the perfect tree.  Or the perfect tree for us.  We knew that we didn't want anything too tall or too beautiful -- we wanted something a little odd, a little Charlie Brown-ish. 

We picked out a pretty 5 foot tree -- kind of a fat tree, really.  Short and squat.

Back home, we made some popcorn and hot chocolate and got busy with the business of trimming our tree.

 

We don't have a lot of ornaments and it doesn't seem authentic to go out and buy a ton so we made do with what we had and we'll add one or two each year.  This year, we bought two ornaments made in Kenya, from locally sourced materials.  We stumbled upon them at Meijer on Thursday and knew we had to get them.

 

We don't have a star for the top of our tree.  It looked a little odd without something on top so we decided to put a giraffe made out of rope that we brought home from Ethiopia. We think it looks just perfect: a giraffe on top of our fat little Christmas tree.  Perhaps a new Christmas tradition has begun?

How does your family trim the Christmas tree?  I've enjoyed reading all your comments on the last post.  I'd love to hear about your tree traditions.  Do you buy an ornament each year?  Do you string popcorn?  Do your kids make ornaments?  Please share!