A weft yarn

Beaded Christmas Decoration: Cracker Box Kit: Rhapsody in Blue

Date: March 2013

I am going to share some less than perfect photos of my work in progress.

I started Rhapsody in Blue, my first cracker box christmas decoration kit, in earnest in March 2013. Previously I had worked out that I needed to be at a table and that it involved a lot of ancillary equipment: wide-mouthed jugs, water for the glue syringe, hairdryer etc. Pleh. This is a lot harder than the other kits we've done. When I was doing those kits with the children (during the primary school years we made somewhere between 12-14 kits), we always started out at a table. Then when the children went to bed, I'd put in a few hours in front of the television, making up pins, and pushing pins into little styrofoam shapes. I bought a small folded plastic table that would sit on my lap and that seemed to work fine. But these kits are a whole new level. If you're a girl who likes sparkle....well, you've just got to press on.

I was a bit daunted by the lengthy, detailed instructions and I enlarged them on a photocopier. Here's a sample of some instructions.

2) Don't know WHY, but on the royal ball I'm working on now, the EXACT center bottom is that little hole down there! Beats me! Put glue on the back of one end of the wider braid, and push the glue in with your finger; set the glue with your hair dryer. Snip the end so it is "clean" but on a SLANT of course, so you don't cut through a LOOP. [all emphasis in the original]

and then what follows is part A, B, B(twice), C, D, E, F, G, H, I before you move onto step 3)

I must admit the instructions are eccentric and a whole adventure in their own right. Really, I can visualise this guy (I'm sure its a guy), sitting down making this thing and I bet he records his instructions into a tape recorder or, he talks as he does it and his companion takes shorthand, or he pauses and writes it down while he drinks red wine and chats to someone, waving his arms around.  What's not to love? I'm detailed, I'm fussy. I work through issues. I can do this. He's makin' me smile.

Did I mention the paraphernalia? Here's a list of tools that are in the 7 photocopied pages of instructions

1. tape measure
2. Hair dryer
3. damp sponge
4. wide mouth jar or mug
5. glue syringe
6. a pencil
7. nailpunch
8. sharp scissors
9. needle and thread
10. scotch tape
11. single edge razor blade
12. pliers
13. hammer with a claw back
14. sturdy tweezers
15. candle
16. small needle nose pliers

candle?

You've got to work for your art. And finally, got to, got to. share. some. of these instructions:

• Make 16
• Make 16
• Make 16
• Make 16
• Make 16 ahead
• you'll need 10
• make 24
• you'll need a whole mess of these
• thread on 7 thingies
• 3 more sets
• make another dangle EXACTLY like this one

and my all time favourite,

• needle and thread. (Oh, stop complaining!)

Previous posts

Beaded Christmas decorations given with love (December 2011)

Beaded Christmas decorations - teacher's presents (Nov 2011)

 

Blue Felt Santas finished

Date: November, 2012

These little guys are done.

The story so far. I purchased the Bucilla felt Santas kit from the Fox collection catalogue back in 2007. I started stitching in October 2008 and finished in October 2012. The 6 little felt santas (2 folky ones, 2 red ones, 2 blue ones) took 73 hours of stitching to complete. I did two at at time, finishing the same features as I went...so beards for two Santas, hats for two Santas - that kind of thing. The Christmas tree got to display the first set of Santas in 2010, then another two in 2011, and the final two in 2012. The other four guys are stored away in the Christmas decorations box. At Christmas time the six guys will all get together and I'll organise a group photo. Given they are Santas, I'm sure it will go well.

 

 

Previous posts

Felt Santas: so close (September 2012)

Berry Blue Felt Santas (June 2012)

Felt Folky Santas join the Fat Red Santas (Jan 2012)

Fat Red Santas - done and done (Nov 2011)

Red felt Santas - October 2011 (October 2011)

Santas - embroidery update (June 2011)

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas (April 2011)

Felt Folky Santas join the Fat Red Santas

All over the world, people are packing up Christmas and putting it away in boxes. Next year, we'll do it all again; the unpacking, the decorating, the plans, lists, parties, shopping, wrapping, carols, moments of heart stopping beauty and tiredness, all wrapped up in string.  I too am packing up. I generally try and get through to the Epiphany before I pack up, but this year we've got a few things on and it kind of suits me to pull down early.

I worked on my Fat Red Santas on-and-off through 2011, all year. Sometimes I sewed them at night but mostly I sewed them at Piano lessons. God, I love Piano lessons. The teacher is wonderful. I love listening to the children grow in their musicality. It's lovely having music in the house that comes from real instruments. But in all honesty, it is an hour at the end of a long week of working, where I get to sit in the Piano teacher's studio, listen to music and sew. One hour a week and I can embroider and sew 2 felt Christmas ornaments.

 Before I pack these chubby felty guys away, I thought I'd show you the family resemblance. Folky guys were done first, finished in October 2010 and hung on the 'good tree'. This year we had the 'bad tree' and lessons have been learnt. No more Scout trees from Bunnings. Next year we're going to a 'good tree' source. There have been family conversations. Other people's trees were scrutinised. Enquiries have been made. Googling has happened. It has been resolved. Now if only we can remember all of this in 12-months time. Sheesh.

 

Bye guys - see you in December 2012. Play nice.

 

Previous posts

Fat Red Santas - done and done (Nov 2011)

Red felt Santas - October 2011 (October 2011)

Santas - embroidery update (June 2011)

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas (April 2011)

Tapestry Christmas Stockings

As you know, I have three tapestries on frames in various states of progress: The ferry, Tim's christmas stocking, and my cat tapestry. As these projects are going to take me years to finish, I just wanted to grab this moment to show you some tapestries that I have completed. I don't have many visual clues around my house that I have completed any tapestry projects. I gave the flannel flowers to my mother-in-law and these two tapestry Christmas stockings spend most of their life in a box stored away, waiting for a few short weeks to be displayed.  So, I kind of feel it's OK to show you something completed years and years ago.

I gave quite an involved description of the history of these stockings in this old post so I wont bother repeating it here.

Beaded Christmas decorations - given with love

School's out for summer. It was actually almost summer today. Almost. It is sooooo tempting, isn't it? Given what we are going through in Canberra at present but....mustn't grumble about the weather. Last week, we had the coldest night of carol singing out on Hawker oval. I'm not grumbling, in case you can't tell. I am just stating a fact. People were huddled under blankets, in woolly jumpers, in bushwalking style fleece jumpers, with beanies on, keen to jump up and play tug-of-war so that we could feel our limbs - that kind of thing. Cold. In Summer. Really cold, songs about snow made sense - cold. I'm a hot weather girl. I like a nice warm day, I love all things coastal, all things like oceans and rivers and pools in Dickson. I wait all year for these things to come and grace our short summer in Canberra, and then for some reason, detours happen and we're back in, well, if not winter, pretty damn close to it. OK. That's all. You get it.

School is out for summer. What's not to love? And my amazingly focussed 9-year-old, managed to make the guide leaders and the much loved Grade 4 teacher some glittery Christmas baubles to thank them for a great year. Tess has really thrived in Guides and in school this year. It is wonderful to end this topsy-turvy year with a feeling of rightness-with-the-world. There were times when we all felt scratched and torn from the year's briars and thickets. When I see what Tess has made and I think of the relationship between these women and my daughter, I am content.

As you know from here, we make the teachers a gift and keep one part of it as a memento of them. This year, Tess also decorated cardboard boxes to house the gifts. We had a pattern from a friend of mine who designed a little green and red Christmas box with poinsettias on top. We adapted it to use our own papers and add our own flourishes. You stamp and cut and glue and emboss with gold paint and then you get this... all the choices of colours, papers and ribbon are Tessy's. We ended up making three different boxes. One for the school teacher, and two for the guide leaders. I only photographed one. I plead busyness.

This is a gift for the Grade 4 teacher who is a maths whiz. And I mean whiz. Maths olympiad type maths whiz. A sane and calm and clear-sighted person who gently and persistently taught the children to excel in something that is not very popular. Maths. She is a plain and decent woman and I wouldn't be at all surprised if a frippery such as this was not her first place of cultural comfort. Perhaps the tartan ribbon and those uncompromising moors of Scotland will evoke her resilient and humble nature. I will certainly hang her decoration on my tree each year with pride.

 These decorations were completely handmade by the Tess. I did nothing.

These bells below, two of which were given to the Guides leaders, were 96% made by Tess. I did a tiny 4% of ribbon and sequin pinning (all statistics are faithfully represented by the 'guessing here' footnote). This distribution of the workload is quite a reversal for me. Usually the children start with me but peter out and I spend a few nights with a glass of wine and some beads finishing off the present.The tide has turned.

We are, with great sadness, saying goodbye to our Guide leaders. Tess is going up to the next level in the new year so not only did we make these, and some decorated boxes, but we also included some handmade chocolates and a Christmas mug from here. I have done a very, very modest amount of volunteer work during my children's life (secretary of the P&F for two years, and school canteen manager and canteen volunteer for three years). And my husband has too (scout leader and community garden convenor for about the same amount of time - thankfully at different periods though). I know how much time these ladies spend throughout the week; designing programs for the 4 terms of 10 weeks of 1 1/2 hour weekly activity session, sending and answering emails, attending weekend camps, filling in forms, going to training, shopping for supplies. It is an amazing amount of work to ask of women who work and raise families and volunteer to turn up, week after week after week to a small hall in Hawker, to guide young girls through life. I have such respect for them. Thank you, Guide leaders. We'll miss your warm smiles and quirky traditions and reassuring presence. Stay well. Love from Tess and Melissa.

 

Previous posts

Beaded Christmas decorations - teacher's presents (Nov 2011)

Christmas gift bags for my tapestry ladies

I am one of ten ladies who meet regularly throughout the year, for tapestry and needlework lessons. On the last lesson of the year, in December, we meet for lunch and then after lunch we go back to Helen's house for stitching and chatter. Last year, everyone exchanged small handmade gifts...gulp....except for me. There had been nothing said that I was aware of, it just seemed to happen somewhat spontaneously. So, I've been thinking over the last few months about a small token to make, that would be on about the scale of the gifts from last year.

Years ago, I attended a paper crafts workshop at the Canberra Craft and Quilt show and we made a small bag out of a white envelope. We then stamped it, attached a paper topper and punched two little holes, through which we threaded a ribbon. It was all very origami, simple and yet each bag could have slightly individual touches.

A couple of days before our tapestry Christmas party, Tess helped me with the prototypes and the assembly line production.

We filled them with chocolates and thankfully it wasn't a super hot day so there was no chance of them melting in the drive over to Helen's house.

It was a lovely day and I felt sorry to say goodbye to them all, until next February. We take a reasonably long break over summer. I hope they will all be well through the Christmas period.

Fat Red Santas - done and done

I finished these during the week. I don't usually have much time during the week to sew at night time. I usually sew or knit on weekend nights, but recently the children have been practicing for piano exams and piano concerts and as the piano is in the same room as the embroidery, I've been providing them with an audience and getting a bit of extra sewing in.

These guys are done. Done and done. I'm rather pleased with the progress on them. Only because it took my three years to finish the first two Santas in the kit! So, taking one year to do these guys looks like a speed record for me.

I have two more Santas in the kit but I wont start on them until next year. I've got lots of other Christmas stuff to consume me in the next few weeks.

How are your Christmas preparations going? My house is starting to fill up with the Christmas boxes. I get my husband to bring up from the garage, about four boxes in October which are full of Christmas crafts. Then another four boxes with decorations and stuff come up in November and the final set of boxes come up in early December. I make it sound systematic...it isn't really like that every year. Some years, things flow smoothly, others it's a mad frenzy at the end.

Previous posts

Red felt Santas - October 2011 (October 2011)

Santas - embroidery update (June 2011)

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas (April 2011)

Beaded Christmas decorations - teacher's presents

My first child started school in 2003.  At the end of the first year of school, I made the two Kindy teachers (they were both part-time and shared the week), some baked goods as presents. I remember it being a nervous-breakdown-making-event, in the last two days of the school year, to bake two lots of iced, pudding-shaped, sweet Christmas buns with custard inside them. Both teachers seemed to really love them but I remember thinking, next year we need to make something well in advance of the pressures of the end of the school year. Not to mention the general craziness that Christmas brings.

I'm not sure how I stumbled on these things. I blame ebay. Anyway, ever since 2004 we've been making the teachers a beaded Christmas ornament. The good things about these kits is that they make at least two, sometimes three ornaments. So we give the teacher one (or two) and then keep the other one as a memento of that teacher. Each year we hang the teacher decorations on the tree and remember them. Some teachers we loved, others...well... they still got decorations and I try and say a little "hope they are doing better this year" wish (ie hope they aren't still shouting at lots of little children). Across both my children's primary school years and counting all the helpers in preschool, we've had 15 teachers so far and only 2 of them get the little "wish they are better now" treatment - so really, we have been lucky. And of course, some teachers we have really, really loved.

When my son moved to high school we stopped making the ornaments for his teachers. It seemed odd and inappropriate. Instead he bought gifts for the teachers he liked and we just quietly parted ways with the ones we didn't respect.

This year, like last year, it is just Tess and me and she has decided that she'll make the bells for the Guide leaders and the Plaid ornament for the wonderful Grade 4 teacher.

The other good thing about these kits is the children have always helped. Often I've needed to finish the ornament but the children have always started out with me.

2008: Grade 1 teacher

2007: Nick's Grade 4 Teacher

2006: Tessy's Preschool teachers (thankfully there were 4 birds in this kit)