A weft yarn

Six felt Santa ornaments finished

Date: January 2013

I finished the last of the felt Santas in October 2012 and told the story of their journey in this post.

These guys have adorned the tree, of which, for some reason, I have no photos.

What I can share though are the memories of the piano recitals. So, the Fat Red Santas and the Berry Blue Santas were stitched almost exclusively at the children's weekly piano lessons. Both children took lessons from a wonderful piano teacher and once a week for an hour, I sat at her kitchen table and embroidered my felt Santas while I listened to my children play their weekly accomplishments to her, and then she'd assist them, they'd play duets and she would usually finish the lesson by playing something herself. And I was happy. Of all my mother jobs, taking my children to piano lessons was one of my happiest.

If you ever feel inclined to read a truly exceptional tale of Piano Lessons, then I highly recommend Anna Goldsworthy's memoir of the same name. Anna Goldsworthy is an Australian pianist who is a daughter of a famous Australian playwright and novelist, Peter Goldsworthy. While she has used her talents for music, her memoir is a lyrical book which develops the story of the profound bond between teacher and student. It also has some fantastically lighthearted stories of adolescence and parenting of adolescents, which as you can imagine, I am going through, so I appreciated being able to laugh at this period of life.

Our teacher Rebecca organised piano recitals twice a year. We attended our first in December 2007, when Nicholas was in Grade 4 at St Matthew's Primary. In 2008, we moved to Kaleen Primary and then Tess, who was in Grade 1, joined Nicholas at Rebecca's home for weekly lessons. The recitals were usually in churches in Page, Waramanga and Ainslie. These below were taken at All Saints Church in Ainslie. Afterwards, there was cake and chatter with the other parents.

Previous posts

Blue Felt Santas Finished (November 2012)

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)

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 Santas: so close

I am getting close....Blue Felt Santas are nearly finished.

A bit of work on the hats, the plumping, the boots and then we will be finished.

These guys are looking forward to joining their buddies on the tree in Summer. Can you feel it coming? We had a warm weekend and the mornings are getting lighter and lighter (still a bit frosty and cold). I'll be posting the beginning of Spring over on my garden blog soon. Don't wait for me though. I wouldn't want to hold the Sun back, just get into it and then report on your own little bit of warmth and sunshine and promise of green leafy energy.

 

Previous posts

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)

Berry Blue Felt Santas

I have been making progress on the Felt Santas project. I stitch these little fellows while I sit in the Piano teacher's studio, listening to my children learn and repeat their latest piano pieces. I've mentioned before how much I love this little piece of time in my week, to just sit still, stitch and listen to my children's music. My son is doing Grade 4 Piano this year and so he needs a longer lesson to prepare for the AMEB exam later in the year. I now have slightly longer than an hour a week to put into a little stitching project. Bonus.

It has been ticking over, week by week. The berries on the little blue coat went in easily and then I stumbled on the satin stitched belt. People sometimes complain that these little kits don't come with very good instructions and there's a lot of assumed knowledge. I'm not sure how it could be different and you do have to learn somewhere, so why not on a little project like this? Anyway, it wasn't clear to me whether I should satin stitch the belt over the printed lines on the felt or just up to the lines. Then when I cut out my first go at it, I realised I really should have satin stitched over the lines - so that they didn't show. In trying to cut really close to the lines, I cut through the stitching and it unravelled. So, I started again with a new piece of white felt but in drawing the pattern onto felt, with a pen, I ended up leaving marks behind. I'm not perfectionist enough to do it again. Its ok by me. Lessons learnt.

I've also learnt to do the applique part of the sewing process just a little bit better than in this photo above. I was trying to do it too much like a scoopy, scoopy stitch. That's a technical term by the way. When really, the applique stitch is with a single strand (not two strands) - the instructions do tell you this. And furthermore, the sitch is more a straight, up and down, stab stitch. Now that I'm practicing that, I find the applique part looks a bit more even.

Pretty soon, he'll have his smiling beard on and we'll all be happy.

I feel like I'm closing in on these guys. Two done and the third and final one in a pretty advanced state. Now Christmas, you just take your time in coming. No need to rush up on me all sudden like. I've still got Winter, the Tour de France, the olympics, Spring, a birthday, Father's day, two sets of school holidays.....heaps of time before Christmas.

Previous posts

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)

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)

Red Felt Santas - October 2011

Last we saw Santa, he had his green leaves on his hat done and I was starting on his boots. 10 hours later he has boots on, and one of the fat Santas has a hanger and a nicely plump body. The other guy is still flat on his back waiting for the next embroidery session.

 I had to make some red and white cording by twisting together two strands of DMC. I hadn't been looking forward to that fiddly task when I did the black and white cording on his coat, but like all things, second time around was easier. Having said that, I made the cording and sewed it onto his boots during a Saturday night viewing of the Hurt Locker. That was really tense, that session. We were thoroughly impressed by the film. The filmaker's attention to detail, the sense of impending doom and menace, the fear, the tension, the tough yet fragile guys doing war, some adapting, some being destroyed, the clash of cultures, the futility. It was interesting. Perhaps a bit surreal to vicariously experience the hell that was the Iraq war while I sewed thread onto felt boots. We live a very safe life, considering the range of human experiences on the planet.

One of my goals this year was to finish these guys. I think if I'm done by Christmas I'll be happy with that, although technically my sewing year runs from Sept to August (as I started the rotation system in Sept 2010). Still, that's a bit stupid fussy to even pay attention to such things. So, ignore me.  I think I probably only need one more 10 hour session to finish these chaps off and then they can join their "folky Santa" buddies on the tree.

 

Previous posts

Santas - embroidery update June 2011

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas April 2011

Santas - embroidery update

So, ten hours of Santa sewing and I have hats and heads and beads and little green felt leaves. Just the boots to go to finish off the front of the little red Santas. But, in the spirit of being respectful of my new rotation system, despite having a head of steam up here on these little fat Santas, I am putting them away and moving on to the next project.

There's lots of fiddly bits in this type of embroidery. When I bought the kit, I was pretty inexperienced and didn't know what to expect. I just liked the idea of working with felt. It seemed kind of homey and gentle and soft. First the yellow dots on his coat, and now the little green leaves. I embroidered the leaves while they were in one big piece of felt, stopping and starting the thread at the beginning and end of each leaf! Then they are cut out, one by one, and sewn on, only at the bottom half of the leaf, so they kind of sit up a bit on Santa's hat. Before I put his beard on, my daughter said he looked a bit girly with his beads and leaves on his hat. Haha. I think his boots will help define him.

Just so you know where we are going with all of this, here's the cover of the kit.

Finally, boots embroidered and waiting for next session. I have to make some red and white cord, and I didn't enjoy that last time but maybe this time, I'll just jump right in, having done it before.

 Previous posts

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas April 2011

Fanciful Felties - book

We were in Sydney about a month ago and as part of the festivities I managed to have lunch at Orange Grove Markets in Rozelle and then spent a small amount of time in Calico and Ivy. I was pretty shopped out by that stage, so didn't purchase much from that beautiful shop, but I did come across this gorgeous thing.

There are patterns for a range of English "uptown" folk like Marge below. She can have her own felt car and home made by you. It might be a bit difficult to tell from my photos, but, you are provided with patterns to embroider their faces and all the details on their clothes, houses and cars.

Then when you go "down country" you'll come across this ruggedly handsome chap, who appears to be wearing a natty cabled jumper.

The back of the books shows you a couple of other images - my favourite is the bird milkman, complete with satchel, cap and embroidered milk bottles. Aggh. Gorgeous.

I had not come across the author in my travels around the internet but her name is Samantha Cotterill and she has a website mummysam.com. Very cute. very clever. Honestly, the book is fun to read like a play, imagining these characters running their terribly british life, and if you felt inclined to make something you do have patterns, or it could easily just convince you how very much fun it would be to do your own drawings of people and transfer them to felt! If you are interested - browse on - here's a flickr group Fanciful felties. I loved them.

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas

I started these Felt ornaments in 2007. They are part of kit I purchased from one of those Fox catalogues. Before I started my Rotation system, I used to stitch them in the month or two before Christmas and it took forever to make any headway.

I'm really loving the rotation system. One of the things I did was set up a sewing bag for each project. I just gathered up all the bits and pieces, put together a small embroidery kit (needles, pincushion, scissors etc) and found a canvas bag. I then needed to clean out the hall cupboard so these 10 project bags would have a place to live. The benefits have been that, if I've got an hour sitting around at piano lessons or tennis, I can grab a project (assuming it isn't a large tapestry on a floor frame!) and take it along and get a bit of work done. I've made so much more headway on these projects. As mentioned previously, I'm really enjoying the variety of stitching as well. And I don't feel at all bogged down with the details.I'm putting things away to start on the next project long before I'm getting frustrated or bored.

The felt comes all pre-stamped and there are detailed instructions and it recommends that you only cut out pieces as you need them. Good plan - otherwise you might end up with thousands of itsy bitsy bits of felt that make no sense. There are two of each santas and I'm doing both versions at the same time. I'm currently working on Mr Red Santa but have already finished Mr Folk Santa with folky black vest and white stars. He's even been on a tree, bringing felty cheer and good tidings. Who knew that Santa needed glasses?

As part of the embroidery, I made the white and black cording by winding white DMC and black DMC together. Kind of fiddly and I'm not sure I really mastered the technique but it's kind of good enough.