the handmade christmas

There have not been many make posts around here for a while because I have just been busily elving away for christmas. Here are some things I was working on.

This is the quilt that I started back in the beginning of July, see the post here. I really enjoyed making this. It is double bed size and I did the piecing by machine but the quilting and binding are all hand done. I'm glad I started early so I didn't have to rush but even so I only finished it 3 days before christmas. I am happy that it has now gone with my brother and his wife to its new home.

Next is a puppet theatre I made for Faith. Strangely in the christmas eve rush this is the only picture I got but basically it hangs in the doorway and above the house scene is a big window with theatre curtains where you do the puppet show. It is from a pattern in the book 'oliver and s little things to sew', I had to re-size it a bit though as I think the authors doorways must be twice the width of ours!

Here are the puppets to go with the theatre. They were really fun to make.

These are not home-made, they are ostheimer figures. The horses we got for Faith and the dog for Roghan. I have included them here because they came with the promise of home made stables / kennel. That wasn't completed before christmas but we are now halfway through the stable building and working on the kennel design. More on those to come.

These are fingerless gloves I made. The ones on the left were for my sister in law. They are veyla by ysolda teague, ravelry notes here. I loved these gloves and am glad they have a good home. I may be making another pair for me in the near future! The pair on the right are very simple wrist warmers, they are just a ribbed tube with a gap left for the thumb and striped of colour around the wrist.

The socks were made of a really soft chunky yarn just using my own very basic sock pattern and they were well received. The hat I made with one of my favourite yarns, fez by debbie bliss. It is from a pattern in 'last minute knitted gifts'. It was for my teenage nephew and went down well. Useful to know as teenage boys are a notoriously difficult gifting group.

This quilted bag was a bit of a risk as I used bold colours and it is an unusual shape. I hope it will grow on its recipient.

Also made were new stockings for the kids. I just drew a paper shape and made them very simply, no linings or anything like that.

This year I'm going to try to make one gift each month through the year to avoid the last minute rushing. I have said this pretty much every year but this year I really mean it .....

Jo x