Saturday, October 26, 2013

Finished my 1XMAS on Friday!

Didn't get a chance to post until today.   I sewed the mouths and buttons on the three short snowmen Friday morning right before I took DD to a Dr's. appt. The rest of the day and night was so busy that I just took the photos.   The snowmen pattern is from Primitive magazine,  a very narrow little wall hanging that anyone on your Christmas list should be able to find a nook here or there to place him!   All of these are Christmas presents and I have three more in the works that need their scarves knitted yet.  I still haven't found the yarn I want in blue or green.  The two snowmen together were made from muslin per the directions, but for the trio on the left, I used scraps of warm and natural batting as the snowmen.  I ironed a very light pellon to the back before I cut it so that it would not stretch as I sewed.  I still had to be pretty gentle with them.  Love the look (and feel).  I did not have any black wool, and none of the local quilt stores or JoAnnes carry it so  . . . I went to Goodwill and found a man's black wool sweater that had two tiny moth holes in it!  I also bought an orange hoodie sweater that was a wool mohair blend and a pretty blue sweater that claimed to be 100 % wool.   I washed them all in hot water in a mesh bag.  Twice.  The black sweater and orange hoodie came out perfectly, the pretty blue had more pils, and might have shrunk the tiniest bit, but did not felt!  So much for being 100% wool.  I love the softness of the wool and it added a lovely  texture to the snowmen.  The snowflake in the middle of the blue background snowman looks so cute - but was placed thus out of necessity (the mother of creativity)  I had machine sewn the hat on when I noticed that one of the two holes in the  sweater was right there in the middle!  Fortunately the fix was just a button jar away!  I put a snowflake on the other long one because I liked how it looked.  I looked at adding snowflakes and such to the little ones, but it just seemed to busy.  Do you think they look too plain?   For even more texture I knitted a little scarf for the blue one.  Most of the members of my Bee made at least one of these and it was fun seeing all of the variations of fabric and embellishments.  The orange sweater showed more black once it was washed so it was darker than
anticipated, but I used it as a nose for three of them, and then thought of making the pumpkin in the same manner as the snowman head, just bigger.  It came out all wonky because I did not take the time to put the pellon on the back of the orange wool and it did stretch.  I think the pumpkin just may be my favorite!  Happy Quilting, Happy Finishes and Happy Halloween!

3 comments:

  1. Oh Brenda, these are amazing!
    They look so adorable and will bring lots of cheer at Christmas :o)

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  2. So cute! What a good idea felting the sweaters....that's crafty! I love the way you make so many snowman themed gifts, people get a whole season out of your gift instead of just the one month for a specific holiday.

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  3. Such great snowmen :) Love how you collected all the different bits from all over :)

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