Inspiration and Light

What a wonderful time of year!  Decorating with lights and fresh greenery, a time of giving, and getting together with loved ones.  This has been the first year that the majority of my gifts have been handmade.  I've had the desire, and with spending most of my time at home these days, it seemed like the perfect time to make it happen.  What worked well for me was to begin thinking about it in the spring and summer.  Whenever I came across something I liked, and had the skills and resources to create, I would save it.  If it was in a magazine, I kept the page, and also created a "Gift" document to save all the online inspiration. There is always so much swirling around my brain, I need prompts to remember. 

For the bookmarks, there was online inspiration, but no tutorial followed.  I basically sandwiched colorful fabric in between some linen, and cut either a heart or banner in the top piece of fabric, and stitched them together.  Pretty easy.  There were pinking shear challenges, so they're not exactly what I envisioned, but perfectly serviceable, nonetheless. 

The needle book and pincushion were finished yesterday.  The button I picked for the pincushion seems to have the same marble effect as the fabric and paper.  I had cut out a felt flower to apply to the needlebook, but after stitching the lace, I decided to leave it just as it was.    With the Winter Solstice arriving last night, daylight begins to lengthen once again.  Here's to the return of the light!

Fun with Wool and Fabric

A batch of granola in the oven is filling the house with almond and cinnamony goodness.  Recently, I've swapped regular whole wheat flour for the pastry flour, and I can't tell the difference.  I'm still loving this recipe.

I wanted to share a couple of the gifts I've been making today.  The first is a sewing kit for a niece.  It's a gift she requested, as she's been wanting to learn to sew.  I made a pincushion using this tutorial.  Instead of a catfood can, I used a small olive can.  Anything similar should work fine.  I still need to pick the perfect button to add to it.  Finishing touches are being put on a needle book.  I didn't use a tutorial for this, but inspiration came from all the lovely ones on etsy, like the ones in this shop. 

There are also dryer balls.  I made some this summer for myself, and a friend, who tells me that instead of having to wait for a dryer load to finish when a wash is done, they are now ready at the same time.  She says they're a great time saver, and loves them.  I rarely use my dryer, opting to use the clothesline for the most part, but it does seem they help shorten the drying time.  So, I've made some more for gifting this holiday season.  There are many similar tutorials out there.  Here's an example.  The first time I made them I did it in one fell swoop, without doing a core separately, and they have held up just fine.  But this time, I opted to create the core first, as I read so many times that it's possible they'll unravel otherwise.  I've used all thrifted wool, and for these latest ones, I wadded up a (washed)cashmere blend sock that had seen better days to start with, then began adding wool yarn.  You could also use scraps of wool felt or wool sweater in the middle, to cut down on the amount of wool yarn needed, and to re-use/recycle.