A Christmas luncheon...

As is to be expected, this YOP (Year of Projects) post, is going to be about creative, crafty things.  And a Christmas luncheon.  For me, nothing is much better than being able to combine some creativity with spending time with others.

With the Christmas season upon us, I was inspired this year to host a table at our church's Women's Christmas Luncheon (which was yesterday). 

Attendance from our own church ladies was down this year for some reason, so I ended up being able to host a table full of friends (and one friend of a friend).  That isn't how I imagined this being, but looking at the lovely (and loved) faces around my table, I thought it was surely extra fun the way it turned out.  I knew these gals would appreciate anything I came up with - even if I completely flubbed on making a nice table setting.  Not that I was very worried about that, but these things do cross one's mind...

My inspiration for creating a Christmas table was a set of dishes I brought home from my mother-in-law's when she passed in 2020 that were the same design of dishes I grew up with.  

The dinner plate of this Currier & Ives set is a winter scene of "The Old Grist Mill".  Perfect for a winter brunch to kick off the holidays.  While it was probably not obvious to anyone else, my theme became "Vintage".

The gals organizing the event decided to make some changes from previous years - the first being to rent round tables (for which the church has evidently purchased a bunch of plain white table cloths).  I had already given thought to decorating a long table, so wrapping my head around creating a centerpiece that needed to look nice from multiple angles around a round table, I'm sure made me expend a few brain cells I didn't anticipate.  

Also, I wasn't interested in using a plain white cloth, and I didn't want to buy a round table cloth just for this purpose.  So I came up with the very simple idea to just purchase cotton fabric and make a square "topper" out of it - thinking I could use the fabric for any number of things later.  Learning how large the tables were, that simple idea morphed into buying enough fabric to stitch two widths together into a square that I could drape over the white table cloth.  The selvages of the fabric were nicely frayed which made a great way to finish it off all the way around.  In other words...  it required no hemming.

I did decide to make (and hem) some fabric napkins, though.  

And I'm so glad I did!  

Using this tutorial:

I became proficient at another way of making mitered corners.

Mitered corners and I are becoming fast friends!

An interesting video playing in the background made this tedious task more tolerable...

One job done

At some point in this whole process, I also came up with what I hoped would be a fun gift that my guests could use, and ideally was something handmade (just because I liked the idea of that).   

Hand-knit dishcloths came quickly to mind, and when I found these holiday soft soaps, I thought the combination would be a respectable little gift.

So each lady got a slightly different version of the same thing.  A cute jelly roll of dishcloths and some soap - that well...  most anyone can use!

I also made simple napkin rings using a wired ribbon, topped with these cute little holly thingamabobs (found at Hobby Lobby).  All hot glued together.

And finally, using things I already had, I made a centerpiece.  The hardest part of this, was estimating how big of a centerpiece to make.  We were told the tables were 5 feet across, and using my 5-foot-long rectangular dining room table as a guide, I eventually came up with a vignette - that probably was a bit large for the round table - but I think it was okay.  

But backing up for just a moment...  When I first started pulling a centerpiece together, I made a sort of wreath out of fake garland I've decorated with for years.  Then placed a vintage glass Tom's Toasted Peanut jar in the middle filled with red and gold glass balls.  We have two of these vintage jars, and one of them has held cookie cutters for years.  Oooh...  Suddenly the idea of using old metal Christmas themed cookie cutters tied to the wreath occurred to me!

It worked, but something about the whole thing felt, I don't know....  unwieldy, maybe, to me.  It was only after I packed it all up for taking to the church the next day that I came across a large woven tray that I had bought at a friend's garage sale a couple of years ago. It was the solution I didn't know I needed!  The tray made all the difference.  Before this, I didn't fully appreciate the power of a container of some sort to build a centerpiece on.

Instead of forming a wreath, the garland was placed in something of a free-flowing design around and overflowing one of the edges of the tray. Then, as if it had happened organically, I just "spilled" some more red and gold balls into the middle of the tray to fill it in.  The extra napkin in the middle (below) came out the next day, but for some reason, the night before I thought it looked cute in there.  The next morning I thought it just looked kind of confusing.

I don't know if the small cross stitch pillows were too much - in fact, it was my intention the next morning to pull them out too, but I forgot.  They ended up being a conversation piece, so I think my table mates liked them. 

All in all, I was pleased with how everything turned out.  Our meal was catered by Johnny Carino's, and while it could have been warmer (at least mine, by the time I ate it) it was delicious.  I'd love to recreate the Lemon Rosemary Chicken they served us.  

The time passed quickly - singing carols, hearing the story behind all the elements of the Twelve Days of Christmas, then visiting over our meal.  It was a lovely way to kick off the season.  For me, having this behind me, I now feel like the rest of the season should provide plenty of time to focus more thoughtfully on the birth of Jesus, and the gift of salvation and grace He offers us.

I hope this Christmas season is meaningful for us all. 

Back to yarn...

With autumn threatening to turn to winter weather this upcoming week, I've suddenly started to want to crochet again!  To get myself back in the crocheting groove, I thought I'd make something easy.  Since the last thing I crocheted was a Granny Goes Large blanket, that seemed as easy a thing to make as anything.

Pulling out every single tote that contains yarn, I picked out a palette of colors that I thought evoked autumn turning to winter.   

Time will tell, I guess...

I think I'll want to buy some yarn to put a border on the finished blanket, but otherwise, this should be finished with yarn completely from my stash.  I wish I could say that would make a dent in my yarn stash.  It won't.  But it's nice to be able to "shop my stash" whenever the urge strikes to make something.  Even something big.  As long as I'm willing to make it in many colors, I'm good!

So, I'm curious, fiber friends... when the weather cools down do you find yourself more motivated to work with yarn?  For my non-fiber readers, do you have hobbies that are seasonal.  Seasonal or not, I'd love to hear what they are. 

Finished Manx square projects...

Finally, I finished a couple of projects using Manx squares I created months ago.  

One square had been completely stitched before I realized the directional fabric I'd used for the back side had not been placed going in the direction that corresponded to the front.  Not exactly an end of the world problem, but it bugged me enough that I just put it aside and contemplated never doing anything else with it.  Until last week.  Watching a tutorial on how to sew an envelope pillow cover, I was inspired to try it.

A super simple, but very effective back to use when you want to be able to remove a pillow cover.

You can't tell from the first photo that the pillow is really too small for our largish blue sofa, which at first seemed to be the obvious place to park it, but it looks kind of cute on the red recliner in the same room:

The only problem is, it's not a practical pillow.  I'm not going to want people sitting against it, smashing all those folds made by hand-stitching every piece of fabric. Since I'm not into having pillows I have to move just to sit in a chair, I'm not sure how long it will take up residence in the red chair, but for now I'm enjoying seeing it finished.  It will probably float around the house for a while looking for its perfect home.

I also finished the project I made with the four coordinating Manx squares I was working on a couple of months ago: 

This, I decided to finish into either a table-topper or a wall hanging.  I added triangles to the back corners where a dowel or even a flat piece of wood can be used to hang it.

Can't see them?  

Here's a closeup of one:

Now, normally, one would only need to put these triangles into the two top corners, but some may recall me mentioning how my Manx squares skew into something less than square by the time I finish making them.  I can trim them down more or less square so they look decent individually, but they are not perfect matches of each other. Well...  imagine sewing together four imperfect squares, and you may understand how my finished project can look more or less wonky depending on how it is hung. Since it was nearly impossible (holding it out at arm's length) to figure out which side would be the best to hang it from, I decided to just sew a triangle into all four corners so I could figure it out later - when I can hang it and stand back to see if there is a better side to hang it from.

Ah!  Another idea just popped into my head!

It is only just now occurring to me as I'm typing that this may actually look better (and less obviously wonky) hanging diagonally.  In which case, I should be able to place a wooden slat (maybe a dowel, or even a sturdy piece of carboard) going across the middle into opposite corners, that can hold this taut as the whole thing hangs from a ring sewn into the top corner.  

Here, I just snapped a picture of it on the diagonal (though I think it looks better held up on light wall):

Oh my goodness!  I like that idea a lot!   I just went from being glad it's finished, but not sure what to do with it, to being downright excited to find a spot for it!

That's all I've got on this blustery Sunday.  Snowflakes are falling, but melting as soon as they hit the ground. We'll see 50's and 60's again next week, but today I am (too soon) feeling in a wintery mood.  Brrrrr...

First baby quilt finished...

If you've read the backstory here, you'll understand what a precious project this has been. And why getting it finished as perfectly as I could has felt important to me.  

Is it perfect?   

No.  Nothing handmade really is, but I am very pleased with how it turned out.  And thrilled at what I've learned in the process.

Last week I told how I underestimated how much fabric would be needed for the binding.  

I don't mind admitting that this past week I ripped out* the binding the first time I sewed it on, because the stitching wasn't straight enough, and I think the sewing tension was a little off.  But the second time worked beautifully.

Little white bows 

on a sweet pink background 

for a sweet little baby girl. 

The tied quilting was a perfect first experience for me.  It saved my mental energy to focus on learning how to make a neat binding.  And getting decently mitered corners.  And learning how to tidily join the ends of the binding strip.  I cannot tell where it begins and ends.  Which is exactly as it's supposed to be.

Hopefully, it will be handed of to my friend Marti this week and I can start contemplating the next quilt.  

Because I'm sure there's another quilt inside me now.  And all this learning mustn't end here.  😊

* for the non-sewists reading this...  Ripping out isn't as violent as it may sound.  It consists (especially in such a precious project) of painstakingly picking out every single stitch, one at a time.  At least, that's how I do it.  It's delicate and somewhat tedious work, but so worth it when the finished job is done well.

Learning new skills...

When I was last here, I was chomping at the bit to finish a baby quilt I was helping a friend with. My friend picked out fabric to bind the quilt with, and I did my best to calculate how much would be needed.  I felt so sure I was bringing home a sufficient amount of fabric - actually a smidge more than needed because you know...  you just never know...  

With fabric cut and bought, I thought I'd get the quilt done lickety split.

Now might be a good time to mention, if I haven't already, that I've never made an actual quilt before, and I had never actually properly bound anything before.  My previous lick-and-a-prayer hot pad bindings became kind of embarrassing as I watched video tutorials of quilt makers working their magic to make beautiful mitered corners, and niftily joined binding strips.   

Another thing I might mention is that while I can be meticulous when it comes to details of many things, and I'm a big "measure twice (actually thrice) and cut once" sort of gal, it might surprise some that math is no where near my favorite thing to do. 

I confess... my eyes glazed when watching videos as quilt makers rattled off the math used to figure how much fabric is needed to make binding.  "Way too complicated", I thought.  The formulas seemed unnecessarily confusing, and I just couldn't summon the mental energy to try to understand what was being explained.

 
Knowing I had brought home a smidge more fabric than I thought I would need, I was confident there would be plenty.

After watching numerous videos, I began to appreciate things like... the amount of fabric that is lost when stitching strips together to create the entire length of binding, how much fabric is folded into a mitered corner, the seam allowance that is required when sewing the binding on, and nevermind that I knew I'd have to iron the binding folded over double - it just didn't dawn on me, that I needed to cut each strip of binding twice the width of what would actually show, and I had to take the seam into account twice - even though I was only making one seam. If that last bit confused you, I understand. 

By the time I had watched half a dozen videos and felt confident about proceeding, I realized I was going to need more fabric.  

Since Hobby Lobby puts their fabric on sale every other week, and there is no hurry to finish this blanket, it has been on hold until I can get in there this week and purchase what is needed to get this project finished already.  I only need to buy a smidge more.  😄

 

The learning curve in making this simple baby quilt has been steeper than I imagined, but it's been worth it.  I almost feel like I could go back and tolerate watching the math of calculating binding and understand it now.  Some of us just learn better hands-on, you know.

And I've not been twiddling my thumbs.  As I watched numerous videos on how to create and sew on binding, I remembered that I had some potholders I started making a year ago for gifts, but hadn't finished.  

You know what they needed to be finished?  

Binding. 

 
So, with a video at the ready on my phone beside my sewing machine, I set to work - perfecting mitered corners, and joining the ends of the binding.  

One of these days, I'll show the fun potholders I've made, but that will be after they've been given away.  My guess is the potholder recipients don't bother themselves with the fact that I have this blog, but on the off chance they do...  I'm keeping the pictures to myself for now.

In addition to binding the potholders that had been languishing in the "finish-it-already" basket, I made a binding and attached it to the colorful Manx square hotpad I showed in my last post.

It's not perfect - as a close-up of the back exposes, 🠋 but putting it aside and after not staring at the stitching for a day or so, I've concluded the person I give this to (and hopefully, I'll manage a second one) will love it simply because I made it for her.

While all this sewing has been going on, in the quiet, usually late hours, I often knit dishcloths.  I've made a dozen or more since turning my attention to autumn colored yarns, and these were given to youngest son for his birthday a week ago:

For anyone who might want to know, the dish towel was purchased at Hobby Lobby.  I knew son would love the dapper doggies.

And lastly, my fun fox got some stitching love recently, and I'm feeling the draw again to (hopefully) complete the pillow I want to turn him into.  We'll see how long that draw holds...

Sometimes it seems ridiculous to have multiple unfinished projects waiting in the wings, but then I have experiences like with the quilt binding, and I realize it's nice to have other things to easily put my hands to when plans don't go as I expect them to. 

Are you a one-project sort of person?  Or do you have multiple hobbies and projects started at any given time?