Some Christmas Makes

As usual I made some stuff for presents for Christmas, so I thought I'd post some pictures here. I really like giving homemade gifts but they obviously take some work so I usually try to start in October. As it was, I was still having to try to finish Lee's the week before Christmas! Ah well.

Here's what I made:

When we were camping last summer I thought my uncle might like a new teapot and cosy. I ordered a teapot on eBay - it's enamel - but when it came it was smaller than I expected. Never mind, I made it a cosy. I just did layers of doubles back and forth, stitching in the back loop to produce the ribbed effect. did a vague circle for the top and then sort of sewed it on to the lid. I had left gaps in the cosy for the handle and spout, and then I sewed round the edge and pulled it all together. 

Neil really liked it, he said he was going to take it to work for his cuppas there! So that's good. 

My friend Cath asked me to stitch this Star Wars sampler for her partner. I used the threads I had so the colours are slightly different to the ones in the pattern, but I think they look gorgeous. This was a lot of fun to stitch, I've never made a sampler like this before. 

I bought this pattern for the Death Star ages ago, it's actually part of a bigger piece but I just wanted to make this bit for Lee for Christmas. It was a lot, there was so much black. I had to keep a close eye on the pattern and cross off with a pencil when I did a line. I broke it into quadrants which really helped. I love it, and Lee does too! We need to get it framed now. 

I pulled out all my jewellery supplies the week before Christmas because I had some new beads I wanted to make something with. I.... actually forgot about that, because I got distracted making some bracelets and key rings as presents. From the back: I made key rings for my cousin Peter and his girlfriend Beth, I love these circle beads. The yellow and orange glass bracelet is for my cousin's wife Beth (yes, there's two Beths in the family haha), the one in front of that was for my cousin Rob. It's made out of carnelian and amber, it's gorgeous in life. The one on the right of that is for me, it's made out of fluorite which is my favourite stone. It fluctuates between dark purple, dark green, and lilac. I love it. My aunt made me a bracelet for Christmas which is fluorite and silver, it's absolutely stunning and I love it. I've been wearing the two together.

Finally Lee picked out a ton of fun beads for himself. It says "punk/crust/grind/ska", which are all the different types of punk that he likes. He's been wearing it a lot. 

I made this for Caroline (my aunt). It's purple glass, clear glass, silver and purple metal beads. I liked this bracelet a lot, I may have to make one for myself! She liked it

I made everyone in my family a button tree or two. Aren't they fun? So easy to do, you just need some wire and a bunch of buttons. I added the bells on some of them because I had them hanging around too. Lee's was the pink one, he liked it, so we put it on the tree :) 

I joined in with this stitch along through Caterpillar Cross Stitch and kept up with it really well, so it was finished well before Christmas. I liked it, it was simple but really effective. I've signed up for a new, beach themed piece through the same site, which I'm really looking forward to. I haven't had this framed yet, but we put it on the wall over christmas anyway.

Lastly, I did get around to making some bracelets like I meant to in the beginning. The beads on the left are so gorgeous - the light blue ones are very beautiful, and the dark blue ones have a gold flash in them that I love. While I had everything out I made the bracelet on the right out of beads I salvaged for a necklace. I like these for a bracelet. 

There we go, some recent makes!