More Christmas Gifts

We are one week closer to Christmas and my gift making is just about done.  I finished off this knitted face cloth this week and it has been gifted to a friend.  For me, one of the best parts of Christmas is making gifts for family and friends.  Since I learned to knit this year, all of my friends received a little knitted something in their Christmas parcels.  I delivered my friends' gifts this week.  

I started one more facecloth this week, just because I had the yarn to make it and I like to keep myself busy, especially when we are in the car.  This one is orange. 

Now that I have mastered face and dish cloths, as well as a simple hat, I am hoping to move on to some more challenging knitting projects in the new year.  I want to learn how to do cables next...

I did a little bit of sewing this week.  I made a second zippered pouch for a friend for Christmas...same outer materials as the one I showed last week but this one has a polka dot lining. 

I was inspired by a photo to make a gift for another friend.  I pieced and quilted this little gift in one day as well as finishing the hand stitching on the binding.  It is in the mail and I hope it arrives in time for Christmas.  It should make her laugh out loud when she sees it. 

Finn continues to assist my daughter with her stitching projects.  The bees blackwork is almost done! She is working on the last hexagon. Doesn't Finn look proud!???

Just in case anyone was wondering what kind of snack to leave out for Santa this year, I have it on good authority that he enjoys poutine!  We saw this inflatable food truck when we were out for a walk last week. 

I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday stitchers in the morning. 

Sewing on the Train

Last weekend, I took the train to visit my daughter.  I spent most of my travelling time working on the sheep wall hanging that I am making for my MIL for Christmas.  I managed to finish the buttonhole stitch on the sheep bodies, the hearts, all the flowers and the stems and leaves of three of the flowers. 

The people sitting beside me on each train all asked me about my project. One man told me about his mother who had died recently and who had made crocheted doilies.  He was not sure what to do with all the doilies.  He had children and grandchildren to give them to but he did not want them to just get put in a drawer and forgotten.  I suggested he have them framed and then his family members could hang them on the wall.  He thought this was a great idea and was going to look into it when he got home.  

One evening this week, a friend came over to knit and I sewed on the faces, heads and ears of the sheep.  I also worked on some more stems and leaves.

Only a few more stems and leaves to go!

I hope to put some more stitches in tomorrow for slow Sunday Stitching.  There are some little buttons to add for the eyes too.  Then, it will have to be quilted by hand too.  It's a good thing this is a small wall hanging!  My deadline for this project and other gifts is looming! 

I made another snowman pillow this week for a special order for a friend's friend to give to his wife for Christmas.  The buttons and the mouth are hand stitched so they count for slow stitching this week too.

I am linking up with Kathy for slow Sunday stitching.  

Wooly Sheep

I took an all day train trip this past week to visit my daughter.  I spent some time earlier in the week prepping my sheep wall hanging, hand basting all the pieces to the background so they would not get lost on the train.  The heads and ears will be added after I get the stitching done on the bodies. 

I chose embroidery thread colours to use for the blanket stitch around each shape.

I put everything I needed for this project into a zippered pouch that I won years ago on another bloggers give-away.

The glasses are very important!

The black thread is for some minor repairs on a pair of my daughter's pants (the hem is coming down.) and to sew some buttons back onto her good coat.  In our family, the sewing gene seems to skip a generation.  My grandmother was a tailor and my step grandmother was a quilter.  I pushed my mother to take sewing classes so she would buy a sewing machine that I could use.  My daughter is not at all interested in sewing but she does like the quilts I make for her.  :-)

All ready to sew on the train. 

There will be more sewing on the way home.  The ticket person on the train told me that they always have a few sewers and knitters on the train.  Too bad we did not get to all sit together!  

I am linking up with Kathy.