Christmas is coming...

 

    Excuse the  [even worse than usual] photo quality, I had to take this in the dead of night last night before I packed them up. To celebrate all the gingerbread houses I'm making this year, I made everyone I'm doing it with a little plastic canvas ornament sort of following the tutorial here . I'm reasonably happy with them but should probably point out that they take a lot longer than one might expect noting the quality of the craftsmanship that went into them/ their size. 

In other news, I said goodbye to my new little friend yesterday and am saying goodbye to her nearly-identical cousin doll tonight.  I've still got an extra set of legs though (I made Celia's twice before I was happy with the colors) so I'm considering making a third dolly, but don't really know what I would do with her. (Nephew number three was born a few days ago and there's no new niece in sight.)

                                                      

                                                                                             

 

Button Cookies

Delicious snack for today's non- denominational end-of-year-winter party at Sewing Club.











...Okay, so they came out of a tube and are not particularly delicious to anyone above the age of 13, but I'm sure the kidlets with love them.

Quilled Snowflake Part 2

8) Coil one of the two inch pieces into a tight circle, let it spring loose and glue down the end, then pinch twice to get a pinched elipse. Repeat with the other five pieces.

9) Now take two of the legs and dip the smaller, less curly ends gently in the glue. Press against the large circle so they lay opposite one another.

10) Glue the other four legs around the circle in the same manner.

 11) Now take out your little hearts. Gently glue them into the center of the curlicues between  the snowflake legs, as shown.

12) Now you're going to need to work around the circle, gluing the side of the heart to the leg piece a total of 12 times. Work one leg at a time, applying glue about half an inch up the leg on either side, then press the heart against it.

13) Now you need to take out you teardrops. Apply some glue to either edge and press it into the middle of your heart shape. If the curlicues on your heart are really far away from one another, you may need to unroll the curled bits a little to get them close enough to press together. Do this in the center of every heart.

14) Now, in the center of each snowflake leg glue your pinched elipsi. (elipsies? I have no idea.)

15) If you want, you can coat the whole thing finely in glitter glue, or use spray adhesive and powdered glitter. Then hang on a bit of monofilament or thread. You're done!

Quilled Snowflake Tutorial: Part 1

Since my ceiling is approaching saturation with this little guys, I thought I'd pay the favor forward to anyone else who might want one.

Supplies

• Glue (something thick, like tacky glue)
• Slotted quilling tool (or you can make do with a toothpick or needle)
• Quilling paper, or regular printer paper cut into 1/8" strips

1. Tear your paper into

• 7 six inch pieces
• 18 three inch pieces
• 6 two inch pieces

Tearing makes for a softer edge when you glue shapes together, and also spares me having to find my scissors.
You may find it helpful to make a pile of 12 and 6 three inch pieces, as I did.


2.Make your center by coiling one of the 6 inch pieces into a tight circle. Let it spring loose and then gently glue down the end. Set aside.

3.To begin making the snowflake's legs, coil one and half times at one end of a three inch piece. Then lay the piece atop a ruler and coil from the other end until the total length is 1.5 inches. Both times coil on the same side, so the swirls face each other, like in the picture. Repeat this 11 more times so you have 12 little legs.

4. Now pair up your legs from step three, with the coils facing away from each other as shown. Pour a tiny bit of glue into a shallow bowl and use a pin to apply dots along one inner edge of a leg: press the two pieces together to make a completed leg. Repeat 5 more times, for a total of 6 legs.

5.Now fold each of the remaining 6 six inch pieces in half so you get a visible crease. Unfold and coil each side in to the center, as shown.

6. When you finish on either side, you can use your fingers to gently uncoil a bit to force the shape into a more rounded heart. Repeat 5 more times, trying to get 6 uniform hearts.


7.Coil the remaining 6 three inch pieces into circles. Let the circles spring out, glue end down, and  gently pinch one end between two fingers to form a tear drop shape.

To be continued...

Currently stitching

Just like every first-week-in-December since I came to Cornell I've been working frantically
this week in preparation for my department show. This semester's load wasn't as bad as the past few years, mostly because all my work was in half scale, but it still took a good bit of time and stress.

Some things in half scale are much easier. It's nice not to have to worry about proper facings and hems, but they present some unique challenges: like all the fabric needs to be half as thick, half as heavy, half as drapey, and prints need to be half as large as you'd imagine on a fullscale. If I have to sew another impossible tiny double-ruffle on one more tiny waistline, I might cry.

Still, they're kind of charming: sort of like how things that are really ugly for grownups (i.e. crocs, fingernails) become impossibly precious and charming on toddlers. Just don't study my teeny tiny seams too closely.

True Sign That I'm an Enormous Dork

One of my camp friends and I are going to see the Rockettes in 16 days 2 hours 29 minutes 54 seconds (not that I'm excited or anything.) I promised her that I'd craft us some appropriately adorable (and not at all ridiculous) Christmas headbands, so today I finished these.

I used the pattern from Livvy Loo Who's tutorial but didn't follow the directions. Instead of buying a headband I stitched some elastic to a bit of black grosgrain until it fit my head and then hand tacked all the flowers on.

Slightly juvenile? Maybe. Awesome? Definitely.