gifts

I got a super late start on making gifts for this past Christmas, so allll the cute ideas I'd compiled throughout the whole year had to be tossed and I had to frantically find something I could do in a shorter amount of time.

Which means most of the people I would have given hand-made stuff to, got store-bought stuff instead. Which I'm sure bothered me a lot more than it bothered them!

I did manage to make two little photo-gifts (my favorite kind):

TFor my mother-in-law I made a quilted picture frame with a "vine" and leaves embroidered on it, with little beads here and there. The photo above was taken before I put a picture in it obviously, but I ended up using a black and white one of my mother-in-law with all the grandkids that I'd taken at Thanksgiving.

And then I tried to make an identical one for my Grandma. But in my frantic rush, I cut the fabric wrong so it wouldn't fit into a frame right. And also the fabric I used on it seemed too busy for any embroidery. So I left it plain & simple, and Jesse solved the problem of the frame by suggesting I put it in an embroidery hoop which miraculously fit and so that's what I did. With a little bit of lace (and a picture of us) added in too.

I vowed to find something totally different to make next year, because I'm sure people are kind of tired of receiving stuff from me to hang on their walls. One or two things is sweet, but year after year it builds up and then their house becomes a shrine to me and my family. :) Luckily I have a whole year to figure out what to make and hopefully I can start early to get it all done right.