Black Knit Stocking Cap

   I finished my black knit stocking cap.  I used size 7 knitting needles and Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn to make this.  I made this the same way I made my Christmas Stocking Cap.   The first post about it is here.  The only difference is the black hat is not as long as the red one.   I even put a pom pom on the end of this one.

Happy New Year Everyone!

  I was just sitting here trying to decide on my favorite make in 2018.  And my favorite make for 2018 has to be the long Christmas stocking cap I knit earlier this year.  I really enjoyed wearing it during December.  I wore it as often as I could on the weekends when it wasn't too warm out.  I had one comment from one young lady who thought it was cool.

    I already have projects started for 2019.  I've got pajama pants cut out to sew up, the black hat I'm knitting is almost done and I have an idea for a couple of Christmas table runners that are waiting for additional fabric and then will be ready to be cut out.  All of this should keep me busy in January.  And I still have to finish my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

   I'll be spending New Year's Day cleaning my oven and refrigerator, and taking down Christmas decorations.  I think that's a good way to spend the first day of the year.

   HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WELCOME 2019!

From T-shirt To A Great Fitting Hairband

I love this hairband and it's so easy to make.  Here's the LINK to the video tutorial on youtube.  This hairband doesn't take that long to make and it looks great and fits even better.  I had an old black t-shirt and make this one in about an hour (maybe less).  I don't use the glue gun to secure all the ends and attach the cover, I sew it by hand.  I just think that sewing it makes it more secure.  I don't trust glue on fabric that I want to wear.

Merry Merry Christmas

I spent Christmas Eve with my daughter.  We had a wonderful lunch.  I made a lasagna, and my daughter made salad, bought wine, and chocolate for our meal.  I also supplied the last of the gingerbread men to have with coffee in the afternoon.

We watched two Christmas Carol movies, the version with Albert Finney (musical) and the version with Patrick Stewart (make it so, Bob Cratchit), we took her little Cairn terrier for a walk through the neighborhood and then we watched Frosty the Snowman.  I got a my last chance to wear my long red and white stocking cap in public.  I've been wearing it on my weekend shopping trips all month long.  I love it.

Today, I'm spending Christmas at home alone doing some organizing and sewing.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, whatever holiday you celebrate.  I celebrate Christmas, so Merry, Merry Christmas.

Pleated Christmas Trees

     I made some pleated Christmas trees with a different background fabric.  The pattern is here:  Pleated Christmas Tree.  The original model in the pattern was made with white background fabric, and I have made two of these with white background fabric.  I wanted to do something different with the background and I found this gray fabric with white dots.   I think this looks like snow falling at night.  I still want to enlarge this pattern and make this tree bigger, so I can make it into a pillow cover or something, but I haven't tried that yet.

     Here are the two I made last night with the darker background fabric.  The first tree is a little lopsided because I was sloppy with my trimming.  The second tree came out much nicer.  I love that green plaid fabric.  I'm giving the second one to my daughter.  I put it in a dark wood 8" x 10" frame.

         

Christmas Cookies and A Christmas Decoration Fail

    I made gingerbread men today.  I used the Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman) recipe I found on line.

    This is the first time I have ever made gingerbread cookies and it will probably be the last.  It was tough mixing all that flour into the liquid mixture because I did it manually.  The recipe calls for a stand mixer, but I don't have a stand mixer and I didn't want to borrow my daughter's mixer just for these cookies, because I wanted them to be a surprise.

     These took a long time for me to make, between mixing the dough and letting it rest for two hours or more, then rolling it and cutting it out, I spent a good 3 hours hands on making these cookies and I didn't really enjoy it. 

      I didn't decorate my men.  I'm not supposed to eat a lot of sugar and these will be sweet enough without any extra icing or candies on them.

     In the future, I'll stick with sugar cookies or butter cookies put in a cookie press..

 

    I don't have a picture of my Christmas Tree decoration fail, but I will describe it for you.  I drew a Christmas tree shape and I cut out two pieces of fabric.  The idea being that I would sew the two pieces together and stuff them lightly with some polyfil, put a dowel stick in the bottom and put it in a small tin pail with some floral foam to keep it up right.  My pattern for my Christmas tree was not right and the finished tree looked awful.  I scrapped this project.  I'm looking for other Christmas decorations to sew.

    Here's a picture of some of my Christmas decorations.