Christmas is literally right around the corner now. I have tons of things that I would have like to have made for gifts. Maybe 2015 will be the year that I actually start working on gifts in January?
I have enough past gifts that I have made to take me until Christmas so that I can share the ones from this year, AFTER Christmas.
Corduroy Teddy Bear Blanket that I made for Killian at his birth. It's actually not finished in this picture, but I don't seem to have a picture in my computer of it after it was finished!
In 2010 I gave Ariel, Willo, and Araya bags for their birthdays. The intention was to fill them with things to keep them busy and hopefully quiet during church. I made each bag from a pillowcase I had bought at a yard sale for .25 each. The items inside each bag I won with points on Listia.
A quilt for Zelda. She wasn't born yet when I made quilts for the grandkids. Just as the quilt above for Killian. (I do still have one grandson that I've not made a quilt for so need to work on that for his birthday in 2015!)
I am having trouble accessing pictures from my disc so that's going to be it for this week. Please wish me luck on getting my disc to read....it has lots of pictures on it that I don't want to lose!
I look forward to the frugal posts that you link up this week.
I hope this find that everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend and that your holiday weekend is going well. Are you out shopping Black Friday? I'm afraid I would be if I had money, but it seems I can't ever remember that I need to save money throughout the year to have some to try to catch the really good deals!
This week I am continuing to share different things I have made and given as gifts. I'm sure enjoying sharing them and the memories that go with them.
Just about every adult got a hot pad from me in my early years of quilting. I think I made these the following Christmas after making all thekids and grandkids quilts. Guess what....I have made more for this year that I will share in a later post too for this year.
Every year I make up sacks for everyone, both children and adults. Two years ago I decided to make them more personal and turn them into a family craft event. The first year I had my youngest daughter help me make them and counted it for some art time in her homeschool. Last year I pulled out the big table and made it a Saturday evening project with 5 of the grandchildren. I plan to do the same this year.
We use Christmas cards from years past and then we have the ribbon and stampers.
This actually concludes all of the photos that I had in squidoo lenses. I have lots of other pictures available to share yet that never made it to a lens, plus gifts from this year, so fear not. :)
This week I am writing about some of the different things that I've made for the grandchildren. I have shared some of what I've given them, as well as all of the pillowcases last week.
This baby set I found in the One-Yard Wonders
book. I had never made anything like this. A lady at church helped me when I couldn't quite understand the instructions. Since then I have made lots of the bibs. The lighter colored bib is an extra to the set. The set was made for Zelda when she was born.
One year, the granddaughters, Ariel, Willo, and Araya all received a doll quilt and plarn jewelry from me for their birthdays. The plarn bracelet and necklace are laying on the doll quilt.
This little Minnie Mouse hat was also crochted for Zelda as a newborn. It was so small that she only got to wear it like 2 days, literally. It was might cute through!
This sock family went to Jacob for his first Christmas. I actually got the idea from the church nursery as there were some in the toy box. I have well over 200 mismatched socks in bags, plus I have plenty of stuffing. It's time to start making a LOT more of these. I do plan on making a family for Killian this year.
This cute little cat with it's blanket was made from the Crafty Creatures
book and was a gift for Zelda this past Christmas. She loved it! It was so so cute. There are lots of creatures in the book that I yet want to make.
That's it for this week. Since Thanksgiving is upon us, I want to wish you a
Continuing on sharing crafts that I have made for gifts, this week I will show you the pillowcases I've made.
I actually made a pillowcase for each of the 10 grandkids last year for their birthdays. I take that back, 9 grandkids, as Killian wasn't born yet. I did make 10 as I made one for my youngest daughter as well.
I also made a set of pillowcases for my son and his girlfriend and my oldest daughter and her boyfriend for Christmas. Part of their gifts were also pillows that I bought at Walmart.
I appliqued the grandkids' names on all of theirs.
I don't know if I can round up all of the pictures from around my computer, but there will be a lot of them to share.
I have step by step photos taken too that I plan on posting a tutorial on how to make them.
Seems I am only missing one pictures and that's the one that I made for my grandson Cash. It was a Hot Wheels one.
Welcome to Friday. I'm off to a quilt retreat for the day as well as all day tomorrow.
Is that frugal? I guess it depends on how you look at it. It's local, hosted by the quilt shop. They are calling it a no frills retreat, which means they are not catering meals in for us. That means it did cost considerably less than the last one they held. I have some TV dinners to take along, however, I also have cash on hand in case others are sending out for something that sounds really good.
I have 7 or 8 different projects packed to work on, including some for gifts this year.
I will share a few more of the gifts that I have given as gifts in the past again this week.
This is a lined fabric bag that I made for my middle daughter, Heather. I had learned about making the lined bags by making walker bags. I messed up and the pockets ended up on the outside. I wasn't about to take it apart, so it stayed that way.
Here are more fabric bags that I made. These were before I learned how to make them lined, but also before I learned about doing the French seams as well. One was for my nephew, one for my niece, and 2 for grandsons. I put their gifts inside the bags.
I had run across a panel that was to make a bug book. I chose to take the pages and line them up as a quilt top instead. It was given to my grandson Cash as he hadn't gotten a quilt from me yet.
I have Christmas book panels now that are packed to work on this weekend. I will be making those into quilts instead of books as well.
I look forward to sharing more gifts with you next week and also look forward to anything you would like to share with me as well.
This week I'm going to continue to share crocheted gifts that I have given.
I started crocheting these cotton washcloths/dishcloths several years ago. They have been a common gift for the women over the years.
Last year I gave making crochet topped towels a try. They came out really well. I still have lots of towels since you only use half of the towel to make each one. I wonder who would like another one this year? I didn't have a pattern. I just took the one that I own and made my best guess.
I had won this cookbook in a raffle at the grandkids' elementary school. I knew I wanted to give it to my sister-in-law for Christmas. That gave me the idea to also crochet her 2 of the double thick hotpads and then make her the matching coasters and cross magnet with plasttic canvas.
Not sure why I thought they needed to match the cookbook, but they did.
I'm going to go off the track of the crochet now and show you a latest project. I was approached by the PR firm for wholesaleforeveryone.com and asked to make Trick-Or-Treat bags with some of their Halloween-Themed Bandanas
I did one post with the giveaway, but want you to be on the look out tomorrow when I will put up a tutorial with step-by-step pictures of how to make the bags.
These are gifts too. A bag for each of my 9 grandchildren that live in town.
This is fun, and motivating.
If you've been following me for very long then you remember it was the either 2011 or 2012 when I added the page here on my blog with the ongoing linky for handmade type link ups. Boy does time fly. When I added it, it was for inspiration and motivation because I had hoped to have an all hamdmade Christmas that year. Since then I had decided to always keep the linky open.
Here are some more of the things that I have made over the years and have given as gifts.
My husbands nephew was a big My Little Pony fan so my daughter had me crochet him this My Little Pony for Christmas. I never have been one to crochet many stuffed animals, so this was a little challenging for me, but he loved it.
Staying along the lines of crochet, I made this cute little bee for my granddaughter, Willo for her birthday one year. I think it was a free pattern that I had picked up at Walmart.
Speaking of frugal, nothing beats free. Be sure to look for the free patterns hanging around in the craft areas of any store.
Here we have a crocheted Minni Mouse hat that I made for Zelda when she was a newborn. Unfortunately, it barely fit her when she was born. It was so darn cute though!
I got on a hair tie kick for awhile. Gosh, I made these for everyone, and I mean everyone....well, ok, just the females. I made so many that I donated a bunch of them to different charities at Christmas time too. I didn't have a pattern, just kept crocheting around until they were the size that I wanted.
I actually have bee asked to crochet some little dolls from a book......I wonder what I did with those patterns.....hhhmmm. I just ran across them the other day, but of course I don't know where I put them now. If I find them I will share the book with you in another post.
For now, how about some of the supplies you will need for crocheting?
Don't forget to share any type of frugal related post you have put up this past week :)
Sharing a few more of the gifts that I have made in the past.
Years ago I learned how to crochet with plastic grocery bags. Each of the granddaughters then got a Barbie dress made out of grocery sacks. They are cute, but a little see through LOL I actually wouldn't mind making more of these, but I will figure out how to put maybe a different colored bag inside as a lining!
I used to really make a lot of things with plastic canvas. I rarely made sets like this Barbie patio set that you see, but it is just too darn cute! I gave this to my granddaughter, Ariel, for her birthday a few years back. Just looking at the picture makes me want to get into my plastic canvas stash and start making again.
When I made dresses for the girls' Barbies I needed to think of something to make for the boys.
I actually won the purple pillow in a giveaway at an online party, which gave me the idea to make the brown one.
This was before I owned a sewing machine, but pillows are one of the easiest things to make. I actually stuffed these with filling. It is better to use a pillow form. I have been fortunate as of late to find pillow forms at yard sales. They aren't too cheap to buy them at the store, which makes the pillow too expensive for me to make.
Last, but not least, sharing again something I made before owning a sewing machine, is this table runner that I hand sewed to give my boyfriend (now husband) for Christmas.
We still have this. It's on the entertainment center with the TV and sound bar sitting on it.
It's a good feeling to see something that I made still in use.
Will you be making any crafts for gifts this year? I am in the middle of making quite a few things right now, that eventually I will share once I get through the older gifts.
Don't forget to check out my Homemade linky page here on my blog...find cool crafts to make, or add links to your own.
Since I now want to look in to doing more plastic canvas, here are a few products, including a book that I have put in my wishlist to purchase!
Christmas is right around the corner. From now until Christmas I am going to highlight different crafts that I have made for gifts over the years.
You will notice that I have a handmade linky page here on my blog. I have went through and removed the dead links. Please feel free to add your homemade posts. Also feel free to add your stores with handmade items as well.
This week I'm going to start with my biggest Christmas challenge. I made quilts for my 4 children, 5 of my grandchildren and my sister-in-law! This was no easy task since I didn't start on them until October. I was a brand new quilter so they are all patch quilts.
This first one was for my grandson, Allen.
This one was for my granddaughter Araya.
My granddaughter Ariel's.
My daughter Elizabeth's
My daughter Heather's.
My daughter Jasmine's. This was my very first quilt ever.
My son Johnathon's.
My grandson Skyler's. This isn't a quilt, as you can see. I was given a bag of these crochet squares already made. I sewed them together with yarn.
This is the one I made for my sister-in-law. Hubby went out and bought the fabrics for me as she is a KU fan.
Last, but not least, this is my granddaughter Willo's.
I made these in 2008. The grandkids still only like to sleep with the quilts that Grandma Marsha made them. They are getting pretty ratty, but they don't care! Maybe it's time to make new ones for everyone.....not this year though. :)
Here are some quilting supplies that you will need:
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