Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Christmas presents…unwrapped (I).

Nathanael and I worked very hard in the days of December to finish all the gifts we could. In the end we locked ourselves away Christmas Eve to work on sewing and wrapping until dinner time, and we still owe one family member their gift. Here are our first three projects…

Project #1 Pumpkin butter


became




This is a homemade, homegrown gift that Nathanael and I gave to some of our friends as well as our parents. It was a little bit time consuming, but did not require much more than time and the pumpkin we already had. Even though it only used a small fraction of our pumpkin harvest, we were glad to share it in some way.
pumpkin 7729
7890 Pumpkin butter The recipe I used was brought to my attention by my former roommate Lucy, and is posted here.

Project #2 Knitting needle holder






I wanted to make my Mom something that needed and that she would see often so that it could brighten her day. I decided to sew a knitting needle holder (shown unfinished above), because her former method of knitting needle storage was to keep them in a large pasta tin with Italian words all over it. The tin was a little bit cumbersome as well as loud to carry with all of the needles dancing around in there. The pattern I designed will allow Mom to sort her needles by size and roll them into a case that ties with a ribbon. I fashioned the case out of a recycled shirt and a piece of fabric from the tailor that was formerly the hem of a satin dress. The only purchased materials were the thread and the ribbon.


Project #3 Sweater animals



One of my sisters is really difficult to choose gifts for, and the other is pleased with everything. In the last few years I have tried to give them really interesting books, but since one is a student and the other is building a house, neither have had any time to read them, so I have given up on educating them for Christmas. This year I made them each an animal out of a recycled, purple, cotton sweater (stuffed with cotton batting). I hope that they will enjoy them and someday pass them on to their kids, who can sleep with them without the presence of any plastics.

Descriptions and pictures of our other projects coming soon...

4 comments:

  1. Great presents, Sarah! I especially love the piggy - my Sarah enjoyed seeing it too (on Sunday). I was so glad we could spend Saturday with you and Nathaniel - you two look great <3
    - Sennu

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your pumpkin butter looks amazing! I love the decorative top you put on it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. See the pig (and the chicken) in progress was fun!! So cute! Miss you and hope you come again soon!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sarah,
    It is obvious you don't spend your valuable time watching TV. ai was just reading something that reminded me that you don't even have a television. It states: Australian researchers have found that each hour spent watching TV translates into an 18 percent greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and an 11 percent greater risk from all causes of death. This study included people with healthy weight as well as over-wieght. Those who watch more than 4 hours per day had an 80 percent greater risk of cardiovascular disease than those who watch fewer than two hours per day. The bottom line is that sitting in front of any screen is not good. Time to go out and enjoy the sunlight people!
    Mom

    ReplyDelete

I love comments. So tell me what you're thinking!
(If you comment on older posts I will see them too and do my best to reply!)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...