Cheaters never prosper

I have been cheating on knitting with sewing.

(first quilt top all done)

But just a little, if by a little you mean a lot and all the time. I have had a knitting project tucked into my bag that I do continue to work on at night after I have put some mileage on the treadmill (running inside blows). Thankfully we have netflix so I keep the good times running by watching movies that do not involve cartoon characters or moral building story lines. The other night I watched a movie called Purple Violets. I am not recommending this movie by any means. In fact, on the blow scale (from 1-10, 1 being not blowing at all and 10 being a really stinker) this movie scores an 11. I only rented it because I have a thing for Patrick Wilson who may be the only blonde that I am ever attracted too. Even though the movie was a bomb I found another reason to keep watching. Knitwear. The movie had the most amazing sweaters in it. So amazing that I found myself knitting fervidly. Then I started sketching and making notes in my journal concerning said knitwear. This girl's glass is half full. Crap movie, but overflowing with inspiration.

A handmade Christmas

For too many years now I have had a Christmas to do list that has been haunting me. On it were the aspirations of a semi-crafty lady. I think the original list was made somewhere around 2003. So 7 years later I finally got my tush in gear (and now own a sewing machine which was one of the players needed that was missing earlier on). The goals were to sew our own stockings and to make a tree skirt.

These little things were made important to me because many, many years ago my Grandmother made stockings for each one of my sisters and I. Those stockings are still hung every year at my parents house even though we have moved away. They are there like little stand-ins of Christmas joy, beacons that hold memories and hope. I wanted to weave that same love into my own family's holiday.

So finally and abruptly (which is how I start most things) I tore into our garage on Monday and found the box that contained our sad little store bought felt stockings. 15 minutes and my handy dandy seam ripper later I had my pattern. I decided to not use Christmas colors mostly because I am not a huge fan of red and green, sure I like a sprinkling of them here and there but was excited to do this stocking thing on my own terms. So Max's stocking is made of a combination of colors that make me thing of my little boy; browns, butterscotch and a little teal. Max has always appeared to me as a little brown bear, so my color choices for him usually reflect that.

For Charlotte's I dove into some scraps that I brought home from a recent trip to Washington and some scavenging that I did around my mother's sewing table. She is making a beautiful quilt for Charlotte which meant that I came home with some gorgeous fabric scraps. Sewn together they look like this:
Unfortunately (or rather fortunately for me) my little girl was not completely in love with her stocking. Her exact words were, "Mommy that is really pretty but when I dreamed about my stocking it had some red in it." Ok back to the drawing table.

Now I just have to find some fabric for Alan's stocking and a bit more fabric for the tree skirt pattern that I found. Then my "to do" list will be a "done list," and those are the best lists to have around.