Crafts

Can you believe it’s October already? I swear that just yesterday it was March. I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone, but then again, I think I say that every year at about this time. To really put things in perspective, I just checked and there are only another 12 weeks until Christmas. Ugh. Excuse me while I have a minor panic attack over that fact.

Anyway… seeing as it is October and one of my favorite times of year, I thought I’d share a few pictures with you all to show you what I was up to over the weekend to really get into the Halloween spirit :o)

As much as I love Halloween, I’m ashamed to say that unlike Christmas, my Halloween decorations are rather meager. In fact, they consist of a black glittery sign that says “Creepy” and a wooden block that says “Eek.” Pretty lame, right? So I decided that this year it was time I gussied things up a little and got with the Halloween spirit. Because I am me, and I can’t ever do anything the easy way, I figured I would bust out the sewing machine and craft a little holiday cheer.

Something is taking shape here, but what could it be?

Oh! It’s a cushion cover :o)

Close up.

I fell in love with this fabric as soon as I saw it and knew it would make the perfect backing for one of my Halloween cushions. At some point I’m going to hunt down some more so I can make something entirely out of this print <3

Work started on a second cushion cover, and would have been completed if I hadn’t failed in my calculations of how much of the white and orange polka dot fabric I had on hand. D’oh! So, that little project is currently on hold until more fabric arrives. Grr.

I also decided to do a little selfless sewing last week and made a coffee cozy for a dear friend of mine. Leslie is a real gem – I’ve worked with her for the past 5 years on our company’s annual convention, she has been a beta reader for both of the Riley Cray novels, and she was recently a bridesmaid in my wedding. I can’t say enough how much this woman rocks, and how much I treasure her friendship.

A suitably funky button for a wonderfully funky lady. Besides, I couldn’t resist the wee deer! So darling!

The coffee cozy complete with a new mug and a little something to help fill it with caffeinated goodness ;o)

And of course, as always, I had my trusty assistants close at hand to keep an eye on things…

Miss Samantha watched both me and the outside world from her perch beside the door.

Severus lorded over all from atop my sewing box, which seems to be one of his favorite places to sit whenever I’m at the sewing machine.

As usual, when Silas wasn’t personally inspecting everything by laying his fuzzy ass on it he was wedging himself into one of my baskets for a nap.

Even the elusive Viktor briefly came out of hiding to supervise for a while. Only Lucius, my other grey boy seemed uninterested in what I was doing and spent all day sleeping on the couch. Lazy bugger.

As many people who know me can attest I’m a very crafty person, and more than a little ADD at times, which is why my list of hobbies is fairly long. Writing, of course, is my greatest love, but anything sewing related comes in as a close second. 2013 saw me suffering from a pretty severe case of the quilting bug, and while I focused most of my attention on writing throughout 2014, I still cultivated my love for all things sewing. In November I decided to take up embroidery (something I haven’t done since I was about eight years old), and made a couple Christmas gifts for family.

My first crafty item on the list was making Christmas stockings for Mr. Awesome Sauce, one of our kitties and myself. Our other cats already had stockings I’d bought years ago, but somehow the rest of us were severely lacking in the stocking department.

I made this little elf couple for Mr. Awesome Sauce’s dad and his wife. I wasn’t sure what to do with the finished piece and ended up just framing it in an embroidery hoop so they can hang it on the wall.

The most labor intensive embroidery pieces I did this year were this set of Christmas cushions I made for my mum. That Santa took forever. In the end though, it was totally worth all the time spent working on it, and my mum absolutely loved them. For anyone interested, I get all of my embroidery patterns from Urban Threads. They have an amazing selection of designs in dozens of categories and themes.

Some of my other Christmas crafts included a set of potholders and coordinating oven mitt for my mum:

And another set for Mr. Awesome Sauce’s mom:

More sewing fun was had making a set of reversible placemats and matching napkins for my mum:

And a set of reversible placemats for my sister-in-law:

Our final Christmas craftiness didn’t include any sewing, but involved a pretty cool (and easy!) method for creating personalized mugs. We made mugs for several friends and family members, but I only managed to get pictures of the ones we made for Mr. Awesome Sauce’s mom and his uncle:

After all this crafting you’d think I’d want to swear off sewing for a while, right? Wrong. I’ve been playing around with paper-pieced hexagons:

I’m thinking that these will eventually be made into a table runner, maybe as a gift for my mum next Christmas.

And finally, I just finished making a pair of wee little bunnies for my beautiful twin nieces who are turning 2 in a few days. I made them using this awesome pattern, and have plans to make them some more clothes and friends in the future using the other patterns available on the site.

Words From The Void

Musings and General Randomness from A.J. Colby

Hello October!

‘Tis The Season Of Crafting