So this year I had a brilliant idea - I decided to make gifts for everyone for Christmas. Unfortunately, I didn't actually get started on most until around Thanksgiving, so I had a pretty stressful month. Nevertheless, I finished (most of) what I planned, so here are all the things I made...
I made a nativity set for my sis-in-law. She collects nativity sets, and this one was pretty cute. This was one thing I didn't finish, but it's ok...I still have 3 wise men, an angel, and some animals to make, but I figured Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus was a good start.
My nephew loves the Zelda games, and so I made him a Link. His sword came out a little wonky, but my nephew is 8 so he doesn't really care. He even slept with Link last night, so that made me feel good.
My 15-year-old niece designed what I've been calling Hola Kitty and Chola Kitty and asked me to make it, so that was one of her gifts. I gave it the hair like she wanted, and the clothes, but I couldn't bring myself to add the heavy eye makeup that my niece drew on the original design. A hello kitty with hair already looked odd enough. I'm not even sure how you would add heavy eyeliner to this. So I just didn't. My niece seemed happy with it, which is the important part.
My 3-year-old nephew is obsessed with the Cars movies, especially Lightning McQueen. I was shocked that I couldn't find a pattern for a crochet McQueen. I found a basic car pattern instead, and altered it. I made it a little longer and added a spoiler, as well as the eyes and lightning bolts. I absolutely hate the way the windows look, but oh well. My nephew recognized it right away, and proceeded to run over the baby Jesus I made while yelling "Muh-bean!", and his opinion is the one that counts.
I have another niece who loves animals. She has a pet turtle (who is adorable at about 2 inches long, by the way), so I almost made her a turtle. My daughter, however, insisted that she'd prefer a cat, so that's what she got. I totally guessed at where to make the color changes, since they weren't included in the pattern, so the colors look a little weird. Also, it came out oddly lumpy and I put the ears on a bit crooked, so I told my niece it was a diseased cat. I think I'd like to try that pattern again.
When my 5-year-old niece saw me working on Chola Kitty for her older sister, she requested a toy, too, even though I made her a mermaid this summer. She informed me that she wanted a white unicorn with pink hair and wings, and then insisted on picking out the pattern. She picked out this slightly encephalitic-looking unicorn. She was very disappointed to find out that she couldn't have it until Christmas - but I didn't even finish it until two weeks ago.
For another sister-in-law, I had no idea what to make. I honestly couldn't think of anything she would like. Finally I settled on the classic snowflake ornament; I've always loved them, and the ones my grandma made are special to me. I wanted to be able to make something like that to share. This one came out much smaller than I expected, but I was still happy with it. It was only the second one I ever made, and the first using this particular pattern. Maybe I'll work on several different snowflakes in the next few months, since I think they're really neat.
As soon as I saw this pattern, I had to try it. I immediately thought that both of my brothers would like it, so I figured I could give it to one of them. Then one of them saw it, and I decided the other was getting it. Apparently he was pretty excited, too; we all watched Gremlins together just last week, and he was thinking about how much he always wanted a toy Gremlin as a kid - only he didn't say anything. So opening his gift a few days later and finding Stripe shocked him; he thought I read his mind!
My other brother lucked out; I wanted to make a TARDIS quilt, and I knew he loved Doctor Who, and I knew it would be perfect for him. Of course, it would have been perfect for a few other people in my family, too, but I had other ideas for everyone but Jesse. This project took me a little over 2 weeks after work and on weekends, and I lost a lot of sleep working on it. I wanted to keep it for myself. I absolutely love it.
I found a design on deviantart that I liked, and I based my design on that. I was making things up as I went, I made several mistakes, and I found a whole lot of things that I'd do differently if I did it again, but I'm super happy with it. If I had had more time, I would have loved to actually quilt it instead of just tie it. Well, if I had had more time and a quilting machine - no way I'm doing that much by hand. It's a queen-size quilt! The "POLICE BOX" wording at the top was painted on with fabric paint, and the sign on the door was printed on printable fabric and then sewn on. The backing is a fabric I found on the fabulous site Spoonflower, which is like Cafe Press for fabric. I embroidered "To Jesse, From Keri 2011" on the back before putting it all together. I remember finding something like that when I was a little kid on a quilt that my great-grandmother made, and I thought that was a great idea, so I've always "signed" my quilts that way. Of course, this is only the 4th one I've made.
I also made a brown scarf for my brother-in-law, but I don't have pics of it. I gave away my Flying Spaghetti Monster and my 10th Doctor that I made previously. And last, I drew this picture for my in-laws, of their dogs:
And I think that's everything I made for Christmas. Pretty much.
