Handmade Holidays GenQ Style Part Deux!

So money concerns have not lessened for us this holiday season and I’ve been hitting the pedal pretty hard trying to make lots of presents for our loved ones. If you remember, I had a criteria list for the best kinds of projects to make. Here’s the recap from the Nov. 10 post:

• Have fast and simple construction techniques;
• Be attractive in design;
• Use mostly smaller pieces of fabrics;
• Be able to be constructed production-line style;
• Be useful and appreciated by the recipient;
• Make me proud to give to somebody.

So, after a little more than a month of sewing, here’s what I’ve got so far, and what I still have to do, with, oh, five days to go:

Well, that’s not entirely accurate. And no, the cute little kitty is not on the gift list. I just can’t seem to do a dang thing in my sewing room without company these days. That’s Jessie, BTW, and he’s claimed that fabric bowl for himself. But I’ve actually made 24 of them so far! I’m giving them in pairs, a larger version at 14″ and a smaller one at 12″. Each bowl is made with two fat quarters and fast2fuse heavyweight interfacing from C&T Publishing. I love this stuff! I’ve been using it for years and it can be used in so many different ways. The bowls are from Linda Johansen’s bestselling book, Fast, Fun & Easy Fabric Bowls, through C&T Publishing. It’s a few years old, but it’s still available in print and as an eBook. The bowls are super simple to put together, but the stitching does take time to do. I can do about six bowls in two hours, production line style. And, in my case, I had everything on hand to make these. Feels good to get rid of some of the fabric and thread shoved into the dark corners of my room!

I’m going to make two more sets and these babies will be handed out to those who are local to me because they are one pain in the butt to mail! But they are washable and reversible and can be used for lots of different decor purposes, as long as you’re not putting wet or oily things in them. Each one can be designed for your recipient’s decor or quirks, or you can just make some with holiday fabrics that work for most people.

For those many people in my life who require gifts to be mailed, I’m making potholders, starting tomorrow. I need about eight sets. I tracked down a simple, downloadable pattern from Keyka Lou and had the print out in my hands five minutes after PayPal-ing $5 to Keyka.  I LOVE DOWNLOADS! Talk about instant gratification! Keyka’s directions are clear and I can also make these babies in mass by cutting many layers at once. I’ll be giving two at a time to my buds and each set will be made from fabric that I think they will appreciate.

Finally, for the many many girls and young women in my life, I’m going to try to whip up (yeah, right) about a dozen of these nifty little Sonoma Swing Bags from Pink Sand Beach Designs.

These bags are made with Jelly Roll strips, something I have an abundance of around the BirdHouse (our name for our home). One Jelly Roll with 40 strips will glean me the makings for eight bags, plus some small amount of yardage to handle the lining. I’ve got zippers and buttons galore so I’m figuring that I won’t have to buy anything to do these either. These bags are the perfect size for a cell, iPod, keys and, in the case of my daughter, Littlest Pet Shop figures. Perfecto!

Lastly, there are a few gifts that don’t fit into these groups that also need to be made. They include three quilts, four framed pictures (from photos I’ve taken that came out really good, if I do say so myself), and my daughter’s purse that I started making eons ago. For the quilts, one was already a completed top from earlier this year, a second is a simple fusible jobby that won’t need to be finished until AFTER Christmas and the third is a Christmas/birthday present for my daughter’s best friend. For this quilt, I turned to my all-time favorite gift quilt pattern, the Yellow Brick Road from Atkinson Designs.  This classic fat-quarter pattern has probably paid for all of Terry’s kids to go through college. It’s incredibly fast to make up a small top and it gives sizing for baby- through king-sized quilts. I’ve made this so many times that I often say if it wasn’t for this pattern, no one would ever get a quilt from me! So that’s what I’m doing and in the span of two hours yesterday, I got all of the fabrics picked and the pieces cut. Since I’m doing a modification to the pattern, I’ll post pics at a later date so you can see where I went.

So we’ll see how far I get this week with a kid home from school and several other commitments looming. I predict some late night sewing–the best kind–and lots of panic. But, in the end, it will work out just fine, as long as I remember that it’s the journey that counts, not the destination. (Who the hell says things like that anyway? They must not have kids, or jobs, or cats, or lives!)

PARTING SHOTS: WHAT A SEWING ROOM LOOKS LIKE A WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS! (Cat not included.)