Little Gifts and a Whole Lot of Fun

Make and takes

The day after Thanksgiving was the owner of Quilting Delights birthday. This year, she invited her customers to participate in make and takes for a small fee. She had two machine embroidery designs on Friday (her actual birthday) and two designs on Saturday.

The first day, you could choose to stitch a mini stocking gift card holder and/or a small zipper purse. Both machine embroidery projects were completed in the hoop. I made two stockings because I couldn't have a little stocking for one grand and not the other! I relearned how to transfer a design to my machine and how to make minor edits--like changing the name. It was a good project to practice thinking about the order of how the steps should be accomplished! As I finished, I thought that if one added a ribbon loop, the stocking could also be an ornament. Then I decided that I should purchase the design because these would be fun to give as well as look nice as an embellishment to a package or dress up the holiday table as a placeholder.

More mini stockings

The small zipper purse used a lot of thread as the mesh front is all thread. Again, I decided that this would be a good project for future gifts so I also purchased that design too! When I make these, I will play a bit with the process. I think that if the fabric has a little stabilizer, it will feel a bit more sturdy.

I had so much fun playing that I decided to return the second day. We made a gift tag and a scissors holder. I have a similar shaped gift tag that I could add the design that we made or I could make the design into an ornament. The scissors holder is really practical and I may make those as gifts for next year!

Since then, I've made a number of mini stockings which I plan to use as part of the Christmas place setting. I've a few ideas of what can go in the mini stockings; but, need to come up with a few more thoughts! My friend Gail came for a sew day and I asked her to bring four pieces of felt. . .

Gail and her mini stockings!

Long story short, I gave her a couple more pieces of felt and she stitched three mini stockings for her grands! She was as exuberant during the stitching process as Miss A was with the embroidered butterflies. I do understand because watching the needle create the pattern with the thread does feel magical!

These projects weren't part of my fourth quarter list; but, I've given myself permission to start new projects too. These were a fun diversion and this is just the season to be stitching stockings!