Monday 10 December 2012

Handmade Christmas - Part 1

Now that our youngest son's birthday has passed (last week) we are officially allowed to mention Christmas in our house!

So I decided to get a start on some of the handmade presents I am hoping to give this year. I have had lots of ideas spinning around in my head, but it is now boiling down to what I can get the appropriate supplies for locally and what I actually have time to do.

First up some pineapple chutney for my foodie son and daughter-in-law,

Before the big day I will search out some Christmas fabric and my pinking shears to make covers for the jars I promise!

Next up a bracelet from memory wire for my eldest son's girlfriend

This was actually a kit that I bought a couple of weeks ago and was so easy that I will definitely be out buying more memory wire soon. It must have taken all of 10 minutes in front of the television to do - definitely my kind of project :)

Finally I got around to using up some of my blocks from Quiet Play's Say Cheese Polaroid Block swap to make a doll quilt. The doll and quilt are for my niece's daughter, I am not quite sure what that makes me to her or her to me!




I had great fun sorting through the blocks I received picking out the girliest ones!

Now that I am finally reunited with my stash I had the ideal backing fabric - bright pink and flowery, not something I would normally use but perfect for this.

I hope she enjoys playing with this quilt as much as I have enjoyed making it.

Just in case you are thinking that I am really on top of things I am admitting to this disaster, a stollen that didn't rise!

 It wasn't entirely my fault as I went to what was billed as an "Edible Christmas Gifts" cookery class and we ran out of time to prove our stollens for the second time, which meant taking it home and having to leave it overnight to prove. I think the freezing cold journey home didn't do my poor stollen any favours and it could have doubled as a brick the next day!

Unfortunately the stollen wasn't the only disaster in the kitchen this weekend. I dropped my Christmas pudding when taking it out of the steamer (I know it should have been made weeks ago!) and the pudding basin cracked in two! Cue a hasty switch to another bowl, but I will only know on Christmas Day whether it survived the fall or not. I am hoping everyone will be so full of the festive spirit they won't actually notice that the pudding is a rather strange shape :)

Hopefully the next bout of handmade activity will be less disaster prone!

I hope your weekend was productive too.

13 comments:

  1. Poor sad stollen! I bet your pudding will be grand especially if you pour a lot of brandy over it:-) The rest of your makes look lovely!

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  2. Fingers crossed for your Christmas pud! I really like that bracelet - where did you get it? And I have that same floral fabric in my stash, I was thinking of making a summer dress for my wee girl with it but it looks cute as a quilt back!

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  3. I'm sure no one will notice the shape of the pudding by the time they've had a glass or two or... The doll quilt looks FABULOUS made from the polaroids. The bright binding really sets it off.

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  4. Oh dear! I hope the pudding survives - shame about the bowl!!

    Love your Polaroid doll quilt and I bet the recipient will too! It's very sweet!

    I'm impressed on how well you are doing with your handmade Christmas gifts!

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  5. Great Christmas gifts Fiona! Love that memory wire, and the Polaroid quilt is wonderful. Hope your pudding survived it's fall!

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  6. Lovely gifts! I see some of my squares in that polaroid quilt!

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  7. Pineapple chutney? Sounds interesting, which recipe did you use please? My daughter and I made our first ever Xmas pud on Sunday using the Mary berry recipe. It is nerve racking knowing you have to wait until Xmas day to know if if has cooked well!

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  8. Great job on the pressies, I'm saying nothing on the food ;o)

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  9. such lovely pressies! That i-spy quilt is so lovely, makes me wish I had a doll. Oh, hang on, no I don't, dolls creep me out!

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  10. Its the same in our house, it was my sons birthday yesterday! LOL at the stollen! and I am sure they won't notice a wonky christmas pud by the time they have had their full of christmas dinner and what not! just add extra brandy butter! the bracelet is beautiful and I love the doll quilt. Very cute.

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  11. Some lovely pressies there, I haven't tried pineapple chutney, it shounds yum. The bracelet is super, and I'm sure the Great Niece (yes really, you are a Great Aunt!) will lovethe doll and the quilt.

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  12. Such lovely presents I'm sure everyone will be so delighted. Sorry to hear about your kitchen mishaps. We all have those moments. The important thing is not to stress about it.

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  13. Testing for fix on no-reply

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