Out of Sync

Often, I find myself quite out of sync with the rest of the world.

Just as I'm settling into my home the week after Christmas...sitting back, relaxing and enjoying the tree and the festive glow that has overtaken my house...I see that my neighbors are already tossing their trees to the curb.  What?  I just put it up!  To me, Christmas just got here.  Yet the world seems to think that Christmas is over on December 26.  

And here I am on January 20, just finishing up the last of my Christmas posts, clearing the way for January.  And January is almost over.

And so this will be my last Christmas post and will officially close the Christmas season for me.  

Allow me to introduce you the little Crazy Elf I made for our annual Crazy Quilt holiday ornament exchange.

We each make an ornament, wrap it in plain white tissue and place it secretly in a basket.

I didn't get pics of all the ornaments this year but here is Mary and Bobbi with the ornaments they made for the exchange...

Mary made a crazy quilted Christmas cracker...

Simple but quite lovely and quick to complete.  She said she finished it in one day!  Sometimes simple is good around Christmas time.

On the opposite end of the simple spectrum, Bobbi made this CQ Parrot from the Amazon rainforest to commemorate her trip there last year.

I'm happy to say that this beautifully colorful bird has taken up roost in my Christmas tree...yes, it's still up.

I've received one of Bobbi's ornaments before.  You might remember the little jointed CQ bear I shared in this post?  Bobbi gives all those amigurumi artists a run for their money...though her art medium is crazy quilting, not knitting or crochet.

Unfortunately, when my friend Maureen unwrapped my elf, he was still in pieces.  So I brought him back home to get his act together.

Which required time.  It wasn't until after the New Year and the departure of the flu from our house that I finally finished him up...

I used the same pattern as the elves I made for my nieces...but this guy's face was borrowed from a vintage elf whose clothes were irreparable.

And it gives me great joy to work with my hands and without the pressure of a deadline.

And to take the time to find just the right "accessories" to give him personality...

Thank you Maureen for your patience.  One crazy elf is coming your way!

And thanks to the rest of you for continuing to celebrate Christmas made-by-hand which takes a bit longer than the commercial variety.

I remember I once started a bead journal piece called "Out of Sync".  I think I'll pull it back out after I've finished Mrs. Rose.

Happy January.

Kneehugger Elves

You might remember them?  They were really popular in the 1950s and 60s.

And when I was a kid, we had four kneehugger elves to place on our tree...one for myself, my older sister and my two younger brothers.

Mine was this red guy which still hangs on my tree today...

In recent years, the kneehugger elf has experienced a revival of sorts due to the popularity of The Elf on the Shelf book/doll set.

In my family, we exchange family names.  This year, I got my brother John's family and he has three girls.

It took me a few years to source out the vintage rubber faces for the elves but I finally had them for Christmas this year...

And made them each their own elf...

First, I worked out a pattern and made the bodies...

The faces did not have a neck or a back so I used a styrofoam ball to round out the head.  That ended up working out wonderfully because I could slip a bamboo skewer into the "head" to help connect it to the body.

A little stuffing, some simple sewing and folded paper to give the arms and legs dimension...

And the elves were mostly complete.

I embroidered monogram patches for each of the girls' elves...

And used fur from that old vintage hat I've been cutting apart over the years (I used that same fur on Kate Middleton's mitten last Christmas)...

Some jingle bells and mercury glass beads around the velvet collar...

And vintage millinery flowers, leaves and ornaments for a Christmas bouquet...

And my little elves were complete. 

I tucked a card into each of their boxes explaining the history and tradition of the kneehugger elf in our family...

They immediately remembered that their father's little green elf hangs on their tree at home.

I hope to make one for each of my nieces in the years to come...

Next time I'll show you the crazy version I made for our annual Crazy Quilting Ornament Exchange...

Happy day!