Paper and Threads

I have made Christmas Ornaments for Friends and Family since 1976 and I spent many days in the last 10 days making these Seminole Patchwork Hearts for our childrens' trees, all of our 8 grandchildren for future trees of their own, and friends.  Each year I enjoy getting out the big box of handmade ornaments, each of which is full of Christmas memories.

I will still follow the latest Covid news over the next few weeks, but I don't think there will be any major drug or vaccine news.  I will therefore take a break until Wed. January 5th.  This week the FDA approved the Paxlovid EUA and finally approved the Molnupiravir EUA, but I've already reported on both of those drugs and they won't be available yet.  New York City is in the middle of a frightening surge in cases, and there is no data yet on the number of unvaccinated, vaccinated, and boosted. We are planning to remain home enjoying the season, and doing lots of reading near the Christmas tree. 

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We had a very quiet Christmas.  Since the pandemic first began we limited our time out of the apartment and have only seen our NYC children and grandchildren for limited times - on the sidewalk in front of our apartment, on socially distanced blankets on the grass in Central Park twice, or when they drive past to leave or pickup items.  ZOOM to the rescue!

We do have a Christmas Tree and enjoyed two full days reading and listening to classical Christmas music in the living room. next to the tree.  It was a change from our pandemic reading/TV room so it was special.  I'm posting a photo of the tree, with ornaments I made over almost 4 decades.  And I included a close-up photo of the ornament I made for this year.  I made 12 - and everyone in the family has one or will have one. 

This ornament was made from my watercolor painting.  I cropped and sized it so I could fit 4 images onto a plastic backed 8.5 x 11" sheet of fabric which I then printed in our ink jet printer. I used 3 sheets for the 12 images and then used regular sewn techniques to make each one.  Our oldest son ran across town yesterday to pick up 8 for his and his sister's family when the rain stopped.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and a healthy 2021. 

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Last year I made January a sewing month during my free time.  I was able to work on many projects and had great fun.  This year I decided that I would do it again, but unfortunately have had a bad viral bronchitis that slowed me down. 

I needed to replace a Souleiado (French Provincial Fabric) make-up pouch that was over 25 years old and while making it I wanted to learn how to make a pouch with zipper tabs.  Fortunately there are great videos online which makes it easy to learn!  This is the inside of the first pouch I made and one of the zipper tabs can be seen just to the right  of the zipper tab.  The pouches are lined and have batting between the outer and inner fabrics.

During bronchitis week I made 3 more pouches with zipper tabs, figuring out how to change the size of the zippers, with their tabs, and the pouches. 

I still don't feel normal, and in fact this blog post should have been posted last Friday.  But my oldest son gave me a quilt I made for him 35 years ago to mend.  That project was perfect for this long holiday weekend because I could sit comfortably and stabilize the patchwork with hand sewing while I recuperated.  

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A Prime Time Workshop at the Museum of Modern Art was held this week, and they presented images of art works made with textiles that currently on display.  Then a museum educator at the museum gave us a pile of fabric scraps, cardboard, colored tapes, and string, yarn, cords, and wire.  We had Tacky Glue, a palette knife, scissors, and newsprint as tools. and had about 90 minutes to create something, anything. 

I always wanted to make collages similar to Hannalore Baron and Kurt Schwitters, and created two pieces.  It is so much fun to have limited supplies, a time limit, and no pressure.  There were 15 people in our group and there were 15 totally different works of art! 

Here is the second, smaller one. 

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This morning I put all of the ornaments I made since 1976 on our Christmas Tree.  I have so many memories as I add each one.  Each year I made approximately 24 - one for each of our children, one for our tree, and 20 to give away as small gifts.  I race against the clock to make them now, and I make the same one for each of our 8 grandchildren, one for us, and a few spares.

Our grandson Callum likes to look at their tree and ours, and pick out one that the children don't have yet.  This year he wanted an ornament with a pair of embroidered cats.  But we settled on one cat per ornament.  Here is my work in progress.  The pair of cats is the original - made in 1983 and yellowed with age - like us! 

I sketched the pattern from a 1981 issue of Holiday Crafts, and saved the patterns. 

Years ago I made a Teesha Moore 16 page watercolor pamphlet book from a single 22 X 30" sheet of 140lb paper and started to draw and paint all of my handmade ornaments.  I now have 45 painted in the book and need to make another book.

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