Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Christmas dolls

Fall decorations are back in the attic and the huge plastic tubs of Christmas stuff - all 10 of them - are all over the living room floor. The large artificial tree - the bottom tier anyway - is in the stand waiting for me to arrange the limbs. I have a severe allergy to real evergreens - put one in the house and you'd swear I had pneumonia within 5 days - so we have the nicest artificial trees we could find. We have a little tree for the family room upstairs too, which is usually the last thing decorated. I'm really late getting this done this year - everything is usually up by December 1st. Rebecca and Rick are coming over tonight and will help us with the decorating.

I do have lots of pictures from prior years - that's what I've been posting - so I'll still put up a few at a time. The first is a Santa I made probably 10 years ago. We had a very talented lady in Tangled Threads for awhile who made all sorts of wonderful things. She made these Santas one year and sold them to Nordstrom - who sold them for $250 each. She helped us all make our own. Mine is a Woodland Santa with a forest green wool coat trimmed in rich dark fur. His pack is a red plaid wool. Real wool is used on his beard, hair and eyebrows. He stands about 18" tall. Karen painted the faces for us - thank goodness! We spent 3 weeks making these and they were so much fun to do!

I made the second Santa over 20 years ago in a class at a local shop. The shop was a "precursor" of today's quilt shops - fabrics, country crafts, etc. He was lots of fun to do - especially because I didn't have to paint his face either - it's stenciled.

I made dozens of these bears in two sizes when I was doing bazaars - this one is the only one I have left. He's made from white wool and mohair coat fabric - wonderful stuff that retailed for $27 a yard in the mid 80's. I bought it when it was on sale and was able to make over 20 bears per yard. I still have some of the fabric - in camel's hair brown also - so one of these days I'll make more bears for myself. The little angel came from another crafts booth at one of the bazaars. I love her moss hair and doily wings.

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Gratitudes:

1. Pizza for Christmas decorating dinner - mine will be weight watchers.
2. The scale says 4 pounds down this morning! I weigh every day because it keeps me on track.
3. Lunch out with my current and future supervisors today.
4. Rebecca and Rick have moved to #10 on the adoption list!
5. Icy blue winter skies

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You do inspire me to get my decorations up and to make more things myself to decorate with.............

Anonymous said...

I'm with Suze...your bear and Santa are gorgeous! Love that Country Threads pattern too. Your Christmas 9-patch is beautiful! I really need to get busy decorating but I just can't seem to settle into any sort of groove this week for running out to appts. Maybe I can get the rest of the lights on the tree and some decorations on it this weekend. :)

Anonymous said...

4 pounds is outstanding! And moving up on the adoption list is just the most wonderful news!

Anonymous said...

Love the Santas -- looking forward to seeing more *s* It's funny how the Christmas collection can grow. I was shocked when Hubby pulled down SEVEN boxes from the rafters.

Anonymous said...

Hi, great about the 4 pounds and you do anything you can that motivates and gets results. My sister and I are currently on a 2 month who can lose the most competition. We both know unless there are measurements, digital comparison photos, and prizes we just wont worry about it!
Love all those great decorations, mine are spread over the lounge floor! Tracey

Anonymous said...

love the wintergreen santa. reminds me of a santa I made for my mom many years ago... May have to see if she still has him and "rescue him"

Anonymous said...

I love to see how you are decorating your house - so far all I have up is an advent calendar, a ceramic christmas tree candle holder and a twig type decoration with a few baubles hanging off it. I'm hoping if you post more pics it will inspire me to get up to the loft this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Love the bear. I've made flannel bears in the past using a similar pattern. They are always big hits because of their soft and cuddly nature.