Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Craft Wrap-Up

So I promised a post of the holiday crafting that I did and here it is! First up, this year 'the kids' gave my mom a trial subscription to one of the local CSAs here in San Diego. To go along with it, we picked up some reusable grocery bags. In order to spice them up a bit, I drew some common grocery items on the large grocery bags and various fruits and veggies on the produce bags.

The canvas weave actually made it really easy to free hand relatively straight lines. I used a pencil to draw out my picture and then I went over and colored in each bag with permanent fabric markers. I'm happy with how they came out except for the broccoli bag...I meant to make the stalks lighter and the tops darker (you know, like real broccoli), but I had already colored in the stalks when I realized I messed up. Oh well! :-P

As for other gifts, I also made a few modified versions of the Relaxing Eye Pillow from Denise Schmidt Quilts. I didn't both with all the patchwork pieces because honestly, it seemed like a lot of precise work for something that was supposed to look like it was patched together haphazardly. I ended up making three pillows like the one laying flat in the photo with a pieced top and a solid back. I also made another 4 pillows with solid tops and bottoms.

All the pillows were made out of scraps I had on hand so the only expense was the flax seed and buckwheat for the filling. All in all, these probably cost me about $1 each to make. It also took every ounce of restraint I had not to mention that to all the recipients...especially since several of them went to the partners at my firm! But I did good and when they thanked me and told me how much they liked them, I managed to avoid telling them they were made from scraps and cost me practically nothing :-P

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So cute! Yeah...with all the other holiday projects I ended up with, decorating my canvas bags fell by the wayside, as did my intentions for eye pillows. Oh well. I can enjoy the cuteness of yours! Well done!

Nasus said...

Adorable!!

mle said...

Well, if it makes you feel better, I knew it was broccoli the minute I saw it! What a great idea for a gift!

And the eye pillows are so cute! I love when you can make meaningful but economical gifts!

Jennifer said...

I love the totes and the eye pillows! Gifts that cost next to nothing but are made with care are the best ones.

Crazy Knitting Fool said...

I love the bags! You are not alone though, I would have wanted to tell everyone how cheap they were too!

Anonymous said...

Those grocery bags are super cute! I didn't notice the broccoli colors until you mentioned it, but I think they're still identifiable. I've always liked how broccoli look like little trees, but then again I was one of those weird kids who always ate her veggies.