Posted on 14 Comments

Tie one on for Christmas

Ho ho ho! Can I interest you in a splash of Peppermint Schnapps?

No?? Have you ever tried this stuff? It’s like a liquid candy cane with a kick.  Christmas in a bottle.

Hmmm.  I get the sense that you are actually here to “tie one on” in the apronish sense of the phrase, and not the boozy one.  Suit yourself.  Both can be fun.  And combining the two is an absolute blast.  (er, or so I hear…)

It was actually last week that I cut out the pieces for the apron and then got the urge for a coordinating button.  Nothing I already had was really appropriate, so I dug three primary-esqe colors and white out of the creative rubble on my work table and whipped up six colors to match those in the “merry christmas” fabric.

I could have gotten all fancy with the millefiori, but I felt that the main fabric was busy enough and simple would be better.  So stripes it was.  Here are a few tips if you find yourself in a similar situation:

  1. As long as you have the supplies out, why stop at one?  Make as many buttons as your cane will allow.  Even if you don’t use them all now, you might be able to use them later, or sell them.
  2. Nothing is simpler to make than stripes when you’re in a hurry, and they always look so striking.
  3. I lied. Dots are easier than stripes, particularly if you don’t have a pasta machine and/or you are new at this whole clay thing. (I wrote a whole beginner tutorial based on that premise). I whipped up this dotted button while waiting for the oven to heat up.

In the end, the striped button captured my heart and the dotted button went in the box with the extra striped ones to await sanding, buffing, and use in some other project someday.

After I made the apron, I worked on a table runner for the kitchen.  (Strictly speaking, after I made the apron, I played dress-up, had a fatigue-and-diet-induced meltdown, ordered a pepperoni pizza for supper, ate a few slices of pizza, felt much better, and then worked on the table runner.)

It doesn’t exactly lay flat, but if I put enough stuff on top of it nobody needs to know.  Here it is, with and without stuff on top of it (hover your cursor over the image to see it both ways – fun, huh?)

My favorite way to cope with crafty mistakes is to hide them 😀

It feels good to have those sewing projects out of the way.  They’ve been on my mind since last Christmas.  I guess having the festivities at my house has given me the kick in the pants that I needed!

Now. Where did I put that Schnapps??

P.S. The fabric used here is from Anna Griffin’s Mackenzie Christmas collection.

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Posted on 14 Comments

14 thoughts on “Tie one on for Christmas

  1. Adorable!

  2. wow! so pretty and just the job for cooking Christmas lunch – great combination of colours.
    Happy weekend.

    1. Thank you – I really think it works with the black dress. I’ll probably wear that, too 🙂

  3. RT @lclarke522: New blog post: Tie one on for Christmas http://bit.ly/g6ocsU

  4. You are so cute! Have a New Year resolution for you.

    “Don’t put it down, put it away!”

    Merry Christmas to you and yours!

    from probably the oldest person on your list of admirers at 82.

    1. That is definitely a resolution I should take to heart! Thanks for passing it along. And as long as my 91-year-old grandmother doesn’t count, then maybe you are my oldest admirer 🙂 Thanks for dropping by, commenting, and being so sweet! Merry Christmas!

  5. I took an up close look at the table runner and you don’t have any quilting on it. not that you have to– but it might help with the not laying straight thing. easy enough to do –send it through the machine with a straight stitch 1/4 inch away from the seams. either side, or both or random..whatever suits you! love the fabric-bubbly or not. as for the minty minty– was that partaken before or after the stitching? lol

    1. If only the Schnapps was consumed before the stitching, then I’d have a real excuse 😀 I considered quilting it, but there’s no batting inside. Would that still work? I’m also thinking that it might make it even more wonky to quilt it, since the reason it’s puckery to begin with is that there is more fabric on the back than there is on the front (poor measuring on my part). Ah well, if I’m going to mess with it at all, it’ll be next year. This year, I’m content to just put things on top of it!

  6. Hee hee…I vote for having peppermint schnapps with my hot cocoa:) Yummers!

    1. Ooh, yum. I have been enjoying a little dribble with my coffee in the evenings. Quite good.

  7. Lisa,
    That schnapps will kill you if you don’t watch out, because it goes down too easily. OTOH, you might come up with some new, albeit less precise caning designs.

    I’ll bet that schnapps would be good over vanilla ice cream and then topped with real hot fudge sauce.

    Heathens Greetings! Martha

    1. Ooh, that ice cream sounds really really good.
      Caning under the influence, eh? The inebriation factor could be just what my recent designs have been lacking. This may call for a scientific experiment 😉

  8. Get out the glasses Lisa, I’m coming over!!! 🙂 Merry Christmas to your kids, your hubby and darling self! It has been a pleasure spending internet time with you this year!

    1. Thank you! It’s been a pleasure on my end, too! Merry Merry!

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