Infusing Meaning

How can I get away with writing about Christmas ornaments (again) in mid-February? Well, someone said Happy New Year to me last week, so I'm hoping I have a little leeway here.

I do a secret santa exchange with a few friends every year. This year I ordered some earrings for my giftee from Etsy. I waited and waited, and began to wonder where the hell they were - our exchange was in only a few days! So I went to my account, and it said my order had shipped the day after I ordered it (yay!) - from Tel Aviv (not yay). I'm not sure if you know this, but Israel is really far away. So that's why it was taking so long...

I didn't want to be the girl who wraps up a picture of her gift, with an apologetic promise of its impending arrival. So I decided that something handmade might be better anyways, and the earrings could follow, whenever.  I used a pattern that I bought about a year ago (again, from Etsy, I'm so original) for a pear ornament.

JZG are the initial's of my friend's 17 month old son, Jackson. I embroidered the letters on, with a simple backstitch in thread. I think the colors go nicely together, and I enjoy the irony (if that's the right word) of having a citrus print on a pear.

The stem and leaf are felt, with some embroidery - the stem rolled in on itself and closed with a blind stitch. I learned how to do a blanket stitch for the edge of the leaf. I'm particularly pleased with how the leaf turned out - it curled like that all on its own.

Here it is on my tree before it went to it's forever home.

That's a heart, if you can't tell.

A week later the earrings came (with some fun Israeli stamps), and those went to my friend. She and her husband enjoyed the ornament so much (and I had such fun making it) that I made another. This time it was for a friend of mine who has a 6 month old son named Harper.

The two reds are alllllmost the same  - I like that if you squint, it "reads" as all red.

This time I had begun to think about starting this blog, so I took a few pictures of the process, with a post in mind. Not enough for a tutorial though (and anyway I don't feel comfortable doing that, since somebody worked hard to make the pattern and very much deserved to get paid for it). One day when I'm fancy, make my own patterns, and sew blindfolded or whatever I'll totally put that up here.

Marking with pencil where the embroidery will go, and cutting out all six segments.

Pinning printed sides together.

One of my discoveries during this project was the true joy of making something completely unique, by hand, and giving it to people I love. These little pears will hang on the Christmas trees of my friends for years to come. It's this kind of project that keeps me motivated to continue crafting, and to make it not only fun, but meaningful.