The Gift Of Giving

A few years back, I heard a woman in a yarn shop say, "I'm not spending $50 on yarn to knit my grandchild something that will just go in a drawer." That still makes me sad. Because I have dearly beloved handmade gifts in a drawer, where they make me smile every time I see them, and others in the cedar chest as befits family heirlooms. And I bet you do, too.

This is the last pair of crocheted slippers I got from my grandma. I can't tell you how many pairs I wore out. But these I stopped wearing before they wore out so I could save them. I don't remember why I knew they would probably be the last pair, but I did. Picture me smiling every time I see them.

This may be the first pair of crocheted slippers I got from my grandma. I don't remember ever wearing them (obviously). But my mother saved them, and a few years ago they moved from her cedar closet to my cedar chest (which, no surprise, was hers before it was mine).

This came with them. And yes, it's stained. The ribbon is broken and frayed. And it still makes me smile.

Whether you're giving or receiving, a hand-made present gives to both the recipient and the giver. Otherwise, no one would ever make a quilt for anyone but a quilter, or knit a sweater for anyone but a knitter -- someone who can appreciate how much time and effort goes into making a gift.

Right now I'm tucked in under a Christmas quilt that was a gift made by my sister-in-law. She's getting this year's big gift in a small package. It's far from perfect. And it's not quite as large as it might have been, but I think it will stretch out large enough to keep the heron out of her koi pond without distracting from her beautiful flowers.

It was too snowy and windy yesterday to try spreading it out outside. I tried to stretch it out in the basement, but couldn't get it spread out fully without walking on it. I guess we'll find out in the spring if it's large enough, because I think her koi pond got covered with 20 inches of snow yesterday.

Bill and I are self-employed, so we spend time making things when other people might spend that time at a job earning money so they can spend time shopping for gifts. But what we get from making gifts is priceless.

With this one, I get to be an unseen presence in my sister-in-law's garden while she's weeding with her granddaughter -- something I live too far away to do in person. I got to have a conversation with my husband about nets, snares, and fishing (which is practically a religion in his family). I got to improve my skills at problem-solving when netting with a challenging material (bonded nylon instead of my usual linen or hemp). And I had time to reflect on all the treasures my sister-in-law has given me over the years, the greatest of which is her friendship and love.

I hope this season of giving has given you great  joy in the making, and that what you've made puts smiles on the faces of those you love for many years to come. Happy Holidays!

P.S. If you're not on my email list and would like to be, you can sign up here. I included a free printable "made by" tags file in the last one I sent out, which you can find here.

The Season Of Excess Expectation

I'm not talking about kids and toys or teens and electronics. I'm talking about how much I think I can get done in the time available. Specifically, how fast I think I can work to get the last gift finished and in the mail before Christmas. You probably have your own version of this holiday classic.

For the record, I love making gifts. But yes, I suffer from Excess Expectation. My expectations didn't seem so excessive when I made the plan. After all, Bill and I sort of takes turns on making the majority of our holiday gifts, and this year is his year. I did help him cut copper pipe one day while he assembled and soldered.

He also made gifts for all the young fishermen, and I just made little bags from recycled T-shirts to hold them. Easy peasy -- something I could do while watching a movie.

For my mom, I made a bag of stationery from fabric scraps in my Black Hole.

They're still on dial-up, so no worries about letting the cat out of the bag. The bag for the stationery I made with fabric I designed and had printed on Spoonflower from a photo I took of my mom's old Singer sewing machine. That's the machine I started sewing on. One of the first things she had me do, lo these many years ago, was stitch on heavy paper. I had major flashbacks while stitching 24 pieces of stationery.

Dad is also getting a gift made with Spoonflower fabric. This one is made from a photo I took of a wooden serving tray he made years ago (there's a photo of the tray at the link). I made a drawstring dresser caddy that folds flat when not in use.

There were a few more small gifts on my to-do list that I can't show just yet. The chances of those beloved young people reading my blog are slim, but it is possible.

And really, with Bill doing so many of our gifts, I figured there would be plenty of time for me to make this gift for his sister (who does read this blog, but also knows what the gift is because we talked about it and she gave me the measurements).

When it's done, this gift will measure 8 feet by 12 feet. It's a piece of netting to spread over their koi pond to keep the neighborhood heron from eating the fish.

When it's done, it will have taken less time than knitting a sweater or crocheting an afghan. But it's taking longer than I estimated, mainly because of the materials I'm using. I usually net with linen or hemp and for this project I'm using bonded nylon. If When I'm not careful, the knots slip.

This net won't be perfect, but it will do the job. It's designed to do it unobtrusively so as not to distract from the flower garden around the pond.

With a bit of luck, it will be in the mail in time to arrive Christmas Eve. But before it goes, we're getting a picture of it spread out. Will probably have to do that outside.

Good luck with your own holiday preparations!

Leftovers Again? It's A Gift

Sometimes, a little of this and a little of that turns out to be just the right amount when you combine them. That's what I did with the dregs of several natural dyebaths. I can't tell you what all was in the concoction I used it to top-dye some yarn I bought at a garage sale. I can tell you I like the color now much better than the original garish red. That red skein will get overdyed shortly. In fact, I have a whole box of yarns set aside to overdye.

With holiday gift-making about to come to the top of my to-do list, I stashed another box by my sewing table. It's full of leftovers and unfinished demo pieces from this teaching season. That box is bigger than my "Black Hole," but I'm going to treat it sort of the same way: Set a timer, reach in, grab materials, make something. I don't expect to finish everything I start, or that they'll all be gift-worthy. But I'm feeling a need to limit the time I spend sorting through materials. Sometimes, that's just stalling.

More leftovers went into this quilted cuff I made for my sister. And a piece I made for my mom's birthday but forgot to photograph.

Can you guess what we had for supper?

Spoonflower Fat Quarter Sale Announced

I'm all packed up for my last teaching travel date for 2012. My studio is clean, swept, and the sewing table is cleared off. When I get home, I have two baby gifts to make and I want to plan my holiday sewing before (drum roll) the Spoonflower fat quarter sale starts next week. They just announced it: The annual two-for-one fat quarter sale starts Thursday, October 25th, 2013 (8am EST) and ends Wednesday, October 31st (10pm EST).

Donna Kallner's Bananafana fabric collection on Spoonflower

The Bananafana collection above is one I designed this summer for a baby gift (fingers crossed that bun stays in the oven a few more weeks). Having no idea what colors or designs to use, I went to my niece-in-law's Pinterest boards and found yellow and gray. Gotta love Pinterest for that. Before holiday making starts, I'd sure like to know if there's a Pinterest equivalent for teenage boys.

Donna Kallner & Mary Sue Fenner

Back to Spoonflower. Mary Sue Fenner and I both taught for the Michigan League of Handweavers in August. I sold a bunch of my Spoonflower proofing swatches from the old color profile while I was there. Then in September at the Sievers Gathering, Mary Sue hands me a bag with this awesome collage vest made from my Spoonflower fabric!

Vest pattern is Vogue 8777

Mary Sue made the vest from t-shirt fabric with the cotton fabrics collaged on as raw edge applique. It's very comfy and the shaping in the back was really flattering on everyone who tried it on. And it's totally my style! I ordered the pattern as soon as I got home from Sievers.

But that will have to wait. Baby gifts first!

Thrifty Gifts For Mom And Moi

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of a cone of silk noil I bought at a garage sale. Yesterday, I dyed yarn for a Mother's Day gift I need to get started PDQ. The little rice steamer I bought at a thrift shop to use for natural dyeing also works like a charm for small-batch steaming of acid dyes.

And I finally finished and blocked a gift for myself that I've been working on off-and-on for more than a year. This freeform looping vest was made from cotton yarn I got from my sister-in-law's BFF after she cleaned out a relative's estate. I overdyed the yarn in the indigo vat.

My closer-to-my-size dress form (bought at a garage sale) is still in a local store displaying willow-dyed scarves I have for sale there. This smaller dress form, also from a garage sale, is at least four sizes different from me, so the back looks almost bell-like on her.

On me, though, it skims right where I wanted it to skim, and I love the cross-knit looping edging.

I make a lot of stuff I use, and a lot of class samples. Sometimes, those are one and the same, like this little pouch I made working along with students in the current session of my New Age Looping Basics eCourse. It now holds the card reader for my computer.

But the freeform vest is the largest project I've made just for myself and just because in a long time. It's too casual to be impressive, and 99.9% of the world will look at it and assume it's crochet. I don't care. I'm a jeans-and-boots kind of girl, and I love it.

I phoned Mom to tell her I finished a gift for myself so hers might be a little late (since I hadn't started it yet). She said, "I know you'll enjoy wearing it as much as I enjoy wearing the things you make for me." She's right.

I'll keep you posted on what I'm making with the silk noil. In the meantime, if you're looking for an idea for your own gift-making, here's a link to last year's how-to on the Mother's Day Corsage-ish.

Honestly, most of the time I get more enjoyment out of making gifts for other people than out of anything I make just for myself. But I'm feeling pretty special because someone who really knows me and is exactly the same size and shape as I am spent all this time on a gift for moi. I might do it more often.

You could inspire me to do that. So tell me: What's the best gift you ever made for yourself, or one you're working on or planning?

An Heirloom Apron And A Question

Do you have some textile treasure so infused with love it transcends its practical, functional origins and qualifies as an heirloom? When these things come into your keeping, it makes you think about the time and effort that went into their making, and maybe the tools used to create them.

Tatting by Bessie Cooper

Last week my mother gave me her organza apron trimmed with tatting. This is the kind of apron worn at holiday dinners after all the messy preparation work was done, or while serving cake and punch at bridal showers.  My grandmother did the tatting and made that apron, probably before I was born. I can only imagine how long it took her to tat that edging, in between milking cows twice a day, doing farm chores, keeping a big garden, and fixing three meals a day.

Along with the apron, mom gave me Grandma's tatting shuttle. No gold coin could have felt more precious than that shuttle when Mom pressed it into my palm. I never saw Grandma use it, not that I recall. Instead, her hands were usually busy with a crochet hook during my visits. But I do remember my mother talking about how that shuttle flew in her mother's hands -- and how much work it was to wash and stretch those lace curtains. My mom does not love the act of tatting, yet that shuttle is the artifact she's treasured all these years in remembrance of her mom.

You may have textile treasures you're planning to pass down some day. They may even be things you made yourself. But here's my question: Have you ever given the tool used to make the piece along with the gift?

Holiday Gift Wrap-Up #4 -- Bags For Boys

For my last post on holiday gifts I couldn't show until after surprise was taken out of the equation, I present a pair of boy gifts and a plea: One of these boys has a birthday coming up, and I need help with ideas!

You may recall that, as a maker, I find boy gifts more of a challenge than girl gifts. Never having been a boy, never having had a brother, never having lived with a teenage boy -- that all seems to makes it tougher. My gift vision is clouded with memories of what these male creatures liked when they were 5, what I see on TV, and how much I want them to love us our gifts. In other words, reality doesn't play much of a role here.


Luckily, economics does. And we don't have the money to buy safe things like gift cards. So it's simple: We have to find something to make, and it has to fit into our no-budget.

So I picked up a few extra T-shirts from the R&R bin at Bethesda (25 cents apiece). From that stash I made the two boys four drawstring stuff sacks each. I had a spool of cording on hand, but for the smaller ones I just cut strips of fabric from the T-shirts and stretched it out to make cording.

I also made each of them a 4-layer velcro-closed 2-pocket pouch. How they'll use them remains to be seen, but they were fun to make.

In just a few weeks, I'll need another boy gift for the 15-year-old's birthday. No ideas whatsoever. Suggestions, please!?! Pretty please? Hit the Comments link and tell me what you think. It won't be just me who appreciates it :)

Holiday Gift Wrap-Up #3 -- A Stretch

Like the other girl gift I showed earlier in the week, this present included a pair of fingerless mitts made from upcycled fabric. And as usual, I learned some things making in the process of making this gift.

The fabric was a polyester stretch velvet in the form of a too-small short-sleeved mock turtleneck I bought at a thrift store a while back because I liked the color. Might have paid 50 cents. My very limited experience with machine sewing on a) velvet and b) stretchy velvet convinced me to keep my plan simple.

So I cut a pair of simple mitts from the shirt using a pattern I made from lightweight non-stretchy interfacing (also thrifted, by the way).

If you look closely at the left mitt, the seam fell on the palm instead of along the outside edge of the hand. Yup, I should have cut a full-size sample from an old T-shirt or other stretchy fabric to test the pattern before I cut the velvet. Oh, well. I fiddled with the placement of the thumb hole, recut the pattern, made a sample!!, and got back to work.

There was still enough fabric to cut another pair of fingerless mittens. They're a little shorter than the pattern. That's just the way my family likes 'em.

With the rest of the fabric, I pieced together a little hat, pinning and seaming to the intact mock T, which had plenty of stretch to become a hat band. With the wonky piecing, I didn't have to worry about the nap of the fabric.

I covered the back seam of the mock T with a little fabric flower pieced together from scraps and sewn on by hand.

My older-than-me Singer never handled knits well, so I gave up sewing them years ago. My newer hand-me-down Singer doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles (and I can't drop the feed dogs), but it handles knits much better.

These mitts were hemmed with a decorative stitch. The hat was put together with zigzag stitching. I'd been fantasizing about getting a sewing machine that would make free-motion stitching easier. Now I'm kind of thinking a serger would be fun.

But for now, I can do everything I need to do with the machine I have. It's just a tool. If I didn't have a machine, I could have stitched this gift by hand.

More important than the tool is the habit of sampling: I should practice what I preach!

Holiday Gift Wrap-Up #2 -- Glove Love

Girl gifts are soooo much fun to make! For Christmas, the 16-year-old on our gift list got a pair of shabby-chic fingerless mittens made from old T-shirts.

One of my favorite speakers last summer at the Surface Design Association conference in Minneapolis was Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin. We can thank her for making reverse applique cool, as well as an economic boost to her hometown and keeping lots of T-shirts out of the waste stream.

Two of the three old tees used in this project originally resided in our closet. I was able to cut around the stains. The third was a probably-never-worn machine-embroidered souvenir tee I thrifted for 25 cents.

I layered the fabrics together and cut from a pattern I made by trial and error. I used a chalk marker to position the thumb hole. I think a disappearing marker would work better, if I could find where mine is.

What worked like a charm was the bent shaft scissors I bought some 15 years ago for cutting the reverse applique.


I didn't buttonhole stitch all the applique edges -- just the edges of the gloves, the thumb holes, and along the seam lines. There's a reason for the prices on those Alabama Chanin garments.

The three-layer thickness and machine stitching I used give these fingerless mitts some body. Maybe that's only important to me because I remember how frustrating it was when we played dress-up with Jody Newhart's mom's opera gloves and they kept sliding down.

Fingerless mittens went to another girl on our gift list. Next time.

Holiday Gift Wrap-Up #1 -- Willow Pillow

It's all over but the leftovers! Before I start in on the next gift occasion, here's a peek at what I made this year (now that holiday surprises won't be spoiled).

For Mom and Dad, I finished the quilted pillow cover I wrote about here. The fabrics are silks I dyed with willow I grew myself. Dad helped me plant that willow, and one of the fabrics was dyed using my mom's old aluminum jelly kettle as the pot-as-mordant.

The hand stitching was done with pale pink silk buttonhole twist I bought at a yard sale then overdyed in the willow bath.

I purchased the square pillow insert, and used a row of snaps to close the cover. Note to self: Buy more snap tape. That would be easier for aging fingers to do up after the cover gets washed, but I was out of what has become a sewing staple for me. It's not just for onesies any more.

The finished pillow got wrapped furoshiki-style in one of the 35" x 35' willow-dyed silk scarves like I sell in my Etsy shop. I swaddled the works in recycled dressmaker's pattern tissue for mailing. The United States Postal Service moved the box from northern Wisconsin to southern Florida in a timely and efficient fashion and delivered it to my parents' door with a smile and wishes of the season from the mail carrier. He probably got cookies from my mom.

When I'm pressed for time, I sometimes forget how much I love hand stitching and embroidery, working without a plan, seeing how things develop, making it up as I go along. For this gift, I had time to savor the making. And I did!

I'd like to think that good feeling gets worked into the piece and radiates love when I can't be in that room myself.

How To Feel Like A Kid Again

This year, Bill did the lion's share of our gift making, saving just the kids and elders for me. During the 4th quarter of the football game yesterday, I finished the last handmade holiday gift on my list. Together, we got everything wrapped before supper last night. Today, everything is in the mail except what goes under the tree. After the delightful obsession of gift-making time, it's like going cold turkey.

So I pulled out the pocket loom and made a potholder for myself. I feel like a kid again!

Chance are, none of the kids in our life would have a gift surprise spoiled if I showed you what I made for them. But they're getting to the age where I'm not so sure. So I'll save those posts for after Christmas.

What makes you feel like a kid again?

5 Tips For Holiday Shopping On Etsy

Etsy is a great place to shop and support independent artists, but it can be a little overwhelming to some people (cough/guys). Bill, for example, looked like a deer caught in headlights when I first showed him the site. (He finds malls even more frightening.)

If you know someone who freezes at the thought of shopping for gifts (probably not just online), I'd love it if you shared these tips:

5 Tips For Holiday Shopping On Etsy

1. Start somewhere specific. Ask for a specific Etsy shop URL (like donnakallnerfiberart.etsy.com) and start shopping there. When you don't know exactly what to look for, it's hard to come up with Search parameters that don't bring up thousands of results. Your friends and family would be happy to suggest some shops. Just tell them who you're shopping for, and they'll point you to a good place to start.
2.  Look at the shop announcement. At this time of year, many sellers include a shipping deadline announcement just below the banner. And when you click on an item, look for phrases like "ready to ship." Things that are "made especially for you" are better saved for some other gift occasion (for which you will shop earlier).
3. Look at the listings. The shop may have several pages of thumbnail images. Click on a thumbnail to see the full listing. On the full listing page, you'll probably see several smaller thumbnail photos to the right of the main image. Click those to see different views of the item. There's also a zoom lens below the lower right corner of the photo, when you need a closer look. Read the full description, including where the item ships from. You'll find the price and the "Add To Cart" button in the right-hand column. You can buy with a credit card: You don't have to have a PayPal account.
4. Get advice from the seller. If you don't find just the right gift in that first shop, click on the shop owner's profile link. I'm about to tell you how to get free advice that can lead you painlessly from your starting point to other Etsy shops with the coolest stuff.
5. Look for the seller's Treasuries. Below the "About" box on the seller's profile page, look for a box that says "Treasury lists." Some Etsy sellers curate collections called Treasuries. Generally, a seller won't include their own items in their own Treasuries. Instead, they showcase other work they admire. Click "See More" to open a listing of all the seller's Treasuries. Click on a thumbnail within a Treasury, and it will take you to the listing in another seller's shop.

I've curated several Treasury collections, including this one of hostess gifts.

I hope that helps, Bill. And Charlie. And Bob, Jim, Austin, Tony, Clay, Shawn, Larry, Al, Craig, Dan, Alex, Dave, Don, Wayne, Herm, Mo, Jay, Jef, Mike, Steve, Tom...

Aren't Rules Made To Be Broken?

Please, please say yes, and that breaking rules is one of your favorite hobbies. I'm breaking a family gift rule this year in a big way. By about a thousand percent, I'd say.

The family gift rule is that presents should fit in the palm of your hand. That was Mom's suggestion when she and Dad were getting ready to move to smaller digs in a warmer climate. It's actually a good rule, one that makes coming up with gift ideas much simpler. For Mom -- jewelry and scarves, naturally. But Dad? That's a little trickier.

So I'm making him a pillow. (My parents are still on dial-up, so no chance they'll see this post). This gift won't fit in the palm of even his big farmer hands.

The quilted cover is made from naturally dyed silks from my Willow For Color collection. My dad helped me plant that willow. I think he'll find it interesting, and I like to give gifts that spark the telling of a story.

A few years ago, I broke the rule and made my dad another silk throw pillow -- one with an embroidered appliqued picture of me and my sister many years ago, standing in front of the milkhouse on the farm. Sorry, no pictures (I barely got it done in time), but I think it's one of my dad's favorite gifts.

I'll really try to get pictures of this pillow cover when it's finished. There's more embroidery to do, buttons, and a bit more stitching on the silk velvet binding. I want this pillow to be soft and cool and soothing to the touch. That's all I can write on the topic of aging parents right now, except to say that the strength and resilience of the willow I used to dye the fabric are a pale reflection of the character of the man.

Mom's gift I'll use to wrap the pillow furoshiki style. She's getting a silk scarf like those in my Willow For Color collection on Etsy. After Dad unwraps his pillow, it will fit in the palm of her hand.

Are you breaking any family rules with your holiday gifts this year? Or are you making family rules that make gift exchanges easier? I'd like to know! Leave a comment below, or post it on my Facebook page.

Ornamental

Lately, my focus has been on preparations for holiday sales locally and in my Etsy shop. I still have a few more things to upload, but I took a little break to make some ornaments. The ornaments are a variation on the ones showed in this tutorial. I adapted an idea that came from this creativity warm-up (which resulted in this Spoonflower fabric).

Instead of old family photos or digital pics from my hoard of ornaments, I pulled out the play clay. I'm thinking this might be a fun project the kids could take part in.

It's really simple: You just roll the clay into ropes, and arrange the ropes into holiday shapes. I shaped my clay ropes on baking parchment paper, then took them outside and slid them off onto the fresh snow to photograph them with my digital camera.

I photographed several designs together, leaving a bit of space around each element. My equipment (which is nothing fancy), lets me remove the media card from my digital camera, plug it directly into my inkjet printer, select a photograph, and print it directly to inkjet fabric. Couldn't be simpler.

I brushed on a bit of fabric paint (see the tutorial) while the fabric was still stabilized by the carrier sheet. When the paint was dry, I peeled off the paper and layered the printed fabric with some craft felt I bought at a garage sale.

This one, sized to hold a gift card, is stitched together with two buttons and a jingle bell.

This one will be beaded all the way around, but it could also hold a gift card or small gift if you left it open at the top.

Part of my family's holiday tradition is getting a $5 permit from the National Forest Service and going out to cut a small Christmas tree. Our Charlie Brown release-cutting program opens up space for adjacent trees to grow stronger. The trees we get aren't sheared, groomed, perfect specimens. They won't support heavy ornaments, but these fabric ornaments work just fine. Or they will, in a couple of weeks. In our small living room, about 10 days with the tree up is plenty for us.

What do you think: Is this project something parents or grandparents would enjoy doing with kids?

Hats Off

Paperwork, mending, and a to-do list don't make exciting blog posts. But last week I tied up a lot of loose ends, did a bunch of mending, and got a birthday gift in the mail almost on time.

The gift isn't what I had planned to make. But right before I headed out to the studio to execute my plan, I saw a girl on TV wearing a beret and wheels started turning.

There was a once-white beret bought at a thrift shop in my studio stash, as well as a charcoal gray wool sweater, also thrifted. Both had been through the wash: That's SOP for thrifted stuff before it goes into the stash.

I used a wide zig-zag stitch to apply random appliques of the charcoal wool to the hat, and added extra lines of stitching. Acid dye and a quick steam transformed the color from once-white to amethyst. About this time I realized the flaw in my plan: I'd been hoping to get this gift in the mail the same day. When I switched from Plan A to Plan Beret, I skipped right over Dry Time.

Bill came to my rescue. It was a sunny day with a nice breeze. He suggested putting the piece on the hood of his black pick-up truck to speed up the drying time.

Worked like a charm. I pinned it to a towel secured under the windshield wiper and left it there over lunch. In just over an hour, it was dry enough to pin to the clothesline without stretching. It finished drying quickly, and I was able to get it wrapped, boxed, and to the post office that afternoon.

Next up on my gift to-do list are pieces for my sister and my mom. Must put "find the materials set aside for these" on my to-do list.