Christmas Cheeseboard - Making Christmas 2013 Week 11!

Well, the big day is almost upon us, so this is the last progress report on my list of makes for

I am still finishing off some last-minute gifts for my son's fiancee, but as they are not coming home until the New Year, I still have a few days grace!

So this fabric will be a completed Pleated Pouch by the time they arrive :)

I do have another finish to tick off that long list though.

A Christmas Mouse cheeseboard!

I found the plain wooden board in a local discount shop and knew that I wanted to try transferring an image onto the board. The mouse image is from that treasure trove website, The Graphics Fairy, and is taken from a vintage Natural History book.

To transfer the image I printed the mirror image on to the waxy side of a sheet of Freezer Paper, placed the wax sheet image side down on the board and then rubbed over the image with the back of a spoon. It's the first time I have tried this and I think I probably should have used a simpler image for my first attempt!

I left the board to dry overnight and then coated the board with two coats of matte Modge Podge to seal the image.

If you have attempted anything New to You in your Christmas gift making this month, don't forget that the last link up of this year will open on December 25th! As you might be otherwise occupied that day, there is no need to panic the link up will be open until December 31st :)

 As there are still so many things that I would like to try I will be hosting the monthly New to Me link up again next year, so look out for a new button soon!


So, here is how my Making Christmas list finally looks :

• A Christmas Table Runner for our new dining table MADE
• Two Pleated Pouches to fill with make-up/nail polishes for my daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to be IN PROGRESS!
• One Liberty and linen jewellery roll for my sister-daughter-in-law NOT MADE
• Dieter's Chocolate Hamper MADE
• One Triple Zip pouch for my sister-in-law MADE
• A Knotwork Christmas cushion - for me! - ONE FOR NEXT YEAR!
• A Fairytale Cushion for my grandniece using one of Quiet Play's Happily Ever After paper-pieced patterns This is going to have to be a birthday present in the New Year!
  
• Homemade chutney for my brother and son MADE
• Homemade relish for my brother MADE
• More dishwasher vodka! MAKING TOMORROW!
• Biscuits for cheese for my brother SCRAPPED!
• Something to go with cheese! - A Cheeseboard :)MADE
• Meat rub, BBQ apron MADE 
• Pyjama trousers for my youngest son - MADE
• Appliqued pyjama top for youngest son MADE

  So, not too bad after all!

Thanks Janine and Rebecca for hosting such a great Link Party, and to everyone else who has supported and encouraged along the way, I would never have worked my way through so much of this list without you! 

Making Christmas - Week 9

I finally managed to get my Act together to post my updated list on the same day as the next post for Making Christmas is due.

That in itself is a minor miracle!

This week Making Christmas is being hosted by the lovely Lucy at Charm About You she has been cross-stitching up some festive ornaments and has the charts free to download on her blog, so don't forget to check out her post and link up your own updated list whilst you are there too.

It's my youngest son's birthday tomorrow, which is a sure indication that I don't have a lot of time left!

Fortunately I have a couple more finishes to tick off the list, I bought a plain t-shirt in my local Tesco store and appliqued a black felt moose to the front for a matching top for the moose pyjamas.

When I showed them to my middle son, he put in a request for a pair of his own! Anyone know of a source for rabbit-themed flannel that isn't pink or babyish??

I also bought a plain wooden board to go with the relish and chutney with plans to decorate it somehow :) It might just stay a plain wooden board though if I run out of time!

There will be three jars of accompaniments with it though. My neighbour's apple trees produced an amazing amount of apples this year, so she was handing out bags of apples to all-comers. When I discovered a recipe for Winter Spice Jelly on the Good Food website, I knew exactly what to do with my bag of apples.

I have never made jelly before so invested in a jelly bag to strain the mixture. There was some inventiveness required to rig up a system to allow the jelly to strain overnight, fortunately my middle son came to the rescue with a Heath Robinsonesque contraption involving sinks, string and laundry baskets! The kitchen smelt gorgeous whilst all this was going on :)

Testing for the setting was a bit nerve-wracking and at one point I thought that I would have virtually no jelly left, but it all worked out in the end. The recipe states that it should yield two jars of jelly but I only had one full jar and a 1/4 filled jar in the end, so I think if I make it again I would use smaller jars.

There were more spices involved in the Spiced Meat Rub which is going to go with the BBQ Apron that is another finish this week.

I haven't yet decided whether to cut my losses with the Oven Gauntlet and downscale to a potholder or hang on in there and go for broke with the gauntlet:) Next week will be the crunch time with this as it needs to be all done and dusted and in the post soon! 

So here's how my list is looking now -

• A Christmas Table Runner for our new dining table MADE
• Two Pleated Pouches to fill with make-up/nail polishes for my daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to be
• Two One Liberty and linen jewellery roll for my sister-in-law
• One Triple Zip pouch for my sister-in-law MADE
• A Knotwork Christmas cushion - for me!
• A Fairytale Cushion for my grandniece using one of Quiet Play's Happily Ever After paper-pieced patterns
• Homemade chutney for my brother and son MADE
• Homemade relish for my brother MADE
• More dishwasher vodka!
• Biscuits for cheese for my brother SCRAPPED!
• Something to go with cheese! - A Cheeseboard :)
• Meat rub, BBQ apron MADE and oven glove for my b-in-law ?
• Pyjama trousers for my youngest son - MADE
• Appliqued pyjama top for youngest son MADE

Looking forward to seeing everyone else's progress.