Christmas Elves

I had intended to make two panels' worth of this elf pair, one set for each of the households of my grandchildren. I used to make one panel per child but I have five grandchildren with a sixth due next month so that practice got old once I got bored with making three of the same doll and accessories. Time got away from me and I did not even make one set per household for this Christmas.

The elves come from a Stacy Hsu panel and I had bought two panels. I decided to at least cut them out this December and get a head start on Christmas 2021. I tried that tactic with a Christmas Cars quilt I started in January 2020 and was inspired to successfully complete by December 2020.

The first thing I do with these panels is trim off the outer border and save it. I have yet to use all these borders I have saved from past panels, but I have convinced myself that someday they will edge blocks or make their way into a scrap strip quilt.

 

There is a boy elf and a girl elf on the panel to illustrate what the finished dolls will look like. I cut these illustrations out and save them also for a future block or whatever.

I enjoy making these sewing these toys and stuffing them but upon starting I am often disheartened when I remember how much time it takes to cut out all the pieces. My approach with these panels is to do the rough cutting, the straight lines I can slice with a rotary cutter and ruler, now. Then I will set aside these rough cut larger pieces of the panel to trim the details in shorter spurts here and there.
Here are the two-piece elfin hats (4 pcs) and the three polar bear pets (3 pcs), followed by the two-piece elf ear pairs (8 pcs) and three penguin pets (3 pcs).

The girl elf's skirt adds three more pieces (3 pcs). Add these to the two pieces each for the girl and boy elf bodies (4 pcs) and there is a grand total of twenty five pieces (25 pcs). This total does not count the borders and images I trim to save. This is the first time I have ever added them up the number of pieces and now I comprehend why cutting out takes so long. Now I am prepared – even for the 50+ pieces for assembling both panels.

It is just as well I did not complete the elves this year. I think both my daughter and daughter-in-law were a bit frustrated with me and my lack of restraint is sending socially distanced gifts from grandma/grandpa. In my defense, I cannot control how many boxes or what size Amazon chooses to break the orders down into. My daughter-in-law in SoCal picked these boxes up from my son's office; they do not include what I wrapped and mailed myself separately.

My daughter was also somewhat dismayed at the traffic jam in her entry instigated by Amazon's non-optimization of box size for package contents. We had lots of fun guessing what was in that humongous one. She asked for hints. Is it bigger than a bread box?" she asked. "Well...yeah...obviously," I replied. I did tell her it contained two of the same thing. Shipping each in a separate box would have been far less impressive. But the box may very well have been the most played-with gift for the two Oklahoma grandkids.

Since this is my next to last post of 2020 (my Year in Review post to follow), I wanted it to end on a festive note. I will plug away on the elves for next Christmas. My quandary is this. Do I sew them and then store them flat, unstuffed in my sewing room and be unable to find them in time to stuff and ship? Or do I complete them and then forget where I hid them when the time comes? Or do I stuff them and send them early. That is great for me but... hmmm... , I do not think either my busy daughter or daughter-in-law would like that option. When I have put the now not-quite-so-onerous task of cutting out behind me, sewing and stuffing those four elves will be a lot of fun, no matter when I decide to do it.