Cottage Days

I don't know about you, but it is much easier for me to sew handmade gifts for my girlfriends, rather than the men in my life.  Bags, pillows, aprons, eye pillows, scarves...  I have made these and more as gifts, but for the boys...  I made my Dad a snuggie-style blanket last year, and another one for my boyfriend's birthday that just passed. 

But I had a lot of trouble this fathers day coming up with a gift to sew for my dad.  I had tossed around the idea of embroidering different fish hanging from lines on 3 hoops, but I wasn't too sure if he would like that (although I know my Dad would love anything I made for him).  What I finally decided to work on was a painting of the government dock by our cottage on Lake of Bays, in Muskoka, Ontario.  My grandfather built the cottage in the early 50's when my father was a young boy, so both he, and my sister and I have grown up here.  This place has so much meaning for our entire family and we have all collected our own stories at this government dock.  My sister and I would meet up with friends there at night with the cheapest alcohol we could all find/buy, and climb on top of the roof to hang out.  And every local has their name carved on some portion of the dock.

This was the first time I had done a painting for anybody.  It's not that large, but I am pretty happy with the outcome.  It was a smaller canvas that I bought in a set of three and the other two I am thinking of painting a solid color and embroidering birds on them (can that even be done?) for our place.
For Christmas I am knitting a scarf for my Dad, and for my man I am embroidering a cover with different types of electric and acoustic guitars, for a binder that he can put his music sheets and tabs in.  The Fall edition of Stitch magazine has a few more ideas for man gifts - I am considering making the zip-front pullover for both of mine.  2 months until Christmas - hopefully I can get everything done in time!

Thanks for stopping by!