Saturday, November 22, 2008

Surprise Balls from Tucson, for Holiday Nights

As you probably know from previous posts, I am a lover of holiday gifts like Surprise Balls. They are a Brooklyn childhood memory and a crafting passion. Instead of using paper, I cut strips from repurposed fabrics to do my winding, and I select little treasures from antique stores, toy shops or any vintage shopping haunt to make gifts within surprise balls interesting. I also borrow from nature (sea shells, tiny rocks) so that the gift giver can pass on something of meaning to the receiver.
For the Tohono Chul Park Holiday Nights Ornament display, I quilted the covering of my surprise ball using old Christmas fabric. I added a hand-sewn saguaro to the surprise ball ornament. This one is probably too filled with goodies. I'll make the ornaments a bit lighter next time around. I'll be making more, and putting up the tucson cowgirl webpage live, within one week. Hope others will want to enjoy my handmade surprise balls!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a beautiful surprise ball-love the gingerbread childxxxx

Anonymous said...

Precious! I only recently heard of surprise balls when my mom started giving them during the holidays - she's in Denver.