Sill With the Christmas

So, I'm a little behind in this, but I wanted to show you a little more of what I made for Christmas. I still have one apron that went home with someone, having avoided the camera. Eventually, I'll post about it too.
But here's the pair of legwarmers that was involved in the all-night Christmas Eve knitting debacle:

I pretty much made up the pattern and I'm pretty much proud of it, too. These babies are going to Canada this week (maybe they're already there...) and will be warming up the legs of my sister-in-law, Sarah.

And here's the apron I made for my mom. For those of you who don't know her already, you need to be aware that my mom is not a girly-girl. She is not a typical grandma who bakes cookies and wears her hair in a bun. She rides a motorcycle with my dad and has had more car accidents than anyone I know. And there are many more interesting facts about her that will not be posted here.
She was looking through my book of apron patterns with me and happened to like this one - a typical "grandma" apron, so I knew right away that I'd make it for her for Christmas. I also knew that I couldn't make it in typical "grandma" fabrics. When I ran across these horses, by Heather Ross, the deal was sealed because when she was young, she was passionate about horses.

I labored long over what to pair it with as a contrast fabric, and once I'd settled on the orange polka dots, I labored even longer over what color rickrack to use. I ended up buying some blue rickrack that was pretty decent, but I wasn't sold. Then, as I was cutting out the pieces, I remembered the bag of vintage trims in the sewing table from my great grandma. Sure enough, sitting in that bag was this utterly perfect, brown rickrack with silver running through it. And it was from my mom's grandma!

Sometimes, the clouds just part and heaven shines down on you, y'know?