Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Heres some of my favourite tree decorations to wish you well in the festivities!

Christmas Crafting

Christmas for me is all about the gift giving. Lately all about the HOMEMADE gift giving.

There's something appealing about putting time and effort into a project,thought about the recipient and then seeing their appreciation. Its the appreciation that makes the extra effort worthwhile.

Crafting Christmas also gives you the opportunity to shun the high street and make something that is truly unique.

The crafting list this year is long and I ahve been supremely disorganised so I am now crafting to a deadline - something which is not enjoyable at all!

However two makes are now done and dusted. These were simple projects - scarves. I chose a simple treble crochet stitch for speed and also for the drape. I like the way a simple stitch like this can let the wool speak for itself. I chose pretty colours. In one case it was a king Cole bulky yarn (king Cole waves multi - Pink Fizz 364)  in lovely sherbet colours .

 
The second wool was James Brett marble (James C Brett Marble DK Yarn MT9 Berries) - a subtle colour scheme but just as pretty. 

Phew !

Phew! is the sound you make when you get to the top of a hill, also the sound I made about 10 minutes ago when I finished the binding on the quilt destined for my sister. The learning curve for this has been vertical ('steep' - is just too much of an understatement!)

I have however learnt a great many lessons along the way so that when I begin my next quilting adventure I will hopefully end up with something a lot more polished.

So far the summary of the quilt goes thus: 1000m of thread, 3 sewing machines (vintage, broken and new), 188 squares cut, pieced and pressed - two irons (one now relegated, one new) - more ironing than I have ever done in my life....and finally the binding is done (oh to that you can add 2.5m of unpicked seams and a shed load of thready bits that will be forever stuck to my home.

My Toyota sewing machine died on me just as I finished the first round of quilting. So this quilt has a wavy stripe quilting instead of the wavy diamonds in my head. My trusty Singer sewing machine (60 yrs old dontcha know) complete with crank handle enabled me to make a start on the binding whilst I awaited my new upgraded sewing investment. Here it is... sew pretty!

 








Would you like a sneak peak of the quilt? The lining is a green cotton with white polka dots (top right), Bottom right is where some of the top patches meet.

 I think the overall effect of this quilt will be fab. Bright and cheery and hopefully a much loved quilt despite the flaws....

A few lessons to be remembered:

1) I cannot sew straight! cut the selvages off fabric
2) Ironing the seams is well worth it
3) I cannot cut straight...or apparently gauge distance
4) Hand sewing the binding might be time consuming but will achieve a more polished finish - time constraints in this project have made it impossible as Christmas is fast approaching!!