I wish you a Happy Christmas

Sorry I haven't been present much lately, because of the holidays, travelling to France and seeing some family and friends. I haven't done any sewing lately either. Just knitting a scarf for my daughter, because I can do it in the car.

The only thing I can show you are some decorations I made in previous years.

This is our advent calendar. It came as a back panel, with bands of fabric to be sewn to make the pockets. Of course the numbers are put at random.

We made this little cube in our patchwork group. The cardboard inside comes from cereal boxes.

This I made quite quickly, each star or tree is in two fabrics, one on each side, with wadding in the middle, and free motion quilting on top. They are attached onto a grosgrain ribbon with a nice red button. And the ribbon makes a loop to attach to the tree at each end.

This hanging is made with triangles of fabric, 2 colors sewn together, here green and red.

Sew right sides facing, all the way, leave a gap to turn, take away some fabric in the angles. Turn to have the right way out, slip stitch closed.

Next you need to attach each point to the centre, for me the red points meet in the middle of the green triangle.

Last you need to turn the unit, here on the red side, and pull the middle of each side to the centre of the triangle, so you have green coming back to the centre of the red triangle.

You need to sew all the units together to obtain the shape of the tree. I had 15 units, 1 at the top and 5 at the bottom.

I added little gold beads in the centres.

Enjoy this day, I wish you a lot of happiness.

Quilt for the hospice

As I cannot show what I am working on at the moment, I will show you this quilt made last year with my patchwork group to be given to the local hospice.

We all followed more or less the same pattern, with a nine patch block, but the results were all different of course. Some put their blocks together with sashing, some were straight or on point like mine.

The hospice was very happy to receive them.

As our next work for a charity our chairperson offered to give some cushions, and her offer was politely rejected on health and safety grounds.

This is very disappointing, as we could have provided new, fire treated pads; or they could have put the pads themselves.

So our brief is to make cushions that will be sold to the public on behalf of a charity.

Toy bags for Christmas

As I was tidying daughter number 4's bedroom, I realised she needed a toy bag. And as things go I have made 3 now.

I started with 2 using some fabric I bought from a sheeting factory, sadly closed now, in Northern France. I kept the width to be the height of the bags.

But they were too blue for a girly bedroom, as you can see below.

So I decided to do another one more pink, still using fabric I already had, and this is the result, at the top.

I must explain that being the youngest she has the boxroom, so called by the Victorian, because it was mainly used to store boxes.

It is big enough for a bed and some cupboards, but her toys are the most voluminous of the girls -you know small children, big toys, and as they grow older, the size of the presents shrinks, and the prices escalate. So her bedroom looks very often untidy when she is playing in it.

Will it work, I wouldn't bet on it...but it might help to keep some things in order.

And the 2 other bags, they will be for her 2 cousins; and their mums, if they see this, must keep it quiet.

I think I will hide the knots on the drawstrings first.

Enjoy these last few days before the big one. I have 3 nativity plays and a concert by the school to attend in the next 6 days. You do get into the spirit of the moment.

Christmas projects

The weather is terrible in the south of England, it feels like it's been raining for days. They are so short and we don't see much of the sun with all these clouds...but I'm busy preparing things for Christmas.

I can't show them as they are presents. There is a bit of sewing, some crochet on the go. It will all be revealed later.

I have also made a Christmas stocking for my youngest daughter. The first 3 were finished at least 2 years ago, and there was one missing.

I used a free design from Eleanor Burns, so that I didn't have to think too much; she is so good in her explanations. On the website you will also be able to see different blocks she offers.

I made my stocking bigger, so it can carry more presents. It was so easy, and so fast.

And here are the photos of the previous ones, more square than the new model. Of course they are all special....

Enjoy your weekend, I'm sure you are also busy preparing for Christmas.

My fabric Christmas Tree

This is a tree we made with the help of John, dear husband of Frances, in our quilt group.

We had to cut multiple pieces of cardboard, as all the inside pieces are doubled with a padded part, including the inside of the box.

The tree is resting on a base, that can be glued on, although I haven't done it yet.

The little pyramid holds the box closed.

Inside there is a smaller box for the sweets I need to buy.

The last option is to put some little bells or anything that makes a noise, as an alarm for the sweets I suppose.

I enjoyed this project, and I am sure we will have a lot of pleasure in using it every year around Christmas.