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As usual I've had another VERY productive year, with lots of quiltystuff being produced in my sewing studio - quilts and wallhangings, tablerunners and journal covers, bags and Christmas stockings - the list goes on and on! Now I need to blitz my sewing studio and make an updated list of the projects that have been tucked away waiting to get made - hopefully I'll have another fabric-fuelled year in 2023.
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I'd hand embroidered this festive design - Christmas Treasures Wreath by Rosalie Dekker Designs - way back in 2011 and wasn't sure how I wanted to frame it, so it was tucked away in a bag with the pattern. Fast forward to Christmas 2022 and thanks to a simple white frame from Hobbycraft, it's finally on display. The embroidered linen was backed with some lightweight wadding, then wrapped around a piece of firm card, which I'd cut to about a quarter inch smaller than the aperture of the frame - this ensures a snug fit, without any puckers once the back of the the frame is clipped back into place.  At the beginning of the year, I made a VERY long list detailing all the kits that I had purchased from 2009 - 2021 and had not yet had time to make. I'd originally planned to complete at least one kit per month, and although I didn't make as many as I had hoped, probably due to making lots of other projects, here are the kits from that VERY long list that I did actually manage to complete this year. Hopefully 2023 will be just as productive if not more so, as my box of kits is almost overflowing. I probably need a MUCH bigger box! 1. Hearts Desire 2. Helårspynt 3. Kaffeslabberas 4. Lilla Fristeler 5. Sommerblomster 6. We Are Family 7. Britt-Lisa’s Blomsterkurver 8. Hanging for Christmas
A couple of weeks before Christmas, I shared a post about some secret sewing that I'd been busy stitching for some very special children. Now they've been received I can share better pictures! I've used my favourite pattern for making Christmas stockings, Waiting for Santa, by the Australian designer Leanne Beasley. I've been making these stockings for several years, and the best part is choosing the fabrics and trimmings. These ones have been made with a selection of fabrics from the Cool Yule collection by The Henley Studio for Makower UK...
...the name tags have been hand embroidered using a selection of Cosmo embroidery threads in co-ordinating colours, and when they were finished, the name tags were stitched in place using these gorgeous turquoise vintage buttons...
...obviously it wouldn't be Christmas without a few chocolate treats, so these were filled to the brim with edible goodies, including chocolate coins, chocolate robins, festive shapes, and of course a delicious chocolate Santa...
...and here are those stockings, absolutely filled to the brim, before they were placed under the Christmas tree for some very special little children.  A new grandson arrived earlier in the year, which meant another Christmas stocking was needed! I used my favourite stocking pattern, Waiting for Santa by the Australian designer Leanne Beasley and teamed it up with a selection of red prints by another Australian designer, Lynette Anderson. I wrote Rory's name onto fabric using a fine tipped Micron Pigma pen, then stitched over the letters using 3 strands of red Cosmo thread...
...the name tag was stiched in place using an antique button and perle thread. I absolutely LOVE this festive print with the cute gingerbread men and hearts on it! I think the best part of preparing this stocking was shopping for some goodies to tuck inside it. A last minute shopping trip to Wooodbridge, my local market town, was very productive - a cute pop-up book called Crocodile by Mick Inkpen, some baby biscotti biscuits, a toy for chubby little fingers to play with and a cute pair of reindeer ear muffs to keep his ears cosy...
...now these goodies just need to be tucked inside and it can be hung up on the fireplace, ready for Rory to discover in the morning!  I always struggle with buying Christmas gifts for men, and Mr F is no exception! He's rather fond of a drop of port, and although I'd bought him a bottle, it just didn't seem special enough in an ordinary bottle bag, so I set to work with making something extra festive. Why use one red fabric when you can use twelve? These pretty red prints are a selection of fabrics from various collections by the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. Once these small squares were pieced together, they were spray basted to a piece of wadding and quilted very simply in a cross hatch design using a red Aurifil 40wt thread. I also used one of Lynette's festive prints for the lining too (this one is from her Candy Cane Angels collection) and teamed it with some red ricrac trimming...
...the front flap of the bottle bag is hand embroidered. This was stitched prior to the bag being constructed and I used a Cosmo stranded embroidery thread with a selection of simple embroidery stitches - back stitch, cross stitch and running stitch...
...and here's the completed bottle bag. I'd bought this pattern, Christmas Cheer, by the Australian designer Janelle Wind about 15 years ago, so I'm not sure if it's still available. However it is an absolute joy to stitch, so if you're lucky enough to find a copy too, I'm sure you'll enjoy stitching it as much as I did. And I'm sure Mr F will prefer the actual contents, rather than the fabric container, but now I've made this pretty bag I can use it again every year - I'm sure he'll be thrilled with my cunning plan to re-use it!  A friend had recently asked if I could make a small toilettry bag for her grandaughter Florence, who was due to go on a very special holiday over the Christmas pperiod. I don't have many fabrics for little girls in my stash, however I picked out a few pretty Tilda fabrics which I thought were perfect for this bag. I used my favourite cosmetic bag pattern (Anna's Sminkepung, by the Norwegian designer AnnAKa) and altered the sizes on the instructions to fit the fabrics. It's been machine quilted very simply with a pale grey Aurifil 40wt thread. A bright pink zipper was used, along with some pink pompom trimming to make it extra girly...
...and here's the finished bag. My friend had an early Christmas celebration with her grandchildren, and she told me that her grandaughter was thrilled with her bag. This is now on holiday with Florence in Lapland! Hopefully there's plenty of room in here for her toothbrush and toothpaste, soap and flannel.  Thanks to signing up to the Aurifil Colour Builder club at Oh Sew Sweet Shop I've been able to add to my collection of Aurifil 40wt threads. Iberian Lynx is this month's selection and these mauve threads - shades 6731, 2375 and 6724 - really are beautiful and are great for machine quilting.  I always enjoy making hand embroidered gifts and this one was no exception. The pattern is A Festive Star Embroidered Doily by Marg Low Designs, and was recently purchased from Poppy Patch here in the UK. The pattern comes with both an iron-on transfer and a traceable pattern. I used the iron-on transfer for this one, with a pretty snowflake patterned fabric. I've used Cosmo embroidery threads for this, including a Cosmo Sparkle thread. The sparkle thread was really easy to use, it didn't knot, tangle or shread. The hand embroidered star was cut out and machine appliqued onto a circle of linen. An ecru DMC perle thread was used for the hand quilting around the inside of the appliqued star...
...once the back and front of the doily are stitched together, the final touch is a decorative stitch which is hand embroidered around the edge. I used an ecru DMC perle thread for this decorative stitch too..
...and here's the completed embroidered doily, ready to be wrapped and gifted to my mother-in-law, along with a stocking filled with little surprises for her.  One of my Christmas presents arrived earlier today from my lovely sister Becky. Tthe most beautiful Christmas wreath from Woottens of Wenhaston. Not only does it look spectacular, it smells spectacular too. I'd been deliberating over whether to change the colour of our front door, but seeing how great it looks with this wreath has made me realise how fabulous this bright pillar box red door is!  |
 About me...Hi - welcome to my quilting blog! My passions are my family, my dog, my friends and sewing, not necessarily in that order! 
 
 
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