Month: December 2018

It was the last few days before Christmas ….

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And all through the house there was lots of activity, making the last minute baubles, finishing off a cross stitched ornament and lots and lots of cooking!

I think I am done now. I am now making a few more baubles just to experiment with ribbon, some may be gifted next year as I think I am going to give these again for 2019, (nothing like getting ahead is there, though I may well find something new to make before then.)

Xmas ribbon baubles 1

I do love the way these ribbon ones have turned out, they are a lot quicker to do than the fabric ones as I have used less layers but they still look lovely. Some of the decoration at the ribbon intersections is pins and some little metal balls pinned on.

Xmas ribbon baubles 2

Xmas ribbon baubles 3

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Xmas ribbon baubles 4

Earlier in the year you may remember I had a churn dash block craze and I made these two ornaments for my cousins then, I love the way that they have come out but didn’t realise until taking the pictures that the red fabric for the backing is on sideways – oops! The little charms are from Ebay here.

Xmas churn dash ornies 1

Xmas churn dash ornies 2

Xmas churn dash ornies 3

I did not get chance to make lots of other things this week as I have had a lot of marking to do so still have some pouches to stitch together after Christmas but luckily not everything sold at Yarndale so I have enough things for gifts.

I did manage a little apron for Ava my nearly two year old great niece. I have made similar ones from this tutorial here before.

 

I used the same fabric back and front to make it so it is reversible, the tutorial pattern has a pocket included but though I cut one out, (you use the armhole cutouts for the pockets), it covered up too much of the cute elephants on the design so it left it off. All of this came from stash and I think I have had the fabric for about 5 years, it came from my last trip to China!

I have made lots of delicious focaccia for the festive season along with a gluten free chocolate, ginger and orange cheesecake and some mincemeat blondies which are our new favourite thing here, they are like a very squidgy soft version of Christmas cake and will be delicious with the rum clotted cream that I am going to make 🙂

Our Christmas will be a little fragmented this year as Ellen is working tomorrow and Christmas Day and Jake is working Christmas Eve and Boxing Day so wonderful Kerry is coming tomorrow to take me to Ellen’s for two days and three church services, (two at beautiful Clumber Chapel), then Ellen and I are driving back here on Christmas Day after church to spend the rest of it with Jake. At least we will be together for a little bit. I am then off to Spain for two weeks.

So I shall say Happy Christmas to you all now as I won’t be around again until mid Jan, hope that you all have a very good festive season and a great New Year’s Eve. I will be at the Chinese restaurant in La Marina as usual, dancing and watching fireworks.

Take care and thanks for visiting and see you in 2019!

The stockings are finished!

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I have been rushing to finish everything in time for Christmas, it always amazes me that though I think I start early enough each year I am still there checking last posting dates and running around doing last minute finishes!

Anyway the ornaments are finished, I have only had time to make 8 of these so far but will definitely make more for next year for all the people that didn’t get one this year. One has already gone to the Wool and Wine ornament exchange so these are the seven that are left.

Xmas stockings 1

I did two of each design for friends and then the tree one for me. I loved choosing all of the fabrics and embellishments and am really pleased to have improved my blanket stitch which I only learnt this summer.

Xmas stockings 2

Xmas stockings 5

Xmas stockings 7

Xmas stockings 4

Xmas stockings 6

Xmas stockings 9

The back is finished with a little pearl headed pin and decorative bead to hide the ribbon stitching.

Xmas stockings 11

The original patterns as seen in this picture from Jenny’s website had some really beautiful flower embroidery on so they would make lovely sachets to go in drawers or on hangers so I will make some other ones from floral fabric and fill them with lavender.

ELEFANTZ stocking noel 1

I have realised that although I thought I had done things for everyone as I have also been working on some stitched and quilted ornaments that I might have already given my Mum and aunt the designs I had planned to finish off this week so am going to go with another one of the folded baubles for them. I know that I did give them one each in 2015, as pictured below, but they are so pretty I would love to make more.

xmas-baubles-dec-2015-1

I have also found some new resources to go with them and that was partly what inspired me to do more of these. This tutorial is a good step by step one and if you sign up for The Ornament Girl’s newsletter she will e-mail you links to three step by step video tutorials. She also has lots of lovely ideas on her website and you can join the ornament club or buy supplies from her.

One of the things I didn’t realise is that you can also make these folded ones from ribbon. I just happen to have quite a bit of Christmas ribbon in my stash so am going to experiment with that. I have found some great inspiration from this Pinterest board here.

These seem to be very popular in Eastern Europe as there are some amazing ones from places like Slovakia and Poland. I don’t have a lot of the satin ribbon that are used in these but do have lots of wired ribbon in beautiful Christmas designs like the bauble below.Original links and sources for these pictures can be found at the Pinterest board link above.

Folded fabric bauble 4

I also love the use of cross stitch in these ones, that is something to consider for next year as well.

Folded fabric bauble 1

You can also fold the ribbon into petals as they have done with the second layer of the this amazing red,white and green one.

Folded fabric bauble 2

These are just so pretty, I love the variations in the designs while sticking to the one colour scheme.The site in the photo caption sells the most gorgeous ribbon kits for these.

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So I shall be spending this afternoon under a fleecy blanket, watching Netflix and making ornaments. A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon 🙂

Rosemari has decorated her tree with all the baubles she made at our bauble making sessions and afterwards at home and has kindly sent me a photo to share with you, don’t they look wonderful!  She was well and truly bitten by the bauble making bug 🙂

Rosemari's tree

I hope that you have all had a good week and enjoyed your weekends. Don’t forget to like any of my posts before Christmas to be entered into my 11th year blogaversary giveaway drawn in Jan. Take care and thanks for visiting.

Happy blogaversary to me ….

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I actually remembered that it is my blogaversary today! For the last two years I have posted late and on Sunday after doing my latest post I was thinking about what I was going to post next and remembered that I started this blog 11 years ago.

As I did last year I am going to offer a giveaway of your choice of anything that I make, that could be a pouch, bag, needlework item, mug rug, coaster, ornament etc. As a reminder here are some of this year’s creations.

You choose the item and the fabric and I will make it for you as a big thank you for coming and visiting me. Don’t worry if you are not into Liberty I do have other fabric ! I am now up to 247 followers which is wonderful so thank you so much to all of you, you make me feel very loved 🙂

To win all you have to do is like or comment on any post up until Christmas. I will choose a winner by random number thingy when I return from Spain in Jan, get in touch and ask you what you would like and make it for you.

I will be back at the weekend with more stitching loveliness, meanwhile have a a good week and thanks for visiting.

 

Steampunks in Space – return from the Delta Quadrant

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We had a lovely time last week at Steampunks in Space at the National Space Centre in Leicester. As always there were fabulous costumes and Captain Janeway was ably assisted by her first officer Ellen and companion captain from Serenity, James.

Steampunks in Space 18

Steampunks in Space 2

Ellen’s costume was brilliant, she made the bolero and hat herself and it all looked so good together. She now has an extensive wardrobe of pieces that she can combine in different ways like the corsets, leggings and bustle. The phaser is from one of her University fancy dress outfits.

Steampunks in Space 1

Steampunks in Space 3

Steampunks in Space 4

My hat was decorated with some little model ships and some control panel pictures, pictures taken in the toilet again as the light was good there!

Steampunks in Space 5

This year they also had some costumes made with a space theme by various members of the Seamstress Squadron which were on display, such talented people!

Steampunks in Space 12

Steampunks in Space 13

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Steampunks in Space 17

The tie fighter hat and Death Star costume below was the overall winner of the costume competition along with her Steam Trooper companion. Such creativity!

Steampunks in Space 20

Not only were there the great costumes to admire but also all the brilliant stuff at the Space Centre, we didn’t do any of this last year meaning to go back but ran out of time so never did.

There were some great interactive activities, designed for kids which we really loved like the mining activity where you had to control a bucket with levers to load rocks and this chair which again was lever controlled.

Steampunks in Space 11Steampunks in Space 10

We are both really concentrating on the display screen here as it was really difficult to control.

Steampunks in Space 8

Steampunks in Space 9

We also really enjoyed seeing what we look like under infra – red, Ellen is the one with the really cold nose! Picture courtesy of James.

Steampunks in Space 19

I remember the first moon landings and many years ago we went and visited the Space Centre in Florida as part of a fantastic US holiday so I have always been really interested in this, particularly the human stories behind it. I have read biographies of both astronauts and control crew and loved the Hidden Figures movie. I am waiting for First Man to come out on DVD so I can watch that.

I am still working on embroidering stockings, hopefully they will be all completed this week and then I have a little bit of frantic machining to do to get everything together. Where does the time go, I am sure last time I looked it was only October!

I hope that you have all had a good week, I am looking forward to the last couple of weeks of teaching and then being on leave, and going to Spain, it will be so good to see my Mum as I haven’t been since July.

Take care and thanks for visiting.