Blackwork

I've been stitching scissor fobs lately, for an exchange I'm in here. I belong to a couple of Yahoo groups, one of which I do swaps with regularly but this is the first thing I've done for a blog exchange. This isn't the fob I'm using for the exchange, I don't want anyone to see that until it is received by the person I was assigned. The three that I have made are done on linen evenweave fabric, two are blackwork stitching and one is canvas work. The blackwork ones turned out nice but the canvas work one didn't look so good because the linen was a bit slubby and the strands of thread tended to look a bit uneven in places. The method of sewing the back and front together was the same as in this tutorial, a very neat way of finishing this type of work.

This is the canvas-work fob, it is adapted from a free pattern - I had to leave off the border for two reasons, one, it made it too big to use as a scissor fob and the second reason was that I have trouble with counted work and kept going wrong!!! The butterfly is a fancy paper fastener, you can get some lovely ones for using in card making but I think they are also useful on stitching.

Tea Parties

It was my birthday in December and my DS and DIL took me out to tea here. We had a lovely time and the sandwiches and cakes were delicious. I'd had a tea party at my house for a few friends a couple of months before this and realised that tea parties were fun and a good change from inviting friends to dinner. I find putting on a dinner party very exhausting these days so tea parties will be taking their place at my house. With this in mind my DIL gave me a couple of lovely gifts this Christmas, the cake stand in the picture and a book entitled Afternoon Tea Parties with ideas for themed teas. I wasn't really sure how much food should be offered on these occasions so this book was a big help. Then yesterday morning I got an unexpected phone call from friends saying they would be dropping in to see us that afternoon and immediately saw this as an opportunity to put on an Afternoon Tea!!! Luckily I had some ready prepared finger food that I had bought in 'just in case' I needed it over Christmas and New Year and all I needed to buy was some fresh bread. It was the quickest meal I had ever prepared, I didn't get stressed and worn out rushing around trying to get too much done in a short time. What a pleasure it was to be able to welcome my guests in this way.

Machine Sewing

On Wednesday my DIL came to my house so that I could help her line baskets. I lined two so that she could see how it was done then my DIL lined one and made an excellent job of it. We had a bit of time left after this so I made a Christmas hangie for her. The next day I had a rummage through my stash and found some fabric printed with various Christmas designs so, as usual, I got a bit carried away and made nine of these hangies, all with a different Christmas design on it. Three I've given away and the rest are added to my decorating. Unfortunately, all the leaning over to cut out started my 'bad back' off and I've hardly done a thing this last two days, hope it recovers soon, there's still quite a bit to do before Christmas Day!!!

Paper Trees

Yesterday I was surfing around the web looking for paper-craft ideas when I came across a card making site that showed some very interesting paper Christmas trees. I followed the link to here and followed the instructions in the tutorial. I was amazed at the effect folding an old magazine achieved! I ended up making four of these trees and I then showed four of my friends, who came around in the afternoon for a craft session. We all got very excited that an old magazine could be transformed into a lovely Christmas decoration (can't you tell we are all craft addicts?). So I imagine that yesterday evening there were four ladies (five including me) rummaging around looking for magazines to fold!!!

Isle of Man Patchwork

My friend gave me a patchwork cushion cover kit as a gift that she bought while on holiday on the Isle of Man. Apparently the women on the Isle of Man used this pattern in olden times to make full size quilts, they tore strips from discarded clothing etc and hand sewed the strips to a backing in this log-cabin pattern. The strips are each turned back leaving a pleat so the result is a quilt that doesn't need backing or padding and it hid the big stitches they used. That's what it says on the packet anyway. I'm not doing it strictly to the pattern, there should be four log-cabin squares but I'm just doing the one and adding Christmassy strips round the edge, that way I'll get four cushion covers from the kit. I have finished it now and it's all ready to join my other Christmas patchwork cushions on the settee over Christmas.

Cards

Since Friday I've spent time in my craft room making Christmas cards, it's been a while since I made a batch of cards and it always takes me a few goes before I'm happy with what I produce. The first few I made are quite horrible! Anyway, I've got a good selection made so far, about 15 I think. These in the picture are very easy - I just used my scoring board to create a frame, cut out pictures from a pad of Dovecraft Designer Paper Pack, added peel-off lines that I coloured with a permanent marker from docrafts and glued star gems to the corners, all bought from the Nottingham branch of The Range.

Crazy Quilting

I have a swapping friend called Lori who sent me a CQ patch as an extra on our last swap. Lori does the most amazing decoration on her patches and when I received one from her I immediately saw it as a centre for a cushion cover. It turned out beautifully, I'm so happy that Lori thought to send this to me. I've never done any crazy quilting, just conventional patchwork, all my cushions in my sitting room are patchwork and now I have this lovely new cushion to show off to my visitors!