Catching Up.

Whew!  I went back to work in March, and time sort of got away from me.  However, I have finally gotten back on track and have my March:

April:

and May projects done. 

 They're free-standing machine embroidery with applique, so they still need to have the stabilizer backing washed away, but I find it easier to do them all at once. 

Here's to staying on track for the rest of the year!  :)

Aussie Bush Christmas

One day late for month of March item but I have a good excuse - we are travelling around northern Queensland at the moment and most of you will appreciate there is a distinct lack of telecommunication up here.  Currently at Dimbulah with internet access so I took the opportunity to post my Christmas item. The photo is not very good. It is a Smee Design called Aussie Bush Christmas. Printed in colour on 100% cotton. Stitched in DMC threads. The pattern is mainly backstitched but I have added a few different stitches as I got bored with the backstitch! Only the embroidery is finished this month as I will have to wait until I get home in July to add the borders to make a lovely wall-hanging for one of my overseas children.

Aussie Bush Christmas, embroidery complete

A mini quilt for March

I bought myself a smallish Christmas tree last year

since all my full-grown Christmas stuff is still in storage,

and I'd had enough of not having a tree up :)

It's one of those fibre optic ones, 

really pretty lights :)

However it also has this awful ugly pot

at it's base, yuk!

Now I have a proper little tree quilt

ready for this Christmas

(less than nine months away! eek)

It's about 23" across,

and all from scraps, yay :)

Sisbabe

An Ornament Finish and a Bit of Progress

This month I sewed a crazy quilted circle I completed last October into a Christmas ornament. Sewing circles is not my strong point. Thanks to the beaded edging tutorial I found at Hokkaido Kudasai, it looks a bit more round than it originally did.  

The ornament will be a gift.

On my larger projects, I made a tiny bit of progress. I added a few more snowflakes to my Winter/Christmas wall quilt. Next month, I am going to try adding a flake a day so I might actually finish it this year. (I love the look of the snowflakes, but find I am very s-l-o-w at embroidering them.)

I also finished the little tree scene at the bottom of the Christmas stocking I am working on. (I believe the Santa cross-stitch was from the book Alma Lynne's Country Cross-Stitch. I no longer have the book, so I'm not positive.) My goal is to finish the embroidery on this by next month's update.

Narelle, thank you for your behind the scenes work with our Christmas Workshop. It provides me with motivation when I find mine lacking (or other projects screaming louder for attention.)

Click Go The Needles

Click, click, click ... my knitting needles have been getting short bursts of use in the past week. The first glimmer of a Christmas gift almost ready to go into safe keeping.

I just love working with this wool ... it's called "Giggle" and I get 2 cloths from one ball. They make amazing dust cloths and super soft wash cloths. I also have a ball of white for baby wash cloths.

Wonder how busy our workshop has been this month?

March Finish

It looks like a lot of people are going to get pillows for Christmas, now that I found the tutorial on Geta Grama's site. They really are fast, though I'm slower than she is! I think it took me 20 minutes, but it was my first one. Now I want to experiment with piecing my own fabric for it. The only thing I will change is using 38" instead of 40". I thought the overlap was too large, more than I usually make, and it made the pillow hard to get in the cover.
 

  This fabric is a soft yellow, with pretty spring flowers on it. I must have succumbed to the lure of spring outside my window, with birds singing and the windows open all over the house. It's 77 out there and sunny off and on!

Happy New Year 2016

Happy New Year to all elves and may we all have a very successful year in our merry little workshop. Thank you for all you have shared in previous years and I'm sure we are all looking forward to seeing pictures of all the amazing creations to make Christmas 2016 a Happy Handmade Christmas.

It's as simple as following these 3 steps:

1.  Get busy in the sewing room with

     a)   an item which you will use as a decoration in your home at Christmas  OR

     b)  an item to be given as a gift at Christmas  OR

     c)  one large project for the year and post your progress each month.

2.  Post a picture of your finished item (or progress on your large project) between the 25th and end of that month. Please use month 2016 in the label or the month in your title.

3.  No stress allowed ... no problem if you miss a month ... join in again when you can.

PLEASE NOTE:
Can I please ask participants to comment on this post or send an email -  pinsandwhiskers(at)gmail(dot)com - if you wish to take part in 1 Xmas Item A Month for 2016. Our door is always open and new Elves are most welcome to join us in the workshop.  I have already taken note of comments and added the following names as 2016 Elves.  Michell, Jeanette, Sisbabe, Raewyn, Maria in NC, Renee and Myself.