A Stitch In Time

Out with the old...

I love a New Year. I like to go into it feeling complete about the previous year and ready for the new. So here are all the Christmas presents I made or bought and photographed, and wanted to show before Christmas but couldn't:



I posted about this earlier and promised to show the final results before the big day but I didn't finish it until Christmas eve...

Here's a bag I made for a friend, inspired by Lisa Congdon's entry in A Crafter's Companion.

And that led onto this bag which I made for my Mum:



My favourite purchases for people included this beautiful (but seemingly impossible to photograph accurately) painting by Amy Ruppel:



It's so much lovelier in real life. Check out her blog for better images of her gorgeous work.
And finally, I bought this for Annie which is a little piece of retro heaven!




I'm not entirely sure it works properly. It stitches fine but I don't know how to secure the ends as it just sews chain stitch with one thread and doesn't leave a long enough end to finish by hand. One tug of the end and the whole chain falls apart, something which Annie, at six years old, finds quite hard to handle without resorting to much wailing and beating of the chest!

Next time I'll complete my final clear-out with pictures of some of the most lovely things I received!

Winter Wonderland

Today was a magical day in Norwich: Ice-artists from Hamilton Ice Sculptors had hand carved ten works of art and placed them at various points throughout the city centre.

It was on from 10 'til 5 but as I was ushering at the cinema I didn't make it until 5.30 and they were starting to melt. Some of the detail had dripped away, but they looked so beautiful lit by the Christmas lights.

 

I only just managed to take the photos in time as I was being chased around by this beast which was scooping them up and taking them away.



Kind of spoiled the romance somewhat.

Advent Stars

As the children have a chocolate advent calendar at their Dad's house this year I decided to try something different.



The Guardian ran a great feature a few weeks ago about alternative ways to celebrate and enjoy the run up to Christmas in their family section. One of the suggestions was to have a chunky advent candle which you light each day and make a wish for the family. Each day you also hang up a star so that by Christmas day your house is bedecked with stars.



They suggested making the stars from thick card and glitter, but we like to use felt and buttons. It's been lovely making the stars with Annie, her stitching attention span doesn't last long, but she loves to choose to colours and buttons.



I've also spotted this on a blog (very lovely posts, and especially interesting to quilters), which I'd like to make a version of to put the stars in, but I think I'll wait til next year.

Shh: It's a secret

I've been so busy making things which I would love to show here, but as they're mostly Christmas presents and the recipients read this (or at least they say they do...), I'll have to wait for a bumper post-Christmas post! In the meantime I'll have to content myself with posting pictures of Christmas decorations!



I have wanted a white tree forever but am only now sufficiently at peace with my kitsch side to let it all out! I would like to claim that I want one for worthy environmental reasons but have to admit I just love the look.



This one is a bit sparse, but it was a bargain price and the salesman told me, as I was entering my pin number, that returns aren't allowed unless the tree's faulty. Which is a bit of a cheek considering there were none on display and the tree in the picture on the box (and in the catalogue) is considerably fuller and altogether more fluffy! I love it anyway, and so do Eliza and Annie.

Have you spotted the deer and Pepa pig family Annie's displayed in the snow around the bottom? It looks like she's inherited my love of naffness... and to be honest I'm very proud!

Feeling festive

We are slowly building up our Christmas decorations. The nativity scene is complete:



I'm really appreciating the effect this is having on our approach to Christmas this year. We're not a religious household; we don't go to church and I try to encourage Annie to take an interest in all world religions and not to accept Christian authority and beliefs without question.



But even so, Christmas is, after all, a celebration of the birth of Jesus, and I do like them to understand where our traditions have come from and their cultural and religious meanings and significance. And even though the temptation to pooh-pooh some of the ideas is fairly overwhelming, I  try to treat Christian beliefs with the same respect I would afford to any other religion.   



The nativity scene has led onto all sorts of intriguing questions, such as (from Eliza), 'why was Jesus a boy?', 'why do the kings have nice clothes and not Mary and Joseph?' and 'why is the little girl (she's not having it!) have straw in her bed?'



I'm not suggesting these conversations are necessarily  contributing to our spiritual  development but I do like the fact that we are thinking about the nativity story, and it's become a central part of our Christmas celebration.

Glad Tidings of Great Joy part two

Well, I'm making some progress, I can't yet change the type (hooray!) but I can now show photos, so here's one I referred to earlier:

This is the kit and here are the contents:

Luckily Annie was as excited as me, so we started as soon as we got home from school; we had great fun making the figures. She loved the little baby Jesus too and chose to make him first. Then we moved onto Mary, two kings and a donkey!

We soon developed a rhythm of working which involved her choosing who was to wear which fabrics with whatever trimmings. Then she did all the decorating  while I concentrated on the construction. She showed a lovely flair for design although I'm not sure the virgin Mary would have had blond plaits!