Advent Calendar - the comparison!

Though I've had my calendar for many years, I apparently have only blogged it/photographed it 6 times - I know I haven't blogged it every time because I thought it was kind of boring for those few people who read my blog... Next year, I might do the day-by-day rundown again - I haven't done that in quite a few years and it's probably time again. In the meantime, here's a comparison of the finished product from this year (above)  and a few others:

2014

2012 (yes, we did have our room painted between 2012 and 2014!)

2011

2008

2007

The only thing which is completely consistent is that we always put the baby Jesus last, on Christmas Day.  Many years, we put the wreath up on the first of December, as that's when our wreath goes on our front door - but we're not wedded to our ways, so it varies.

Cross stitch update

Not bad progress for a week which included sewing the binding down on something as part of the evening stitching...I managed to get all the way around the outside of the bottom of the border in the second colour of red (there are 4, plus the yellow & gold of the letters and the gold outside the red) and start back on the insde, at the right hand side. 

And I finished off this little piece, which didn't need a lot, but still took most of two evenings.  Now it will be back to some of the non-seasonal stuff I have going - the 13 colonies piece probably alternating with other stuff - I have a couple of smaller pieces in progress.

Roman Stripes - the beginning

At the moment, these blocks are just strip blocks, but I intend to use half of each of them (there are more than three, but that's what would fit in the photo) with some of the leftover backing fabric from the quilt I attached binding to the other day, to create some Roman stripes. Should be a fun quilt - great for the teenage stash at Linus/Teenage Cancer Trust.

Something completely different

Feeling the need to stitch something - anything - I decided to make use of the leftover bits of backing from the quilt I attached binding to yesterday, and strips of the three fabrics I used as binding for that quilt. I also threw in some difficult fabrics I've had lying around, and started making strip blocks with a view to Roman Stripes, in the fullness of time. Of course, I didn't get much done yet, but there's always tomorrow.

Some binding to stitch down

Something I've been meaning to do for a while was get the binding attached to this quilt so I could finish the quilt up for a gift in the new year. Finally got a chance to do that!  Now it just remains to stitch the binding down, but with all the film watching in the evenings, that should take no time at all...

Little Lonely Leftovers

There are four more pictures than spaces in the advent calendar, so something is always left out... It's no surprise to me that the snowman was one of the unused ones this year - not only did it not snow, but it hasn't even been cold this December, so I don't think any of us much felt like a snowman was the right picture for the day!

Full Advent Calendar

Because of the layout, my advent calendar has 25 spaces, so there's a spot for Christmas day. Here it is, with all our choices for this year slotted in.  I should go back to previous years and compare how the finished product turns out!

Pink Panther and mini quilt

A bloggy friend of mine in the US was showing this fabric on Facebook a while back and I admired it - she offered to pick some up for me (it was very inexpensive) and send it to my mother's house in the US - an offer which I took up gladly. However, as my mother wasn't visiting me until Christmas, I didn't get the fabric right away - when I did get the envelope and open it up, to my surprise I also found this lovely little mini quilt inside!

Isn't it sweet?  And aren't (as I've said before and no doubt will say again) bloggy people really nice?

Cross Stitch Update

As I predicted, I finished this piece - there was very little left to do. Which meant that I finally got around to picking up the angels piece (aka Christmas Nemesis).

I've done a small amount of filling in, in the centre (still some to do, but it's fiddly, a few stitches here, a few there) and have made good progress on joining up the border. I will probably only stitch on this one another week - there's a small piece I'd like to finish as well before the holiday spirit leaves me. And anyway, it wouldn't be Christmas without the angels, so I wouldn't want to actually finish the piece!

A bit more Christmas sewing

Amidst all the hubub of Christmas (and with having my mother as a houseguest) there's not quite as much time to sew as I might like. But I did take a few minutes to finish putting together the blocks from these small squares of Christmas fabric. What I will do with them, I'm not sure - I'm planning a Christmassy project as a gift for someone; perhaps they will be part of that.

Advent Calendar Update

Christmas is nearly here!

Skirt!

After weeks of being far too busy to do anything, finally a little time to work on Olivia's skirt.  She's nearly done now - and in fact, it's wearable, though she'd like to add a row of buttons down the front middle for effect. 

ATC Friday

Some more finished cards - these were ones which I started, which eventually came back to me after having two others work on them. 

It's interesting how different cards can be!

Block Set Update

One out, a few in. If I do get some sewing time over Christmas, I'll try to get through some of these sets. Who knows if that will happen - Christmas seems to be stacking up to be almost as busy as the rest of the year...but at least most of it is fun!

Cross Stitch Update

In theory, I should have switched to the Angels this week, but it's not that I'm avoiding it, really, it's just that this one is so nearly finished, I can't resist carrying on with it.  Only a few tiny bits to go - the outside of the flower on the M of "Merry", one more dangling heart and a couple of stitches for elf noses. After that, it's back to the nemesis, though!

Advent Calendar Update

The end of row 3 - only 10 days til Christmas. Someone asked about choosing which picture to put on each day - we don't have a specific order, we just put up what seems right on the day. Family tradition means we tend to put up the Christmas tree picture the day we put up the tree, or if it snows (not this year!) we put up the snowman... But really, it's just whatever the person choosing feels like putting up.

A little bit Christmassy

I don't have a large stash of Christmas fabrics (in fact, that's all of it, above), and most of it is pretty gentle - no really strident reds, for instance. I've made a Christmas quilt in the past and am probably not going to make another fancy one, but I decided it might be nice to do a little scrappy one, either to keep or give away. So I decided to keep it really simple, and just use squares.  I don't know how much of the fabric I'll use, I'll just make blocks until I get bored of them and see where that takes me!

Here's a start - strips, cut into squares, stitched into twos and then fours...

Block Lotto, part 2

...and here they are - the finished blocks. These are long strip shaped blocks, which when put together with other scrappy blocks from other folks, will make a great scrap quilt. I might even make some more like this for myself to use for something. But not in the next few days - though I do have a few weeks off over Christmas and might even get a little sewing done. I won't hold my breath.  I'm running out of things to blog as I've caught up with a lot of my past stuff and haven't had time to stitch much of anything new lately!

Block Lotto, part 1

It's been some time since I've been able to play in the Block Lotto. This month, not only is the block quick and simple (which always helps for me - not that they are usually very complicated, but this one is even less so than normal), but it uses scraps, which also really appeals. 

Watch this space...

ATC Friday

Some finished ATCs - these are all ones where I've added the final touches to cards which two people have already worked on. I don't have photos of what they looked like when they were first started, but you can see what I decided to add...

Advent Calendar

End of the second row - 3 more to go!

Cross Stitch Update

Some work doen on this - you can sort of see what stage it was at before, in the below picture. I added snow to the tree branches and started on the star above "Merry". 

What's left

As a descrapping exercise, this one was pretty good - got rid of all of my 3.5" squares, and some of my 4" squares.

Of course, there's a good selection of scraps for both the scrapbasket and the strip bag...