Christmassy postcards

Now that we have decorated the house for Christmas, I will show again my fabric postcard hanger - this time, with wintery and Christmassy postcards in.  They'll stay like this until early January, when I'll take out the really Christmassy things (leaving the snow scenes, snowmen, and other things which were just wintery, and adding a few other things which seem wintery).   Here are a few closeups...

Advent Calendar, Day 7: Christmas Tree

You might be able to work out from the mini-quilt I chose this morning, what we'll be doing later today...

A few more ATCs

Here are some lovely finished cards, for which I sent out the starter.  These I think are fantastic. The starter had (it's hard to see, but if you enlarge the picture you can make it out) a gold crow stamped on the background - the other ladies working on this card have turned a rather ordinary crow into a fancy bird with a great label - a really interesting finish!

I love working with letters, but sometimes they can be a bit challenging, so I don't often send them out as starters. This was an exception - and I like what's been done - good fun!

And this one is a simple, effective finish to these starters. I am almost always very pleased with what I get back from my starters - it's a good way to inspire yourself, too, as people make lots of choices you might not make yourself and use materials you wouldn't think to...

Advent Calendar, Day 6: Drum

Chosen by Alex, who obviously has a fondness for loud instruments...  I'm sure if there had been a trumpet, he'd have chosen that.

Bird is the Word

I am hosting a swap on my trading forum called Bird is the Word - all ATCs must feature one or more birds and at least one word - more is fine, too.  These are the cards that I made for the swap, but there is a huge variety coming in for the swap - some with one or two words, some with string of poetry - I will try to post a montage of them at the end of the swap, as they are all super!

Advent Calendar, Day 5: Train

Every year, someone (in my house) asks me what trains have to do with Christmas - probably because I don't really know why they are Christmassy, except that there are often trains around the bottoms of Christmas trees and whatnot.  And there's the Polar Express, I guess.   For whatever reason, there's a train among the mini-quilts, and Sarah chose to put it up today. 

Cross stitch update

I almost didn't post this, because it's very not exciting, but Wednesday Cross-stitch update is a tradition of sorts on this blog, so I decided to go ahead - this is the start of the chickadee. It's literally only the very start, but I switched to stitching down some binding rather than cross-stitching, so I didn't get much done even though I had several whole evenings (I did get a small quilt and half a larger quilt bound, though). 

Here's what it will look like when finished...

Advent Calendar, Day 4: Star

Olivia's choice today - no particular reason other than the fact that she likes it.

Background info...

An ATC swap with a difference - we are only swapping backgrounds - that is, not complete cards, just starting points. I've done this before, and you get a really varied set of different backgrounds to work on, some simple, some more elaborate. It's then fun trying to work out how to use them in future!

My two sets are on the simple side - the top one is a Greek text page, sprayed with gold and teal or purple spray ink (the teal jammed after the first card, so I switched to purple) and the bottom one is a piece of black paper with a strip of black and gold washi tape, and some gold crayon on the paper. Should be easy enough to work with!

Advent Calendar, Day 3: Santa Hat

Complete with 3D fluffy pompom, of course!  Alex chose this because he has to take a Santa Hat to Scouts tonight for some mysterious, undisclosed reason...

Cross-stitch update

Finished the section of the Faith birds - only 3 more to go - but not until after Christmas. I decided to start the chickadee next, as I'd like to get it finished before Christmas (to give as a gift) - but I will also get some seasonal stuff out soon...

Advent Calendar, Day 2: Mitten

One of the problems with photographing the little quilts in my advent calendar is that they have lots of metallic elements in the fabric, so they go a bit glarey if I use a flash. And of course, the chance of getting good natural light this time of year...  Anyway, you get the general picture, even if there's a bit of shine to it!  Mitten today, chosen by me, because I was cold this morning...

Finished heart quilt

Here it is, with the binding sewn down. Sweet, I think (but then I'm partial to brown and black, myself). 

Advent Calendar, Day 1: Wreath

I don't think I blogged my advent calendar last year (I try not to do it every year), so I'm going to share it again this year. This is a calendar I paper pieced some years ago, which we always enjoy. Every year, the days go up in slightly different order, except for a few, which always go up on certain days (like the tree picture, on the day we put the tree up). This one, the wreath, often goes up first, as I tend to put a Christmas wreath on the door on December 1st, when we put out our advent calendars (any other Christmas decorations have to wait a week or two). 

Pile of hand sewing...

I know, it doesn't look all that exciting, but this is a pile of quilted pieces, all waiting to have binding sewn onto them.  Including two small pieces I forgot I had waiting (they got under a different pile of stuff and sort of got lost).  There are 5 pieces all together, waiting to be bound. And one Scout shirt, which needs two badges sewn on.  Ho hum.  But that won't take long, I'm sure...

Some more round robin cards

Here are a few more in my collection of now finished round robins. These are all ones where I sent out the starting card, and two others have added things to them. 

It's always interesting to see who adds one small thing, who adds more (though you don't always know exactly who has added what, sometimes). 

These three sets all have fairly straightforward additions; sometimes the cards are much more changed.  Both ways of working can produce great cards!

ATCs - Altered Jacks

I'm taking part in a long-term swap of altered playing cards - all featuring butterflies in some guise or other - these are the Jacks I am sending for the swap - we aren't very far into it yet (you don't have to committ to all the cards, but I know that, being the type of personality I am, I will do all of them!).  At the end, we will all have a lovely, complete deck of altered playing cards, featuring butterflies.Very cool!

Cross stitch update

Nearly finished (but not quite) with this section of the pink bird stitchery - just the little bird to finish stitching and the bottom border.  Then there are 3 more sections along the bottom part of the piece, of which I have the pattern for one (so I'm only a tiny bit behind), but although I will go ahead and finish this little section off before I swap pieces, I won't do the next one until after I bring out some seasonal stuff and work on that. Yes, including the angels (though I might bring out the Winter Wonderland piece before the angels)!

For a friend

Lana (my friend who is a longarmer) and I have a mutual friend who has been undergoing yet another round of treatment for breast cancer, so together, we've decided to make a quilt for her - I had a suitable top in stash, and she quilted it. I will try to get it bound as soon as I can, but it's a hellishly busy week, so it will probably be the weekend before I can get to it.  It's come out well, though, I think!

Giveaway

A couple of cross-stitch patterns to pass on - this Hallowe'en pattern is by The Trilogy and it's calld Boo: Tall Trios.  Finished design size is 32stitches wide x115H (2x7.2" on 32 count over two threads). Uses Gentle Art and Weeks Dye Works colours, though of course you could sub if you wanted to.  Pattern only. 

Again, pattern only. This is by the Historical Sampler Company, called Autumn Boxes - part of a seasonal series (I have the other three as well, but haven't stitched them yet).  28x13cm finished size, working on 32 count over two. Chart uses DMC colours. 

If you are interested in either chart (or both), leave a comment and in a week or so, I'll send them along (having drawn names, if lots of interest).