It's an online Christmas

 I spent a surprisingly exhausting 2.5 hours online one evening this week, hunting down and ordering the various Christmas presents from us-to-others, and from otherswhocan'torderonlinethemselves-to-us.  A couple of things I have just sent directly to the recipients because it seemed a bit pointless to have it delivered to us, wrapped, and then I have to go back to the post office and pay to send it to them (and during the christmas mail rush which could cause delays).  Not very christmassy I guess for them, but hopefully they will understand that's it's a weird year.  Yesterday we strung the lights in front of the house and had them on for the first time last night, they look nice.  And we went to get our christmas tree.  Our go-to Christmas tree shop doesn't seem to get big trees in anymore, but for the sake of convenience we took the biggest one they had anyway which is only about 7 feet tall.  Like last year, I won't get all my ornaments onto it but I'm sure it will still look lovely.  We've got it stashed in the front porch (where it takes up most of the space because they couldn't net it, it was too big to go through their netting hoop) and will set it up this coming week.  My 'office xmas party' is an online zoom call this coming week, as is the christmas party for a little sewing group I belong to on Facebook.  I am getting to the point where I am starting to hate Zoom calls - I'm sure I'm not alone.  We use MS Teams for work meetings which is almost as bad.  A few people always dominate the conversation, so you can't talk naturally.  Sometimes I start to talk but Zoom always seems to prioritise certain other people's microphones (stronger signal maybe?) so noone hears my attempt and I get talked over.  My mike is working, don't get me wrong, but I need a clear gap in the conversation before I can make my input.  So I end up mostly listening and then I get bored and find it hard to pay attention.  I am also completely fed up with the endless cycle of 'you're on mute, no you have to bring your mike down it's above your head, ha ha I was on mute' ...repeat ad inifinitum.  Then there are a couple of people at work who have permanently dodgy  internet connections so whenever they say anything (and one of them is quite talkative), about every third word cuts out so it's really hard to understand them.  Mustn't complain, working from home was my goal for most of my working life and it used to be the unattainable holy grail (along with part time working).   ha ha be careful what you wish for!

I finished the vintage style dress I was sewing.  It's made from quilting cotton which isn't ideal dress material but I got it cheap online.  The pattern I had drafted from an existing dress worked out well apart from a bit of discrepancy in the shoulders/side seams between the front and back which I've now fixed.  The dress fits very similarly to the purchased dress which I'm pleased about. So if I ever get to a fabric store again and can get some nicer fabric, I know I've got a pattern that works.

I've finished basting the bucks point edging to the mat fabric, the lace strip was long enough which was a relief. So next I will start doing the three-cornered stitch that secures the lace permanently to the fabric.

I've been enjoying my little Japanese appliqued pouch project this week.  I used my Appliquik tools again for the applique.  I watched a few more Youtube videos on how to use them, and I got on a bit better this time.  Certainly for the really tiny pieces like the windows, they were a big help.  I constructed this scene in stages: firstly assembling the main house/tree block and appliquing that to the background fabric, then seaming the grey fabric on, then appliquing on the smaller details and currently I am adding the embroidered finishing touches.  Just need to add some french knot flowers to the flower tubs and to the wreath.  Cat included for scale.

I've also been knitting on my pink shoulder capelet.  There are about 300 stitches so each row takes a while, but now I'm starting to decrease to shape the capelet for the shoulder.

When I get tired of knitting 300-stitch rows, I switch to my 25-block applique quilt or do some cross-stitching on my little house sampler.  Little by little, they will get done eventually. I did take some time out last week to stitch a Christmas card but I forgot to take a picture before I sent it off!