And suddenly Christmas is on again

 The first I knew about it was when DS came downstairs, all excited that he would get to see his girlfriend at Christmas and to ask if she could come to stay. So we had that discussion and then awaited the announcement the following day.  It wasn't until almost 24 hours later that I suddenly had the 'oh sh*t' moment and realised that we were now duty-bound to invite the in-laws.  I had become so accustomed to the idea that we were going to have a cosy locked down Christmas to ourselves that it took me a while to change gears.  So we made that offer, the in-laws don't want to come up to us but we've agreed to go down to them for lunch during the permitted visiting period over Christmas.  And the girlfriend will be coming for a few days as well.

On the subject of Christmas, I received my first Christmas card yesterday in a strangely well padded envelope. It turned out to be a card from a woman whose name I didn't recognise (no surname given, no return address), and she had enclosed a Santa-embellished face mask and a cute little memo pad.  The card thanked me for 'all my hard work'. After puzzling over this for a minute or so, I realised that it must be from the woman of that first name who manages our whole virtual team, my boss's boss. I don't have anything to do with her, apart from listening while she waffles on for hour-long pointless meetings a few times a week and don't really rate her, and am unlikely to ever meet her physically in real life.  I'm sure she meant well but honestly I felt a little invaded to have my virtual work life suddenly arrive in my actual personal home. I don't think in the 'old' days that even though managers probably had access to your home address, that they would just casually send things to you at it, your personal information was there for emergency contact and sending official letters.  I suppose it's another aspect of life that has changed now that we are all working virtually and I'm showing my age by having any qualms about it.

I finished joining my Bucks lace edging back onto itself.  I didn't do a great job as the join is visible on the right side when you look for it, but it's unobtrusive and I've hidden it in a gathered part of the lace.

The join is where you can see the raised edge running along

one of the 'zigs'. 

After darning in the ends as unobtrusively as I could manage, I am now tacking the loop of lace onto the linen fabric I am using for my mat.  I've mounted the fabric into a frame to try to keep it flat while I add the lace, to avoid ending up with a concave mat that won't sit flat.  In this picture the lace is just pinned on, but I've started basting it with a small running stitch to the fabric.  After it's all basted, I will stitch it on permanently with either a small buttonhole stitch by hand, or a 'three-cornered' stitch.  I am once again using Jean Withers book 'Mounting and Using Lace' as my guide.

I've been doing a little quilting most evenings on my 25 block applique quilt, it's going faster than I thought and I'm on the third block now.  I have switched to a smaller round hoop as I found the big square hoop I started with was too cumbersome when I am having to turn the work so often.  When I get tired of quilting, I switch to knitting on the pink shoulder shawl which is growing steadily now.

I've also cut out pieces for another dress, using a pattern I traced off a purchased vintage-inspired dress that I like.  I'm using quilting cotton again because it's cheap and readily available online. I'm rather pleased with how the collar has turned out, I learned how to finish the raw edge with bias tape from watching a Youtube video.  Hopefully it will fit, although I find it difficult to trace a flat pattern from a 3D object so I'm not entirely confident about the sleeves and armholes.

I ventured to Wilko for a few bits and bobs, it was still open despite the lockdown. While I was there, I picked up a cheap packet of fake holly leaves and berries.  A bit of crafting turned them into a Christmas brooch, and I even found an old packet of glitter glue for a bit of bling.

Have your Christmas plans been changed by the announcement? Or are you in agreement with my in-laws, who think it will all change again and we'll be locked down anyhow?