It's the final countdown to Christmas. We picked up DS today and he is back in his old room until New Year's which is nice. I'm enjoying seeing all my homemade christmas decorations around the house from across the years, including this quilt from a few years ago, and a light-up wallhanging panel on the door from several years ago. The patchwork tree shaped decoration on the wainscoting was made by my m-i-l many years ago.
I finished up the little Kimono walhanging from the kit that I bought at Festival of Quilts a few years ago. I used Thermore wadding which is so soft and drapey that the little quilt is hanging really well. In fact, it is hanging so well that I haven't actually added any further quilting to it. It is fairly narrow and I think has sufficient structural integrity just from its own seams.
Today I started cutting out the New Zealand Kiwiana fabrics that I bought in Auckland this spring. I'm going to make a 'Turning Twenties Around the Block' design from the booklet by Tricia Cribbs. I have about 25 different fabrics so it is going to be a pretty crazy quilt which I think I will have to fully design on the design wall to make sure the directional fabrics are pointing the right way up and that the fabrics are as balanced as they can be. It's nice to see all the NZ motifs and to remember my trip around the North and South islands.
I'm still stitching on the cross stitch christmas ornament although I doubt I am going to actually finish by the 25th. I continue to quilt the Embroidered Blocks Quilt on the frame, I've quilted all the pieced blocks and am now tackling the embroidered blocks which are demanding a lot more decisions. My dollshouse build is approaching its conclusion, at least of the main build - there will still be all the furnishing and accessorising part which is not my favourite.
My Christmas Kep knitted hat is progressing well: I joined the folded brim into the main hat the same way you that do a three needle bind-off, then discovered that the needle size changes I had made on the inside brim while I was struggling to get the right tension, had resulted in an inner brim which was a bit shorter than the outer brim. So I cut the yarn and wet blocked the incomplete hat right away, to see if the inner brim was going to stretch and flatten out sufficiently. Which it did luckily. So I've started on the second repeat of the main hat now.
Wishing you all a very happy Christmas, and with best wishes for the new year and lots of quality crafting time!