Happy Christmas

 The Christmas decorations are all up, it took me a few days.  The tree is overstuffed as usual even though I gave away a lot of less desirable ornaments the last few years.  We bought the biggest tree  that our local garden centre had, it's a nice one this year and so far hanging on to its needles.  The last few years we have donated to a local hospice who collect and recycle the trees in the new year, so we will do that again.  A lot of the ornaments I've kept were handmade by me, or by friends, so it's nice to see them all on display again. Also the christmas quilts and wallhangings, table mats etc.

I am making slow progress on my Christmas cross stitch sampler, stitching on it most days.  I'm not a fast stitcher so I am not going to finish by New Years probably.  But it feels festive to have something seasonal to stitch.

Also slow is progress on the Gail Pan embroidered blocks quilt.  Between having to recalculate measurements for each puzzle block (all different), then piece the block, then hand sew the EPP hexies on each block, it takes a lot of time and brain power.  I'm currently starting block 5 of 6, so it's getting there. I haven't done all the hexies yet.  Still thinking I might sash the blocks rather than have it all run together in a big mishmash.

I took the unicorn quilt over to my son's house and gifted it to his partner - she was thrilled with it.  She doesn't sew, so views the creation of quilts as partly magic, I think, lol.  She was already cuddling up in it when we left. They are both very quilt-worthy recipients.

With the unicorn quilt off the frame, I loaded up a test piece to try out the Baptist Fan pattern with my new circle quilting rulers that I got for my birthday a while back.  The rulers work really well for the arcs, but the troublesome bit is where you have to re-sew on a previously stitched line to move into the correct position to start the next arc.  I am finding that hard to do neatly although I got better over two rows of practice.  Two of the videos I learned from have you start from the bottom left corner, so that's what I did.  I've now loaded an actual quilt for the first attempt which is the Checkered Dresden Plate from several months ago, and have only just realised that normally on a frame, you start quilting from the top of the quilt - not the bottom.  So now I have to either re-learn how to do the pattern upside down, working from the top.  Or, I could baste the entire quilt (with the machine) so that I can safely wind it onto the frame rollers,  down to the bottom edge.  I might have a dummy go without turning the machine on, to see how awkward it feels trying the pattern upside down.

This is a test piece I have used in the past, so there are other quilting lines already underneath the fan practice.

Circle rulers of 4", 6", 8", 10" and 12"

I have braved the cold basement to set up a new warp on my loom, to weave some sock yarn cloth that I may sew into a pouch or bag.  I used up two skeins of sock yarn (from my large stash) for the warp but ran out before I could completely fill the loom.  The weft is a variegated sock yarn, with plaid stripes from a grey sock yarn.  I may try slightly felting it once it's off the loom although the sock yarn may not have enough wool content for it to felt.  DH says it looks like heather colours.  It feels good to be using the sock yarn for something, I went a bit mad with buying skeins back in my 'socks and shawl knitting' craze and now I have more socks and shawls than anyone needs but still loads of skeins to use up.

Despite the above statement, I have also been working on the new pair of Christmas socks with the wool I bought in Salzburg.   I'm using the usual vanilla sock pattern that I have committed to memory, but I am experimenting with reducing the needle size to tighten the ankle of the sock.  I have larger calves so when I typically knit a sock cuff in a tube, if it fits the calf then it's baggy at the ankle. I'll return to a normal needle size when I start the heel flap and hope that it will fit better.

In papercrafts, as well as making a few more inserts for journals, I printed off and made this mini Christmas journal from a Youtube video.  Quite cute and turned out fairly well, it has now joined the Christmas decorations. Fun to do something so cute and small, and with everything included that you need.

On small dollshouse kits completion, this week I painted up about a dozen small plaster cast minis from World of Miniatures - things like crates, barrels, buckets, tubs etc. in various scales.  I put some of the smaller ones in the kitchen and outbuilding of my Japanese house.  I had a ton of World of Miniature kits because at one show they had a going out of business sale and I picked up a bunch of bargains.  I also made a freestanding advertising board display from them, and am currently trying to make a 1:24th chair.  I stained the chair pieces before gluing, and so far the stain has successfully repelled both wood glue and tacky glue and the chair just falls apart when I pick it up.  The chair may be going in the bin soon.

DS will be coming home for Christmas soon - currently he has a cold and we have politely declined to import his germs so we are just waiting for him to get better.  I suppose the day is coming when he will want to celebrate christmas at his own house but for now we still get to enjoy a family christmas together.  I think if we were on our own for Christmas, just the two of us, we would be tempted to go away but the issue is that, in the UK, you have to book Christmas hotels or trips a year in advance.  And DS probably wouldn't decide until a month in advance, lol. There's no rush.

Wishing you all a merry christmas, and best wishes for a happy new year.  Hope Santa brings you lots of crafty goodies.