Tree Skirt

Last year I sent my husband to buy a Christmas tree - he returned with a rather short offering which must only have been a metre high! This year, seeing that we moved house in March and the living room has a 10 foot ceiling, I decided to supervise the purchase. I am happy to report that I have a 7-8 foot spruce in the bay window! Also after years of refusing to buy a Christmas tree stand and subsequent years of innovative methods of housing trees, I gave in and bought a green metal stand.

Last week, while recovering from a nasty chest infection, I made a tree skirt to cover the stand and I am very pleased with the results. I adapted the tree skirt tutorial on the Crazy mom quilts blog. Instead of making log-cabin blocks I used a 'Crazy Eight' charm pack and arranged 6x6 charms. This was basted , backed and stippled before cutting an opening in the quilt sandwich. The skirt was then bound with a complimentary fabric and applied to the base of the tree. I really love it and am pleased that I've managed to complete one Christmas sewing fabric project. There are a few UFOs floating around - I think this year's Christmas quilt is going to be a New Year quilt seeing as the matching backing fabric I ordered has been stuck in the snow post for the last week ...

Christmas Baking

I am sort of snowed in...
We had snow on Friday and again yesterday - a bit of a surprise given our coastal location. During the previous snowfall at the end of November/beginning of December I think Swansea was pretty much the only green spot in the country! The snow itself wouldn't be a problem if I didn't live on a very steep hill (see pics in previous blog entry) and wasn't nearly 34 weeks pregnant! My husband gave me strict instructions not to leave the house yesterday and today - all the snow is frozen and quite hazardous! He had to park his car at the bottom of the hill so he would actually be able to get to work!!

We've been indulging in crafting and baking in our house instead. Last week I made a batch of peppermint cream dough and made Sophia's teacher some peppermint stars as a thank you gift. These were wrapped in cellophane and decorated with a handmade knitted stocking! The pattern can be found on the Little Cotton Rabbits blog.

Yesterday Sophia and I made a gingerbread house - I've made one every year since she was born! We still have a little bit more decorating work to finish - but that can be this afternoon's activity! I hope to try some Christmas shortbread and Rosie's chocolate star recipe too!

Snow Day!

More Wedding Quilt

Here are a few more snaps of my brother's wedding quilt shot with the Hipstamatic app on my iphone. I hope to post pics of more festive projects this coming week as well as Maggie's quilt- which I MUST take to the post office!

Wedding Quilt

My brother's wedding quilt top completed. This was made using a Moda 'Botany' jelly roll. This, would you believe, has been basted, quilted and bound and pics will be uploaded shortly - as soon as I've downloaded them from my phone!

School Quilt

I made this quilt for Sophia's class at school. Year 1 is now part of the 'Foundation Phase' in primary education and over the summer break a new class was prepared at the school for this purpose. Previously the classroom had mainly been used for music lessons and storage so the teachers had their work cut out getting it ready for the autumn term. The result was fabulous considering the state of the room to begin with - we as parents were asked if we could donate any fabric/coloured paper and the like to help in the decoration process. I offered to make a quilt for the class - this has now been placed in the 'Cwtch Darllen' (best translation I can think of is 'Reading Snug').

The quilt is made using a 'punctuation' charm pack by Moda. The squares were cut in half to form 2.5" x 5" rectangles which I then sewed in rows. Initially I had a stacked coin quilt in mind but then decided to arrange the rectangles horizontally instead of vertically. The sashing is also a moda print from the 'Whimsy' range, while the backing fabric was purchased in Ikea some 3 years ago and has been waiting for an appropriate project ever since.

I am quite pleased with the quilting - this consists of quilted parallel lines along the whole quilt. Actually parallel lines are featuring largely in several of my ongoing projects this week!

Colour Day

It's 'Children in Need' today. Sophia's school is having a colour day to raise money - every year in the school has to dress in a different colour. I am pretty sure that year 1 drew the short straw as they have to dress in orange! As a natural redhead I do have a slight aversion to the colour orange so had nothing suitable in the house. I searched high and low online and locally in a bid to find an orange garment with no luck at all! In the end I resorted to good old home sewing and (call me mad) made Sophia a dress in the offending colour! I adapted a pattern from 'Carefree Clothes for Girls' This is a Japanese book with some lovely ideas for girlswear - I have to admit that the hems and edges are a bit raw and unfinished for my liking but very inspirational ideas none the less. I snapped a few pics of the work in progress as well as the finished article. On the camera front I have retrieved the memory card from the computer, however, these pics were snapped with my iphone - I gave in and bought the 'Hipstamatic' app everyone raves about. I thought the blurred edges complemented the retro fabric used in the dress. Incidentally this was from Jeanean Morrison's 'California Dreamin' range.