Merry Christmas and Happy Stitching

It's probably a bit silly posting Christmas greetings on Boxing Day, but I thought I might as well peak a bit late rather than never. So Merry Christmas to you all, and happy stitching!

I have been working extra days this month, the uni students have been gearing up to move out from under our roof, and we have been preparing for the mama and the dadda with the bubba to take their place in this homely half-way house. We have also been planning our Summer holiday, stockpiling camping gear and essential items for a 4WD trip into the Victorian high country, oh, and in between times, wondering how on earth we were going to manage to fit in Christmas.

There was a half-hearted attempt at Christmas decorating; a small tree up on a side table, away from the marauding Watson, a small collection of Santa Claus figurines, and an arrangement of red and white china on the wine cabinet. 

My dear Anna-Lou shopped and cooked up a storm to try and save me from the usual post-Christmas meltdown. She bought the ham, cooked two Christmas cakes, made salted caramel macadamia slice and Rocky Road. She prepared the summer pudding for breakfast, baked frittata, churned a rich and delicious apricot ice-cream and peeled and baked all the veggies. An angel she is. :)

Christmas is done and dusted now, and Boxing Day has been lazily spent drinking tea and eating cake, taking naps throughout the warm afternoon, and imbibing in a spot of knitting (finally).

The mumma and the dadda and the bubba have come to stay, ensconced in their rooms at the other end of the house. The warmth of the day has given way to cooling rain, and all is at peace.  I am working on a knitted dinosaur for baby R (six months old now!).

I am working with this gorgeous Morris & Sons Empire 8-ply 'Arcadia' yarn. I haven't used it before, but it knits up into a beautiful even fabric, and the variegated colours are very appropriate for a prehistoric reptile methinks.

But I am off to make tea, eat chocolate and watch an episode of Foyle's War with my beloved. I hope that your Christmas season has been filled with peace and joyous things.

Evie :)

Little Santa and the Etsy Store

Last week I was working on getting my little Santa pattern knocked into shape, with a view to FINALLY getting my Etsy Store up and running. Making my own patterns has never been a problem; so many times I just sketch something on paper, cut it out and stitch it into existence. But taking my fudged-together paper bits and taking them through the transformative design process has long proved to be a stumbling block.

But this time I was determined to push through the pain barrier and work it through to completion. And I did. It took my entire weekend to tweak the pattern, produce the sample (thereby testing my own instructions), tweak the pattern again, take a thousand dodgy photographs, and finally get to the point where I thought it was done.

And then we come to opening an Etsy Store ...

There is no such thing as just-opening-an-Etsy-Store. Fair dinkum, it felt like writing a job application for a position for which I was ill-qualified! I confess to being quite the novice, and not exactly possessing a head for business, it became a long, drawn-out, and tiresome exercise. But I was as diligent as I could possibly be, and I now have my shop up and functioning, complete with polite little policies, a few pretty pictures, and a PDF pattern!

It is hopefully the first of many. A meagre offering perhaps, but it does feel so very good to have put a drop in my bucket of dreams. I have two more little Christmas projects nearing completion, and the patterns are already a good way through the design process. At the moment I'm just having fun and enjoying the satisfaction of making sweet little things.

Wish me well my friends!

Evie xxx

A swag of Christmas stockings ... or bagettes?

 

This coming Christmas the family has decided to try and aim for an economically, environmentally and socially responsible festive season . Not everybody is flush with ready money, and I am grateful that my lot seem happy to appreciate what they already have than be overly worried about the giving and receiving of gifts . Our target is a meagre budget of $5.00 (Australian) for each person, and my job now is to whip up some lovely Christmas stockings for the stocking of little offerings.

 So I was thinking about what size would be needed, and considered that some gifts might not actually be that small (it is possible that a second-hand book or two could have been procured) . The traditional ye olde Christmas stocking could be just a bit squishy when it comes to housing six or seven gifty things . And thinking about what fabric I had stashed away I hit upon this medieval shield-shaped bag idea. The red linen is what remains from a thrifty meterage purchase a couple of years ago, likewise with the spotty cotton lining. I also ferreted out some course white linen for the fleur-de-lis applique.

 The most thrifty part of this project though has to be an upcycled Marcella bedspread that was falling into tatters . I have been tenderly coddling this lovely old textile for several years, but it really had become quite useless as a coverlet . So I studied it carefully to see how best to use the various design elements . Several sections were embossed with fleur-de-lis motifs, which I thought would nicely mirror the linen applique . I finished stocking/bagette number one today and have another six all lined up on my cutting table ready for my next session at the sewing machine .

On top of all this sewing it might be timely to start thinking about what I will be putting inside these lovely bags. My aim is to shop local, to re-purpose, perhaps to cook up some sweeties or to see what I can whip up on the sewing machine. But each gift will be an offering of love. 

I love how at Christmas I fall in love with Christmas all over again .

Happy gift hunting :)

Evie xxx

Merry Yarn Bombed Christmas

Can you believe I was up at 6am this morning (NOT a morning girl) . I quickly ruffled a brush through my hair, cleaned my teeth, grabbed the yarn bag and my car keys and was on site by 6.15am . Thankfully not too many people around so early on a Sunday morning, just the lady arranging loaves of bread at the bakery across the road and a few random people jogging or walking dogs . So I hung my bag on the wire fence and pulled out the lumpy red Christmas stocking and a large wool needle . I had balls of plain red, green and white yarn on hand and a little pair of scissors for the cutting and snipping of threads. Starting at the top I began stitching my stocking in place, no need to be fussy, just enough to keep it secure .  Then positioning the "H" and then the "O", stitching them on with white yarn and tying them off at the back . I really love these  gorgeous little holly leaves, they shout out "Christmas" straight away . (I used the recipe from Lucy at Attic 24 - http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/holly-leaves.html - Thank you Lucy) .

The knitted bunting was finished off at midnight last night . As planned as this bombing has been, I always have the most fun when there is some last-minuteness and a dead-line to be met . And now, it looks and feels like Christmas, that stocking hung before a wire mantlepiece, just waiting to be filled . The anticipation and celebration of the festive season is upon us at last .

 While I was in the town I checked out the parking pole that I bombed last August . It's looking a bit limp and faded now, and somewhat the worse for wear . Someone has unpicked the I-cord and tied it around to keep it secured to it's home. How wonderful that it has been loved and cared for by another . There are wispy little webs amongst the poppy flowers where spiders have taken up residence - the opportunism of the natural world at work . Perhaps I will take it down after Christmas and give it some much-needed maintenance. But I am secretly pleased that it is still there, clinging on to it's pole . It kind of looks how I feel; a bit faded, a bit worn and tired, but still clinging on through the ups and downs of everyday life . And seeing it again gives me courage, reminds me that it this urge to create that gives me breath and strength and somehow sets me free . Clickety Clack .
Evie xxx

Welcome to Summer (and how many sleeps till Christmas?)

It's the 1st of December, and the day when we traditionally pull the Christmas tree out of its dusty old box and hang the baubles. Despite the fact that I just LOVE all the sparkly-tinsely stuff I can't help but continue to struggle with the whole Northern hemisphere fir tree/snow/red-suited Santa and reindeer thing when it's a sweltering 40°C outside. But I have overcome this by closing all the blinds and cranking up the air-con a bit. The other difficulty I now face is that our family has recently acquired a 10 week old hyperactive poodle puppy, and I don't think there's any way a fully loaded 6 foot Christmas tree is going to survive more than 10 minutes. So, my little IKEA $10 Chrissy tree may just come into its own this year, up on a cabinet, away from little black jumpy-chewy things.

This is also the time of year when I find myself madly slaving away at my sewing machine, stitching up hand-made gifts for all the people I love, often distracted by playing with the makings of something new and decorative for our humble abode. And it's the season when the quilts of Christmas-past are taken out of cupboards and become hangings to adorn the walls, and the Edwardian bunting is pulled from its baggage and strung up the stairs and around the woodwork. All the labours of years gone by are proof of small things achieved during the season of weariness and stress. Unlike all the hours of dusting and polishing, and the endless production of roasted pork and puddings, these textile workings are something tangible, some proof positive of the labour of my hands. My hope is that they will pass into the folk-lore of family, the rememberings of children and the grandchildren to come.

The funny little Santa-folk, collected here and there, are lovingly unwrapped, their tissue paper bedding unfurled in piles around my feet. They are placed atop cupboards, on side tables; always in small groups or in pairs. Because Christmas is a time of togetherness, even for the Santa men!

 While I have been rummaging around in boxes, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the trinkets I'd forgotten since I packed them away last year, I have been serenaded by my trusty old Bing Crosby Christmas CD, turned up loud so that I can hear it all around the house. Then, and only then, is it beginning to feel like Christmas! So now that it has begun I will enjoy these days, all the way to the 25th of the month, I will make some special moments. I will start to gather in food and plan what I am going to cook. I will soak the fruit for my wicked fruit cake and think about games to play with the family on Christmas evening. And I will keep on stitching, starting and finishing each gift, infusing them with loving thoughts, and enjoying the satisfaction that comes with sowing into your sewing! If there are children in your life, take time or make time, to create some Christmas magic that will become the stuff of treasured memories. Happy Yuletide-making!

 

Evie