Xmas Stitch-a-Long, part 1

Hi everyone!

It's been a busy and exciting three weeks. I got a new job, turned in my notice on my old job, and started the new job. Oh, and I still managed to do some stitching.

At the last check-in I was nearly finished with the odd little cherry blossom cross stitch set.

I'm happy to report that I finished the stitching AND the ink all rinsed out just fine. I even found a ready-made frame, so it's all framed and ready to go for Christmas!

Then the next project I wanted to work on was this kitschy Christmas banner from an old Edna Looney kit:

I love these old felt-and-sequins sort of kits. Maybe I just enjoy building up layers of felt? The "bits" part of the kit had gone missing, which meant I didn't have the sequins or beads, though I did have the feathers for the beard. But I cobbled together a few things and voila!

I'm especially pleased with my adaptations of the pattern. I decided to attach the holly leaves by stitching veins rather than stitching around the shapes, and I found some cute tiny red jingle bells to serve as holly berries:

I also found some black "gems" and a red "gem" to replace the missing ones from the kit. The red one was bigger than the original piece in the kit, so I just used it without a background:

In other Christmas news... Many years ago I bought a couple of dozen spools of craft ribbon in a 90% off after Christmas sale with the idea of weaving them together and making a table runner. That took a couple of years to happen, but I did eventually make the table runner. (I'd show you but it's still packed away with the Christmas decorations!) But of course there was a lot of ribbon left over.

I had been wanting to make some Christmas bunting using the old ribbons, so finally made the time to design the project, gather supplies, and even start sewing. First I stitched the ribbons to the blue flannel backing fabric:

Then I cut those into 8-inch rows, stitched the edges to keep everything together, and then cut them into flags:

Finally I zig-zag edged the flags. Next step will be to make the letters, which requires a trip to the fabric store to choose the fabric for them (a bright blue metallic, perhaps?) and then I'll stitch on the felt snowflakes and the letters, and bind them to a ribbon for hanging.

That's still a lot of work between now and Christmas, but I'm hoping to have it done before our next check in on December 15!

Now, I'm sure my fellow stitchers have been just as busy on their projects -- I think a few will be doing their own happy dances this time! Check out their work on the links below:

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, and Connie.

See you on December 15th for our next check-in!