Christmas begins

Since I cannot stitch for the foreseeable future, I thought I would share with you some of my stitched Christmas decorations.

This advent calendar was probably the first Christmas design I ever stitched and is over 20 years old now.  It's had items such as crayons, little boxes of Smarties and small cars left each night by Father Christmas's elves who were checking up on the boys when they were young.  These days Cadbury Heroes are featured and it remains a firm favourite to begin the festive season.

Around 10 years ago there was a fashion for name trees. A company online would chart up your name and mirror it to create a unique design (turn your head sideways to read the words).  An American Christmas ornament magazine then shared "Joy" and "Peace" and this pair was my first attempt at both lacing and creating an ornament.

Despite my elder son having had his own place for the last few Christmases, I do still hang his stocking.  These two stockings were stitched by me but made up by my hardanger designer friend Colly (who also creates the most amazing quilts, bags and cushions).

The next quartet of designs each feature a button and are by Shepherd's Bush designs.  They're quick to stitch up, I hand stitched the edges to create a tab at the top and bottom and backed each with interfacing to protect the stitching at the back.  The brass bell pulls were purchased via my local craft store and all match to unify them but at the end of the season, I remove them and wrap in tissue paper to protect both the stitching and the bell pulls.

The 12 Days of Christmas.  I stitched this twice as the first attempt was a lesson in how to measure twice before stitching begins....guess how far I reached before realising there was insufficient fabric.

This Merry Christmas banner is one of my favourite Christmas makes.  It's very simple, stitched in a gingham design that could be adapted to any colour theme. A wooden bead is threaded between each letter.

And finally my Christmas Robin is framed and on display. 

Have a happy Christmas all! 

🎄