A Hardanger Snowflake

For the last few years, I have made a new little Christmas decoration to hang on our tree. I usually make around twelve of them to give to family and special friends. This year I made some Hardanger snowflakes.

I found the pattern fee on the internet, and worked it on some Belfast linen that I had in my stash. The trickiest part was cutting around all those tricky little corners. Then I just cut a square of red felt and sewed them on, with some added red ribbon as a hanger. This is the fourth one i have worked in the series.

As the snowflakes were worked on the bias, and I had cut a strip of the linen to work them, I had little spaces un-stitched. They were just big enough to make some tiny little decorations. I Played with different fillings on them all. even weave linen is too expensive to waste

All of the snowflakes are with their new owners, and some of the little ones have new homes too. I wonder what decoration will happen for next Christmas?

Merry Christmas - A Hardanger Christmas Stocking

Wishing everyone a very happy and joyous time this Christmas. May your day be filled with fun, laughter, good food and good times.

I try to make a new Christmas Decoration each year. In fact, I make twelve, to give to special family and friends. By now, they will be adorning Christmas trees across the country so I can show them off.

This little stocking is done in Hardanger, with some counted thread work to add some bling. It is a free pattern I found on the internet, one of a whole series, and the third I have done in the series.

So merry Christmas everyone, and may your 2019 be creative and bright.

Christmas Wishes

Just popping in to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with joy, happiness, family, food, and of course some creativity.

This little Christmas Bell will by now be adorning a Christmas tree somewhere. I have actually made twelve of them to give to family and friends. They should all be at their final destination by now.

The decoration itself is done in Hardanger work with some counted thread work used to create the poinsettias and holly leaves. Once cut and blocked, the bells were then backed with felt. They were made using a free pattern that I found on-line.

So Merry Christmas everyone, and may your day be happy and bright.

A Christmas Star

This is the third in my series of bobbin lace Christmas decorations, and I  think my favourite one yet. The patterns have come from an old Anna magazine. I have used the same thread as the other two, a DMC Cordonnet Special No 50. This thread is fine for cloth stitch, but it doesn't handle plaits and picots all that well. I was warned many years ago about using crochet threads, something about the direction of the twist. I may have to just remove the picots off it if I do any more.

Still, it is done, and will hang prettily on my Christmas tree in a few months.

A Little Christmas Stocking - Bobbin Lace Style

I've finished another little bobbin lace Christmas decoration. It's from the same series as the little bell I made back earlier in the year. This is also  made in  DMC Cordonnet Special No 50 thread. 

When I made my bell, I was happy with the thread choice, but this time around it's a different story. I like it for the cloth stitch, but not for the plaits. The plaits are a little but cumbersome. Maybe next time I will change the inside decoration to something else. Time will tell.

In the meantime, I have started number three in the series of six. So watch this space to see what it is. It may be a while, there are quite a few other projects happening that are priority.

A Little Christmas Bell - Bobbin Lace Style

This little Christmas bell was born from cleaning up my sewing table. In my clean-up I found some old magazines that I had picked up at one of my stitching groups.  I had picked them up for a reason, and  when I looked through one of them I found the pattern for this little bell. So I put it aside to have a good look at later.

When I picked it up again, there were actually six different decorations, and I believed I could do them all by myself, without any help. When I started reading, they were worked in a thread that I didn't know. Mmmm......... So I gathered together threads that  I had that I thought may be suitable, and tottered off to my lace group, complete with the pricking I had made, my lace pillow, pins and other lace making paraphernalia.

I asked my lace teacher which thread would be best, and we settled on  DMC Cordonnet Special No50. To me this is a crochet thread, and when I first started making bobbin lace, I was told not to use crochet thread. Mmmmmm...........

So I wound my bobbins and started off. The thread was actually a dream to use, and I would certainly use it again. The bell was actually quick to do, four hours of work including winding my bobbins.

I am actually very proud of my little effort. I have always wanted to make a bobbin lace Christmas decoration and now I have. There will be many more in the future.

Another Christmas Bauble

My new Christmas bauble finally finished.

This Christmas bauble was started back in November in my local sewing group, the Georges Hall Sew'n'Sews. We had decided to cancel our December meeting due to the proximity of Christmas, and instead made our Christmas decorations in November.

This decoration is based on a polystyrene ball, available from places like Spotlight and Lincraft. It is divided into sections, cut with a stanley knife, then fabric is pushed into the cuts. I have made plenty of these over the years, so this year I took the basic idea to another level.

I first had to divide my polystyrene ball to obtain a pattern. From there I scanned my pattern into my digitising program to get the correct size to digitise my words. Once done, I could then play with the shapes of the letters to get them into the shape to fit the bauble.

My first attempt at stitching them out showed that I needed more of a border around the letters to accentuate them more, so back to the file I went to fix it up. Once fixed, I was happy with the stitch outs.

My ball is divided into six, three sections are my digitised words, and the alternate three sections are the same green fabric that has been over-layed with a red glittery mesh fabric. The ball has been finished of with red ribbon.

It's probably my favourite bauble on my tree this year, thought I do have other decorations that are not baubles that I like much better. Most of my tree decorations are hand made, this just adds another one to the mix.

Christmas Hearts

Wishing everyone reading a very Merry Christmas, and may the day bring you all peace, joy, love and great times with your family.

These little Christmas hearts have been made with love and given to close friends and special family members. I started them back in August, using a free pattern I found here.

I used scraps of even weave fabric that I had in my stash, as well a scraps of thread. They are backed in red felt to bring out the colour, and I even had that in my stash. The only thing I purchased was the ribbon to hang them.

They are made using the Hardanger technique, combined with some surface stitching which has been counted.

They should all be with their prospective new owners by now, and I know they will be treasured by one and all.

Christmas Is Coming

Every year try to make a new decoration for my Christmas tree. This year I have a fixation for crocheted snowflakes, & I have found so many different ones that it is hard to choose. I am not sure why the snowflakes as it is usually quite hot here in Australia over Christmas. Maybe I think they will cool it down.

This is the first crocheted one I have done, hung in a cheap metal bracelet from a $2 store. I was lucky that this one fitted in the ring, the other one I have done is too big, so I will have to find some other way to hang it.

At this point I would like to wish my regular readers a Very Merry Christmas & a creative 2012. I have put this out early as I know things around here will be pretty busy for the next few weeks. So until I return in January,

Christmas Wishes to All

Happy New Year & 2010 Review

A few days late I know, but I would like to thank all my readers & wish you all a very happy, joyous, prosperous, & productive 2011.

In the past, I have usually set myself challenges for each New Year, but in review, I usually set myself too many and then get disappointed when I don't finish them. So this year I am going to go with the flow, and go just wherever my needle decides to take me.

My 2010 review reads like this:-
Challenges set 4, challenges achieved 1 ( to reduce the WISP file)
Pieces started 13
Pieces finished 10, one of which was a UFO

So what does this all mean? More WISP'S of course, something I do not need.


However one of the pieces I did start & finish in 2010 was this Christmas decoration. I like to make a new one every year, and I managed to make a few of these to give to family & friends. It is playing on the Teneriffe lace theme again, set into a gold ring & hung with gold ribbon. I wonder what my new decoration for 2011 will be. You will all have to watch this space to find out.

Christmas Is Comming

Scarey isn't it, the fact that Christmas is not too far away. I attended my local Sewing Guild group today & we were making Christmas goodies. I wasn't really sure what but I went along with a whole bag of bits & pieces. The above piece of fabric was just one that I went with. Watch this space to see what I do with it.

One-A Daisy, Two-A-Daisy, Three-A-Daisy,More

It's been a while since I posted anything here. I have been stitching though, I stitch every day in one way shape or form, well at least have some form of textile encounter.

I have been slowly working on a major piece of counted thread work, now patiently waiting to be laced into a frame ready for some cutwork to happen. I have also knitted a scarf ( started purely out of boredom when my home was invaded with football final fenatics), nothing fancy mind you, just a K2tog, wool over needle, repeat pattern in a gorgeous colour textured yarn, now waiting patiently for next winter.

Hardanger Christmas decorations have also been on the stitching list. I've made 4 so far, all to be given to a charity which my local embroidery group has orgainised. The decorations are beautiful & I want to make some for me.

Then there has been the bobbin lace, slowly but surely my next piece is happening. Just a bookmark, but it is one that I have sort of "designed" myself. I say designed, but it really is only an edge pattern I have made before, mirrored, and added some tallies to. It is nearly finished, so maybe there might be a pic here in the not so distant future.

When I was knitting the scarf, I was having all these ideas as to what to do with all the yarn that was in the bag, one of which was to pull out my Mum's daisy wheel & see how many I could make till I got bored. It's a bag of mixed yarns, left over from other projects, and I wanted to experiment & see how the textured yarns made up into daisies. I had only ever made them with baby yarn before. So far I have made 40 daisues, experimented with two different yarns, ( ditched one) and have a sort of an idea as to what I will do with them all. You will have to come back another time to see what I do with them. Some of them are in the pic above.

Now, for those of you that have read this far, I need you all to do me a favour & leave a comment on how this page is loading. I have been having a **** of a time with it over the last few days & don't know why. I have had some fun with backgrounds & thought it may have been that, so I ditched those with no improvement. I have also ditched some other links which I added in the last week & thought it may have been, ( not that I wanted to as they were lace links), and still no improvement. I am still having hassles so I thought I would add another post & see what happens then. Feedback from readers about how the page is loading elsewhere will be greatly appreciated and let me make decisions as to what to do about the problem.

Thanks all for taking the time to read this far and for making comments.

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OK, so a few hours have passed since I posted about my problem. Those people that know me know that I don't stop until the problem is solved. Well, the problem is now solved. I "phoned a friend" to see if they were having the same problem as me with this page & yes, they were. So that meant that something had to be eliminated off the page. So I have cleared a few things & wallah! no more problem. Good stuff! At least I didn't have to eliminate all my places to visit. So my page might look a little empty down the side bar, but at least it will now load & you can all read what I have been up to.