Bears and Houses

What happens when you finish your exams and study for the year and have a knee operation that renders you immobile for a time....

...if you are my ED you make Teddy Bears!
These furry little creatures were both completed in time for Christmas fun —

YD had fun making a Gingerbread House for Christmas too —

A hive of creativity - Bear Sewing and House Building

She was inspired by the Master Chef finals and it's the first time we've had a Gingerbread House - a new family tradition perhaps?

Ooops, Peter and Kristabear couldn't help themselves!

I so much enjoy seeing the girls immersed in creativity; having the confidence to give something a go is something I have tried to encourage in them since they were little and it's so rewarding seeing it happen at times like this.
On that happy note ---happy stitching  :-) --

The last of the Christmas sewing...

I am about at the end of showing you my Christmas sewing - I realised I had to squeeze these posts into this week so that I could list them all as my finishes for OPAM this month. After struggling to sometimes have a finish each month, this time I am able to list the grand total of drum roll.... 15!!!

Speaking of OPAM, I have found it to be a great motivator for getting projects completed - that end-of-month deadline looming helps me to find that extra hour or so needed to put the finishing touches on a project. So I'll be signing up for it again for 2012... of course I may be a little biased as last month I was one of the lucky winners for the monthly draw. 

Look what I received in the post - 

Cant wait to have a play :-)

Thank you Peg and Kris for keeping us on track and supporting us in our finishes!

Below is a small wall-hanging I finished in time for Christmas.

The pattern is by Wildcraft Farm and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. It had a nice mixture of appliqué, piecing and stitchery. I used the Scandinavian Christmas range as used in the pattern but would love to try it in a different Christmas range another time.

I have got keen on book covers too and created this one using a recent photo of the child to whom it was intended. I was pleased with how it turned out and am pleased to say she loved it.

I sewed a piece of clear plastic on and inserted the photo
behind it.

And for her sister I put together a soft cover book from a bought panel.

And this is a sneak peak of something I cant show yet....

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE—

MAY 2012 BRING YOU HAPPINESS 

AND GOOD HEALTH

(and a fair bit of sewing in between!)

Take four....

Take four of these....

and four of these....

Insert them into four of these....

And this is what you end up with...four of these.

These are the sewing kits I made my nieces this year...one of them needed a sewing kit for her military-type training so I decided all 4 sisters could have one..they're all at that leaving home/left home stage.
The pattern came from a British Patchwork and Quilting magazine and was quite straight forward and fun to make, although there was more hand sewing involved I realised. The outer edge is hand stitched around 3 times (one for the binding and a double row for the zip)(!!)-- however it did give it a neat finish so I was happy to do it that way rather than short-cut it with the machine.

More sewing I did for this Christmas was this kitchen set.  I used some gorgeous New Zealand Pohutakawa fabric and was pleased with how it went with the striped border fabric. I also decorated a kitchen hand towel to go with it, but it's not in the photo.

Oven mitts with a plastic bag holder.

I used one layer of Insul Bright and one of cotton batting in the mitts. Initially I thought the two layers might be a bit bulky but they weren't - and hopefully will be nice and protective.
We have a wet day here today so I think I will be able to spend a bit of time in my sewing cave sorting out my scraps from my Christmas projects and organising myself for more sewing :-) Fun fun fun nothing better than rummaging and rolling in fabric!
Thanks for visiting,
happy stitching,