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,

Christmas sewing...

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and you are all enjoying a bit of time out from your usual routines. Our family had 2 great Christmas 'Days'. After spending Christmas Day with our immediate family, my daughters and I travelled down to my parents' on Boxing Day to spend time with them and my brother's family. So two days of present unwrapping, two days of good food and plenty of laughs and catching up in between.
Firstly here are some hand made gifts I received from some lovely friends.

A needlecase, a needle book and a Christmas pillow.
The needle book has a large round wooden button in the centre - haven't seen
one like that before.

The insides of the needlecase and book. Lovely.

Thank you ladies :-)
Now that presents have been shared I can show a few of the gifts I have been working on lately. (And this may take several posts while I gather my thoughts and my photos!)
Below are some shoulder bags I made for some young girls - they went down a treat!

Velcro closure with a button on the outside.

I've been using Matilda's Own Bag Batting for all my bags lately and it really is a dream to use, giving a nice firm but soft finish. As it is non-stick it does need a little quilting though but for these bags I simply sewed across each piece on both diagonals once.

Here is a pincushion I  made for a friend - I had made one for myself during the year and decided it was was cute enough to repeat :-)

As I catch up on my computer time, I will share more photos later...have a great day everyone--and happy sewing--