Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew - the final straight!

Welcome to the final Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party of 2015, I hope that by now you are all organised with your Christmas and Holiday crafting, but if not fear not there is loads of inspiration for Christmas and Holiday crafts in our archive of Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew posts just follow the link at the top of the page.

And for even more inspiration head on over to this month's hostess Paula at Mud Pies and Pins who is sharing her tutorial for a handy button down pouch to solve at least one of your gift wrapping dilemmas :)

Of course it wouldn't be a Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party without a giveaway now would it, and this month we have a wonderful giveaway prize courtesy of the lovely Rebecca and Pam at Sew Hot

 

 They have donated a kit for this gorgeous mini quilt that will make a great addition to your winter decoration. 

To be in with a chance of winning this great kit all you need to do is link up your Christmas and Holiday makes for this month over at Mud Pies and Pins,  where one lucky winner will be randomly drawn when the Link Party ends at midnight on December 31st.

My own holiday make this month has been waiting quite a while for its turn in the spotlight.

I knew as soon as I saw this printed panel from Cat and Vee a while ago that it would be perfect for a gift for my newly-qualified lawyer son. The panel measures 18" square so was ideal for a cushion.

I used a New to Me method for the back closure of the cushion, a hidden zipper using this tutorial from made by Chrissie D. I like how clean the back looks with this hidden zipper method. It was so straightforward to do that I will definitely use this method again.

So, that's my Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew project for this month, now it is your turn to share your Christmas and Holiday crafting over at Mud Pies and Pins

As always, a special thank you goes to all of our generous sponsors who have wholeheartedly supported the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party throughout the year.

http://www.patchworkelephant.com/

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

A forest of delight

The embroidery class that I started attending in September is held in a cottage adjoining a local church, and as I discovered a couple of weeks ago the church holds a Christmas Tree festival every year over a couple of days in December.

This year the festival finished on a Tuesday so I was able to visit after my class had finished in the afternoon.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect and was quite taken aback to discover that there were over 80 decorated trees placed around the church. Each tree was the work of a business or group connected with the village.

This vintage book and toy tree was the work of a local cafe and vintage shop, isn't it delightful?

This tree was a particular favourite, as I am sure you have already guessed it was the work of a local wedding dress company :)

This was the tree entered into the Festival by the ladies of the Embroidery Group.

A workshop in the summer making the embroidered and beaded dragonflies that you can see in close up above was the impetus for the tree. As you can see the other decorations on the tree were all sewing related. As well as the gold scissors above, there were reels of shiny thread and skeins of metallic embroidery thread to add to the sparkle.

Aren't the dragonflies beautiful? I think it will be a while though before my embroidery skills are up to that level!

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A stylish sewing bag!

The class that my daughter-in-law and I attended recently at Just Quilting was to make a quilted bag for sewing accessories.

Regular readers will not be surprised to know that deciding which fabric to take with me for the class took up an awful lot of time in the night before we were due to go. I finally went for the half yard of Mary Thistle from Pretty Potent by Anna Maria Horner that has been lurking in my stash just waiting for the perfect project to come along.

And this was it!

We quilted the exterior fabric first, which took me twice as long as everyone else as I went for crosshatch quilting instead of the much quicker and easier vertical lines that my fellow classmates chose :)

Although I had brought along some fabrics from my stash to use for the binding, when I saw the bright blue plain bolt on the shelf at Just Quilting, it was definitely calling to me and I am delighted that I listened to that call. It was by far a better match for that gorgeous thistle print than any of the fabrics I had pulled from the stash.

The bag has ribbon tied sides and you can imagine how pleased I was to discover ribbon that was the perfect match ready and waiting to be used in my very jumbled ribbon bag. Don't you just love when that happens?

The interior of the bag has two divided pockets and one gathered pocket. I hadn't made a gathered pocket before and I think that I should have made the elastic a bit tighter as it tends to gape, but other than that I am thrilled to bits with my stylish new sewing bag. Hopefully, my stitching will be as stylish as the bag soon too :)

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts