the last post of the year

As Christmas is now over, I can show Jo's diary cover which I made for her this year. I embroidered the design on my embroidery machine. She actually laughed out loud on Christmas Day when she opened it. It made me smile too! This is the front:

This is the inside which, sadly, isn't seen unless you take the cover off!

And the back.

I used to have such trouble getting the covers to fit well but these days, I buy the exact same make of diary every year - obviously one year on from the previous year!! - and then I know that the cover will be the same size every time.

Our next door neighbours had a baby girl at the end of November so, naturally, I made her a quilt. I'm really happy with how it turned out. All those wonky triangles just make me smile!

The back is one side of a downie cover bought in the sales at the end of summer. That's quite a quick turnaround for me to have used it already!

My next project was to make myself a dress to wear for Christmas Day. I decided to use McCall's 8553.

I am not scared/wary/terrified of zips in the slightest but this one nearly broke me. I was so close to just throwing the whole thing in the bucket but I didn't. In the end, I decided to ignore the pattern's instructions for the zip and did it the way I thought it should be done and that made all the difference. By the way, the pattern tells you to use a metal zip and to cut off the ends to make it fit. No way was I doing that! I used a normal plastic zip and it worked just fine!

I'm so glad I persevered. I LOVE this dress! (As usual, my facial expression is just silly! 🤣)

It was so comfy to wear on Christmas Day - no tight waistbands to worry about! LOL

Jo got a kit to make a "gingerbread house" out of chocolate. We had so much fun sticking it all together with melted chocolate. We've made a few real gingerbread houses over the years and they've never gone together as well as this one did!

And demolishing it a few days later was fun too! Nom nom nom! 🤣

This was the last thing I made this year. I have so many tree wallhangings that I've decided it's my thing. You know, some people collect frogs or pigs or whatever. I make tree hangings! That's okay, I enjoy doing it and there's plenty of wall space to hang them! 🤣

So, that's 2025 nearly over. See you in 2026!

adding to my stash

At the end of October, Jo and I went to a Crafter's Destash and had the best time. I think everyone there, at one time or another, said to one of the ladies (and men) who were manning the stalls that they really didn't need to be buying more stuff. But, oh it was fun! Here's what I got:

Some fat quarters:

Some bigger pieces:

A couple of scraps bags:

This is what was in them:

and, finally, some books:

I was delighted with everything I got! If we spot it being on next year, no doubt we will be there!

I was laid up for a couple of weeks with a bad cold so I made good use of the Christmas Cheer book in the last photo and made this wreath. It's been decades since I did any hand-stitched patchwork and I was surprised how much I enjoyed doing it. It helped to while away the long hours I spent on the couch trying not to cough up a lung!!

This is what I made the wreath into - a wall-hanging - door-hanging actually!

A few weeks later, we went to a Quilter's Exhibition. The quilts were lovely and very inspiring. The best bits for us were the various sales tables dotted around the room. Needless to say we spent a little money there too! First some books:

and some fabric pieces.

Actually, I have to admit, the absolute best bit was the free coffee and home-made cakes and biscuits. Those alone were well worth the price of the ticket!

When I was finally feeling better, I made another wall-hanging. This was self-designed and I LOVE it!

Jo mentioned that she wanted a Bourbon biscuit decoration for her tree so, after a bit of searching, I found one and made it for her. She's delighted and it's hanging on her Christmas tree! This is the embroidery design I used but I changed the M to an N using my Embrilliance program.

The last two things I made were these. I have a Tiffin recipe and a Peppermint Slice recipe already but they sometimes don't work as well as I'd like - no idea why! These are both from the Baking with Granny website. Both were very easy and very delicious.

This is the tiffin:

And this is the peppermint slice:

I really should make them again! Nom nom nom!