Some Christmas Sewing and Other Things

Hello Everyone! I hope you’ve had a nice week and are all ready for Christmas. I just have a little more wrapping to do and all my baking. I’ve found that if I make cookies and goodies too early, there’s not much left by Christmas. This week will be a busy one. My daughter wants to go to Blue Ridge, GA, I have my guild dinner, and I’m meeting my quilty friends for lunch one day. Add in baking and getting ready for my father-in-law’s visit, I doubt if much quilting will get done.

I do have these ornaments to finish up, though. The embroidered ones are by Gail Pan from her book, Christmas Patchwork Loves Embroidery. The x-stitch is by JBW Designs. I hope to finish these today so my daughter can put them on the Tall Trim a Tree in her room. I would like to get one more x-stitch started and finished for this year.

 

 

 

Last week, I did finish another embroidery piece from the same book.I love Gail’s bird designs. I used Little Ruby Gray Dots by Bonnie and Camille for the background fabric. The black inner border is from Juniper Berry by BasicGrey and the outside border is Cookie Exchange by Sweetwater, all by Moda.

The green and red embroidery floss are Aurifloss by Aurifil Threads. The teal is a DMC floss. I free motion quilted the background with tiny swirls with Aurifil 50 wt thread. I wanted something fast and easy for the outside border so I just free motion quilted wavy lines.

Here it is on my little stand in the foyer. The backing is this cute fabric from the Cookie Exchange line. This is a fun piece and a little non-traditional with the addition of the aqua.

Last week I also made two more placemats for a total of six. These are quick and easy if you need new ones. You can find my tutorial for making them here.

This past week, I finished up all my decorating. One of the last things to go up was my Department 56 Village. I don’t have a lot of pieces, but it’s just the right amount for the room that I have to display it. I saw a few on Instagram and liked the idea of displaying the buildings on different levels.

We usually put the train under the Christmas tree, but the last couple of years we’ve had a real tree and it’s too hard to water with it under there. My daughter really wanted it up so she put it around the table in the living room. That’s when I thought my village would look good on the coffee table.

I think my favorites are the Town Tree and the Church. Looks pretty in the early morning light.

I want to share our yummy dinner from last night.

My son has talked about beef wellington for the last year and he finally told me last weekend that he would make it for us. He used a recipe from Gordon Ramsey. He did everything himself, including the sides of mashed potatoes and green beans. He even got most of it cleaned up before dinner. It’s nice that he likes to cook and try new things.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great pre-Christmas week. Be Merry!

Brenda