It's almost Christmas

Well, Christmas is almost here and I am only half way though those christmas craft projects I wanted to complete, or start. I didn't finish the table runner, in fact never got it out..saving it for my 2009 resolution project.

I wanted to make a santa sack for each of the boys, not as elaborate as the christmas stockings but like the christmas pillow slip that we all had in New Zealand growing up. A stocking isn't very useful for the big pressies.

I did make some christmas kitchen towels for friends and family, I was going to do more but after the first 8 I stopped in order to have some chance for people to receive them for Christmas. But in my haste to get them to the postman, I wrapped each one of them up and sent them off without photographing. I made one for my future mother-in-law, so when she opens hers up at christmas, I'll see if I can photograph it.

I am quite pleased with it but another (well meaning I'm sure) friend suggested that no-one will want to actually do the dishes with it. Maybe so but I hope they do.

It took me a day to measure, cut out and press the seams on the eight cloths (with linen bought at IKEA), a couple of hours to stitch them all up, then another day to come up with the design. My first draft was extremely ambitious and daft and brought up a whole other method of transferring the design on that I just didn't have time for (screenprinting). In the end I found some transfer paper to make a light trace then drew over in pencil as I couldn't see the transfer (yellow on white). So, I had to edit and distill the design down to one agapanthus bloom stitched in periwinkel blue chain stitch with cherry red berries at the end of each frond.

Each was finished off with a matching periwinkel hanging loop.

Hope they like them...and use them!