Friday, December 16, 2011

Christmas is coming....

Cue Christmas music in the background,  decorations on the tree twinkling......How exciting, Christmas is coming and all five of us were actually together today - first time since September 14th.....I had to go back through the posts to find out when it was - Christmas is obviously the common factor as that day we were doing the Christmas tree workshop with Janet. How many of us have that finished I wonder .... I haven't....shame on me!


It was a beautiful day although a little breezy and cool.The girls made good time down to Hampshire without any unplanned diversions. Chris was coming down later with the Tuesday Girl puppy.


As usual the day started with muffins with tea or coffee and in honour of it being our Christmas get together we started off in the comfy seats in front of the wood stove. 





Before we got into Christmas mode, we celebrated Janet's birthday- only a couple of weeks late and lots of lovely pressies were opened. Lots of sewing and scrapbooking related packages.


We even managed to get a bit of sewing/knitting done before lunch and a bit of show and tell.

Caroline was showing a lovely star top which she was undecided about whether to extend it or just finish it there. It looks gorgeous. I think I am right in saying that this was the result of a class at Needle and Thread in Horsell but I can't be certain as I was in the kitchen at the time.


Caroline very kindly brought some spiced berry cordial so we had some driver safe hot 'mulled wine' to set the scene before lunch. it certainly helped create the atmosphere.




Chris had arrived by this time and the puppy had had her walk and was now looking very much at home!








Lunch was lasagne and salad followed by apple and mincemeat pie.  Apples from our garden and homemade mincemeat no less!







Then came the present exchange! So exciting!  What is lovely is the amount of thought that goes into the chosen gifts, ranging from the downright cute to the delicious home bakes/preserves. Everything was so beautifully presented. 
Thank you so much everyone! We know how much it is appreciated by us all.















Amanda was very keen to get back to some sewing as she had a challenge to get finished for that night for Guildford Embroiders Guild. It is now safe to show her entry. The challenge was to create something from a variety of given materials. She had a few beads still to sew on and a bauble for the top before putting the tree in its pot. I think you'll agree that it is very festive and glamorous.




Chris was knitting handwarmers as a gift which will be most useful as the weather seems to be getting colder as each day passes.
Unfortunately the photo is rather blurry so I am keeping it small!! Maybe the photo is not blurry maybe it's the speed at which Chris is knitting!!







Janet was sewing binding onto Stephanie's quilt, don't the fabrics remind you of a summer's day? it is such a pretty quilt.




I have started the blanket stitching round the edges of my Mandy Shaw cushion cover. I saw this cushion at the Patchwork Dog and Basket in Lewes and loved it. I have had it cut out for a while but just started sewing it. It's a red wool felt being sewn onto a creamy white felted wool - it wasn't felted wool when it was my mum's favourite sweater.....oops!

I felt it was a Christmassy type project to be working on at the moment. it is amazing how quickly it works up.



Caroline was working on a very fine cross stitch I didn't manage to catch a picture of the whole design but what she has done looks lovely - we have all found that we need so much more light to see fine work now that we are older more experienced in life. I can see us all in the future all sitting round the table wearing head torches with magnifiers attached - what an image!


Everybody set off for home just as the light was starting to fade. 

So it remains for me to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous 2012.