Twinkle, twinkle, Christmas Star!

It's Christmas Eve here in the UK and so far Father Christmas has delivered presents to all those in Australia, New Zealand, China, India and Russia, and is currently bringing good cheer to Africa - Zanzibar in particular! I know because I'm tracking him by courtesy of NORAD and will be waiting to greet him when he arrives in my locality later tonight.


And here is a little Christmas offering by way of a Bonnie Hunter Orca Bay Christmas star! I've fallen very behind with this mystery, but hope to catch up once the festivities are over. In the meanwhile, I hope all your Christmas presents are squishy, and you and your family have a wonderful day!

Orca Bay and Christmas!

I'm getting on well with my Orca Bay blocks - I suppose since I'm only doing half the required number, that's not surprising! String piecing is right up my street though, and I loved Bonnie's suggestion about using old dressmaking patterns as foundations!

I though the paper would be too flimsy, but it's perfect - especially since I'm making more theatrical costumes, and have plenty of patterns floating around at the moment. Here are all my blocks completed ready for the next instructions.

And here is a little warm-up to the holiday just around the corner. We had another Santa Fun Run here in Lutterworth, and this time, DH decided to take part. He's the one on the left, and good friend Ali is the one on the right. They decided to walk rather than run, but still completed the 5.5km course in about an hour. There were 980 people in the run this year, whcih will result in a huge financial boost for all sorts of local charities. Well done all who took part!

I have been getting in the festive mood too, by making this table runner. I designed it as a make for ladies who come to our Knit and Stitch sessions, as a thank you for all the hard work they have done for charities this year. If you would like to make one, the central part was 18.5" x 6.5" and the letters were bonded on. The first border was 1.5" cut (1" finished) and the outer border 2.5" cut (2" finished). I machine quilted in the ditch round the borders, and hand quilted round the letters. Very simple, but very effective. Have fun!

More Christmas stuff

I have completed two more items for my Mum's Christmas fair. First I bordered the small panel and finished that. Having thought that yellow or navy were good border choices, I eventually settled for green! DH suggested a gold binding, which was ideal - not only because it looks good, but because it's used up some gold fabric I've had for years and years and never used!

One small panel to go. This had a price of 35p on it, so I must have bought it from a sales table. No border for this, I just layered it with the backing and wadding (front and backing right sides together and wadding on the back), added a ribon loop to hang down inside and sewed all the way round the edge with a quarter inch seam.

I joined the wadding by butting two pieces together and zigzagging them.

That's when I realised my mistake! Trust me to get it wrong! I needed to have the backing on the outside, not the panel, as I wanted to cut a hole in the backing and turn the whole thing through, and now the backing was in the middle! Never mind, it's only a wall hanging which will spend most of its time in a box, so I cut through the wadding and backing, to turn it through.

A quick Bondawebbed heart to cover the slit (and hopefully seal the hole in the wadding a bit!) and it's all done.

I think that'll fetch more than 35p now!