Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to all! I will be taking a short blog break during this busy season and be back with you in a couple of weeks. Enjoy the holidays whatever you do, and don't forget to spend some time relaxing as well. 

Merry Christmas!

  

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash

Merry Christmas to all my readers here! 
 Enjoy your holidays reading, resting, & relaxing. 

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Holiday Gatherings for the Garment Guild

It's getting to be that festive season, and my local sewing group, the Stratford Garment Guild, had our holiday Zoom party today. It's lots of fun to get together with other sewing friends and talk all things patterns and sewing. To make it a little festive we also played a few virtual party games. 

The first one was a little game of Sewing Have You Ever -- the Naughty & Nice version! I had fun putting these lists together and discovering just how Naughty or Nice our members are ;) 

I thought you might have fun with this too, so here it is so you can play along...how Naughty or Nice were you out of 10 this year (or ever??)

Naughty

1. Sewed Over Pins
2. Used Fabric Scissors for something that was not fabric
3. Sewed through your finger
4. Lost a pattern piece in the middle of making something
5. Had a rotary cutter accident
6. Forgot to add seam allowances
7. Cut a hole in your project while trimming seams
8. Made something but never wore it
9. Bought the same pattern twice...by accident
10. Have more than 5 projects in your UFO pile

Nice

1. Sewed a gift for someone else
2. Taught someone to sew
3. Used your scraps to make something new
4. Used recycled/upcycled fabric or thread
5. Sewed something that fit you perfectly
6. Have used more than 5 specialty feet for your machine
7. Mended/refashioned something in your wardrobe instead of getting rid of it
8. Tackled a hard project that intimidated you at first
9. Added pockets to a pattern that didn't have any
10. Made a whole project without using one swear word

If you play along, let us know your score in the comments so we can commiserate and celebrate!

Holiday Greetings!

Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash

Merry Christmas to all my clever crafty friends out there! Enjoy your holidays whatever kind they may be. May we all relax and enjoy a break, and be refreshed to share our creativity throughout 2020. 

Summer Stitching Surprises

I've been back and forth with a few holidays this summer so far...and my new habit is to take some embroidery with me when I travel. It's much more portable than a sewing machine ;) I'm very much a beginner but I am having fun with it. This is the project I've been working on and recently finished.

It's a quote I liked from the book Write It Down, Make It Happen (which is a pretty good book if you like journal writing and goal setting - I reread it from time to time). So I freehanded this design and stitched the letters in a simple backstitch, and the donut in satin stitch. While it's a bit uneven and I think that perhaps I may have too much tension in the middle, I still love it. It was fun to do and now I just have to find a suitable frame.

And on the topic of embroidery, I also scored in the thrift store today; I've never really seen any embroidery materials there before but look what I found! Someone was much more organized than I am...and now I'm inspired to continue being tidy with my materials this way (it's all DMC thread in those boxes too)

I picked up a few sewing books too, while I've been gallivanting around the country. Some new and some used, plus my first ever BurdaStyle -- which you may notice is in French. I'll need to get my dictionary out!

And while I don't often buy clothes these days I could not resist this vintage housedress. It reminded me so very strongly of my grandmother (and in the first, unposed picture my husband snapped, which I am not sharing, I look exactly like her. Spooky!)

It's a fun housedress, but with a belt and my yellow wedge sandals it turns into a great out-of-the-house dress too. And look at the neat neckline detail -- pretty well made house wear :)

So there are a few of the bits of stitchery that have wound their way into my holidays. Hope you've all had a great sewing summer as well.