Kitties placemat and mug rug.

I had two last minute gifts to make on Xmas Eve - two ladies that sometimes attend xmas dinner when it is at SIL's place, are both serious cat fans, so I decided to make a place mat for one woman and a mug rug for the other.
Cute?

Happy Christmas!

Wishing all my followers a safe and happy Christmas, no matter what religion you are.

Half eaten gingerbread man.

I've seen a few of these felt chewed gingerbread men made up, and decided I would like my own to add to my felt donuts and cupcake. Cute!

Christmas gifts and a cupcake.

I've added a cup cake to my collection of felt cakes.  I put them on the kitchen table when I'm expecting friends to drop in, and their eyes light up with anticipation - "Ooooh, donuts and cupcakes!"  Then they take a closer look and realise they aren't edible.  I used alternative patterns for the donuts so I could decide which one was quicker and easier to make, hence the different sizes.

These are two of the mug rugs that I have completed for friends.  I gave one away yesterday before I had a chance to photograph it for my files, but as the recipient only lives around the corner, it won't be hard to get a picture.  The first photo is the back of the rugs...

And these are the fronts.  I guess it doesn't really matter, they can be used either side up of course, but the side with the ric rac on has a bit more work on it than the reverse, which is just one piece of fabric.

Productive weekend!

It was soooo hot on Saturday, we just sat around and ate cold fruit to keep cool,


 drank cups of tea, and wasted time on our computers.  But today it was much cooler, and we felt more like doing things.  Ken went out and bought a new cordless phone to replace the one in our entrance hall.  He also spent some time in the aviaries with the chooks and finches, cleaning out nest boxes and stuff like that.  As for me, I had my list of to-do projects ready to make a start!
First of all I made another felt donut pincushion, with chocolate sprinkles this time ;-)

Next, I made a placemat for my hairdresser for Christmas.  I've known her for years, and we always exchange some little item at Christmas.  She isn't a craft person, but she loves the bits and pieces I make for her.

Then I messed around some more with these lovely Xmas fabric charm squares, matching some of them with cream fabric and making half square triangles, which I then joined up in various configurations.   By the end of the day I'd completed three mug rugs (not what you see here) which will make nice little gifts.

I still have a few Christmas projects that I would like to do, but gosh it is coming up so fast, I don't know if I'll get time to do them, so they might have to wait until next year. I do it every year - wait until December before I start making gifts, then run out of time! I used to think it was crazy when I saw craft magazines in July with ideas for Christmas, but now I know why they publish those patterns so early!

Photos of recent craft shows.

I have finally got around to posting photos of quilts and other needlecraft entries at this year's Lilydale and Whittlesea Shows. You can find them on my Needlecraft Shows blog here.

Cute pincushion donut!

I saw the pattern for this felt donut in a book at the Guild a few months ago, and J - one of my colleagues there agreed with me that it was too cute to ignore! So we took copies of the pattern (I know, naughty) and joked about who was going to make it first. A few weeks ago I saw a similar pattern in Handmade Magazine, and remembered the photocopy I'd filed away. I compared them and decided to make the Handmade pattern first. There is a matching cupcake, but I didn't have enough felt to do that last night when I made the donut. I wanted to show J today but she wasn't on duty, so it will have to wait until next year. By then I plan to have made a few more donuts as well as cupcakes, as I bought enough felt today to make a whole tray of them!

Hand made Christmas cards.

I've had a stack of Christmas themed fabric on the floor for a month, determined to make some mug rugs, place-mats, runners and other things for gifts this year.  But, you all know how it is; life gets in the way and nothing gets done.   I usually buy my cards well in advance from catalogues that I receive from various charities, but for some reason this year I only ordered one pack from the Red Cross.  I like to write all my cards out on the first weekend in December and post them immediately, so they are all out of the way and I can get on with my day to day stuff.  So tonight I pulled out the box where I keep my stash of cards and address list, opened it up to find ONE pack of cards from the Red Cross, and no others!  What was I thinking of last month??   Well it was no use writing out just a dozen cards, so I thought I'd make some to go on with.  In my stash of paper products that I've played with over the years when I wanted a break from sewing, I found the makings of hand made cards.  I used to cross stitch little pictures and insert them into the card frames, but I didn't have time for that tonight.  Instead, I used fabric scraps to make the inserts - sewing strips together and cutting them into a square, and fusing little Xmas icons to other fabric.  In an hour I'd made a dozen cards!  Now I only have to buy another 2 dozen cards, then I can start writing...