I am Lily - stitcher and part time bookseller. Mother to my gorgeous girl, Abigail and wife to Julian. I make time each day to let my imagination potter and add quirky prettiness and handmade comfort to our home and lives. You can email me at lily(at)blockaday(dot)com
:: Keep Calm and Carry On - Christmas Eve Part III ::
The Christmas Chair Bags
Done! Done! Done!
Stitching three bags in quick succession provided me with a couple of important lessons this morning …
1. the back and front seams must butt - NOT overlap
2. the back and front seams must butt - NOT have a gap between them
and the lesson we all know well,
3. unpicking takes longer than sewing.
Don’t you love this trick with the bobbles - the lady at the Brisbane Fabric Market showed me this - you lay two strands atop each other and that way, have your own customised multi-coloured bobbles. In this instance, the red had a bigger gap between each bobble than the green, so I had to keep adding little tucks in the red as I sewed.
Our cross stitched greeting on the back of each bag was inspired by the beautiful Syko. I love adding different customs from around the world - and besides, it had way fewer letters than Merry Christmas!
And here’s my Christmas Eve Elf - he’s on his way out again - with yet another list! - ’cause yesterday’s rum balls were so DIVINE, we are now making two more batches - one with Cointreau and one with Kahlua. Yeah, like we need more chocolate!
24 December, 2008 at 2:27 am
Oh wow. Lily those chair covers are soo incredible. They are beautiful. YOu are so lucky to have such a cute Christmas Elf!
24 December, 2008 at 4:03 am
I love how you get to have a summery Christmas on the front porch! Where I live, we have so much snow they are going to have to haul it away on trucks so people can see around the intersections when driving.
24 December, 2008 at 8:31 am
Never mind the chair covers, I am loving the elf!
24 December, 2008 at 9:21 am
Beautiful pictures and beautifully made…sets the scene for a wonderful Christmas.
Happy Holidays
24 December, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Lovely, lovely stuff! If it weren’t the day before Christmas, I would definitely be wanting to do those chair covers. Maybe for next year? The Christmas cloth and lamp are both exquisite, too. Love them.
24 December, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I love the chair covers.
What a great idea Lily! I may have to borrow that idea for next year.
So are you having a house full?
Oh, keep the elf!
24 December, 2008 at 11:22 pm
I love your chair covers. The table looks beautiful. Have a very Merry Christmas!! You are so lucky to have an elf!
25 December, 2008 at 8:34 am
Very nice chair covers! I also like the text written in Swedish. Syko/Kajsa has Swedish as native language. She told me, when I was talking with here at Women´s Christmas Fair in Helsinki. Have a Lovely Christmas Day!
25 December, 2008 at 10:33 am
Love the chair covers, and “God jul” to you too!
25 December, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Lily, I knew your fingers would be flying right up to the last minute, and to such good effect! Lovely work.
26 December, 2008 at 7:57 am
You did a lovely job on all your Christmas projects. I wish we had chairs with backs now! I hope you have had a lovely celebration.
26 December, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Beautiful!!
26 December, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Will you be sharing this divine rumball recipe??
Please??
26 December, 2008 at 8:55 pm
lovely :o)
you are amazing
and what a cute Christmas Elf indeed!!!
28 December, 2008 at 12:49 am
I have just caught up on your last few weeks and how pretty and lovely everything is. My Christmas seemed so rushed and busy compared to your crafty, sunny one. All your work is so beautiful and what a range of crafts you can do - incredible. BTW if you are still wondering about the squashed photos it may be due to the border you are putting on them. It will be set to the wrong size for that style photo. Hope that helps. Happy New Year to you and your family - I look forward to seeing more of your fantastic work.
28 December, 2008 at 1:26 pm
“God Jul” is merry Christmas in Danish!! So…GOD JUL Lily! I know it’s a little late, I hope you can forgive me!
2 January, 2009 at 1:05 pm
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today on:: Keep Calm and Carry On - Christmas Eve Part III :: | block-a-dayHere’s a quick excerptAnd here’s my Christmas Eve Elf - he’s on his way out again - with yet another list! - ’cause yesterday’s rum balls were so DIVINE, we are now making two more batches - one with Cointreau and one with Kahlua. … [...]