Christmas projects!

Okay, I have been totally burning the candle at both ends of late. Not with frivolty, no, no.

With working during the week and the working on Christmas/house projects on weekends.

You've seen the deck and the shawl. (And Clem, the shawl was done in 5ply and took about 2 and half weeks. It was fast because it was interesting and portable. And I was paranoid about not getting it done before Christmas).

Other stuff I have done ... curtains. This is sheer and heavy ones for the living area and dining area, and just the sheer ones for the quiet room. They are awaiting a final spot steaming of creases and hemming. And they look like this.
That quiet room is more of "project room at the moment. See? (For my friend who had asked what happened to it).
So the projects.

We have the aprons for gifts. These use the excellent Lotta Jansdotter pattern from Simple Sewing. Using a Michael Miller and Japanese fabrics. The middle one is my favourite - and matches my decor so I had to resist the temptation to keep it!

Then we have this little guy I finished today on behalf of a friend who is about to become an uncle and wanted a gift for his new niece/nephew to be.
It's another Michael Miller fabric (I don't pick out his stuff especially, but it does end up coming home with me a lot!) using another Softies book pattern. More Softies I think it was.

And today I picked up the fabric for those cushions for my nephews. After searching through all my stash I discovered that is almost all either unsuited to cushions, girly or grown-up neutrals.
Oh and I got suckered by the cool 50s housewife Christmas print.. another Michael Miller. [shrug]
And I also bought a bunch of girly-frou-frou satin etc. for a present for my daughter. She wants a princess and prince costume for her girl and boy dolls. I'll find time somehow. I was going to photograph it to show, but she surprised me and I only just got it hidden in time! Evenings only project ;-)

So I have the end of my Koolhaat to knit (about 3 rows), 3 cushions for which I am learning appliqué, a doll's princess outfit, a doll's prince outfit, if I have time 4-5 oven mitts, and something with that cool 50s housewife fabric. Maybe a table runner.

Oh and steaming and hemming the curtains.

However, I do not have any other presents left to buy. Oh I lie. I need to buy 3 small boxes of chocoltates - two for my team at work and one for my cleaning lady. And that makes the work I do need to do not seem so bad.

Things I love...

Some of you might have noticed the impending holiday season. (40 days left)

Well, this year (unlike many) I am feeling more than usually prepared.

There are many things that have been recently finished around my house (in prep for Christmas) that I love.

One of these my Dad and Stepmum did - our new, huge and ultimately fabulous outdoor decking. Let me show it off...
And, notice the wonderful inset pond, that makes the whole thing flow into the garden... beautiful!
(It is huge - about 8 m by 4m in size!)

Things that I have actually done...

Finished my MIL-to-be's shawlette. Which I am very happy with.
And the action shot... (I tried for a front-ways one, but you can't see much of it and the photo was way to contrast-y to post.)
I think it's pretty, and a nice size. If I made another as a shawlette, the only thing I'd do differently is add another pair of repeats so it came over the front more. But lovely still.

From here, its a lot less knitting and more sewing. I'm making a swag of aprons for family for Christmas. But, for this weekend, and probably next weekend... curtains.

Our living area and spare room have no window coverings bar paper (We've been here a year, but the money wasn't really there). And we didn't want another summer without proper window coverings. So, we did the deal and bought curtains. Or more to the point, I bought tracks, hooks and lots of fabric. Custom made curtains were way, way out of budget. And I have a discount cards for textile traders and spotlight.

So I have several piles like the one below in my future. And a big roll of heavier blockout fabric. Sigh. I keep telling myself that prefect rectangles etc. don't matter too much, and that noone is going to score me on hemming of curtains. However, I'm such a perfectionist, it takes real effort not to beat myself up over stuff like this.
Photos when I'm done.

Things I love

Well, there are many.

But since I am now heading into sewing-for-Christmas-time, there is one thing I really wish I could afford to spend money on right now.

Japanese fabric. They have the nicest stuff.

Like linen, and high quality cotton. And the cutest stuff that never gets twee.

Take a look over on Superbuzzy. It's Japanese fabric mecca. (Excuse the mixed metaphor) I've heard. I haven't ever bought anything from them, but boy do I window shop a lot!

On a rough estimate, I clocked up around $80 without thinking too hard. And they don't even have any linen out at the moment.

*sigh* Back to stashbusting..