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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Christmas has arrived at our house!

It always takes longer than you think, doesn’t it?  I’ve been busy bringing out the Christmas quilts and other decorations.  Some time ago I read a good piece of advice – to make sure the Christmas decorations fit into an existing space.  So…… I take a picture down, and put a quilt up in the same place.  Then after Christmas all the festive stuff comes down, the original stuff goes back on the wall, and the house returns to normal. 
I have made something new this year, not a quilt, but a Christmas tree, and I’m really pleased with it.  The pattern is “Tree of Christmas Cheer”, designed by Ami Downs of Hatched and Patched.  The simple stitchery panel  really sets it off, and tells of:
“Mistletoe and eggnog, plum pudding and turkey, family and Christmas cheer”.
Although the pattern used a multitude of fabrics in all different colours for the tree, that didn’t appeal to me, as my tree had to be green!  I had a dark green fabric pattered with gold  coloured fir branches tucked away in my Christmas stash which was perfect.  The tree has a pouch of plastic pellets in the base to make it more stable, and is stuffed with fibre-fill, and I found a gold star button for the top.
DSCF7932   Tree of Christmas Cheer
The tree joins a couple of other trees and a few Santas in front of the gas heater.  No, they won’t get singed, as down here in the Southern Hemisphere we celebrate Christmas in summer. 
DSCF8240Trees and Santas 
The top of the heater has been cleared of brass ornaments and replaced with some of my Christmas collection.  Pride of place goes to “A Stitch in Time”.  Here’s Santa sitting at the sewing machine busy repairing his Santa hat before he heads out on the big day delivering all those presents.  This was a gift from my pen friend Carol, of South Dakota.
DSCF2289A Stitch in Time
And standing on the hall table is a mixed selection of “gold” trees and roly poly angels, a couple of Santas and a snow man, a snow globe and two lovely Jim Shore ornaments.
DSCF8255 An assortment of ornaments
DSCF5762This Jim Shore piece came from Gail in  Canada
Now that the house is all Christmassy, I’ll have to turn my attention to the caravan – but that won’t take too long.  It’s our Caravan Club Christmas Rally this weekend, so we’ll have to make sure we take our Santa hats – ho, ho, ho! 

3 comments:

Frances Leate said...

Love your decorations Jenny and it always gives me a kick to bring out the Christmas quilts each year. Take care.

Lis Harwood said...

It all looks lovely and festive, well worth the work. Are you okay there, I heard there was a quake near Wellington?

Jenny said...

Thanks for your concern Lis. We are fine, there have been a couple of small EQs lately. Here in Wellington we live with the thought that the "Big One" is overdue!