It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

As soon as the weather turns warm I get all fired up to get crafty for Christmas. (Kind of Pavlovian I know). About two or three years ago I bought a kit for this hanging, "Making Spirits Bright" from the Birdhouse. I love stitcheries, but I do get a bit bored just doing back stitch in one colour, so I pull it out every now and then and work on it till I need to do something else. Consequently I've only just finished the stitchery! Yesterday I sewed on the borders from this very cool candy cane fabric I bought for it at the same time as the stitchery and today I added pellon and backing and tabs. I still need to do some sort of quilting and it's done!

In total contrast is this stocking. I bought American Patchwork and Quilting magazine last Thursday. I happily shelled out $18 for a magazine in which I only wanted one project and by Saturday I'd got to this point:

I love foundation piecing because it's so precise - it really appeals to the control freak in me! I love these warm Christmas colours. I'm making no promises that it'll be finished for this year's Christmas, since the piecing was what I was fired up over. (The top plain panel is slightly smaller because I have a little more to trim from the pieced panels.) I realised once I'd finished the toe section and lined it up with the middle section that I'd placed the gingerbread man on the wrong angle. Too bad - only way to fix it is to undo it and start again. Aint Gonna Happen.

One other comment to Mary Nanna and Katherine - I hope neither of you thought I sounded snippy about the by-line thing - I am very flattered that "my" line strikes a chord with so many people! I claim no rights to it, so feel free to spread it far and wide :-)