HO HO HO

Welcome to my day on the HO HO HO blog hop. I've had such fun popping over to visit and see what everyone has made. As always there are lots of great ideas.  For my project I wanted to fill a small gap in my Christmas decorations. I have a Christmas table runner for my dinning table that I made last year, I have an advent calendar which we have used for several years now. The calendar is more fun now the children are grown up as they don't pinch the sweets ahead of the date.....or was that dear husband? I've also got a lovely Christmas pillow that I made last year for the Holiday Lane hop. So what was I missing,

Well I wanted a table topper for my coffee table and I also wanted a Christmas star. So for this project i combined them together and came up with a table topper made using Christmas fabric and the rising star block. I had to buy in fabric as I only had very small scraps left from last year. My Christmas Tree which stands in our living room is always decorated in gold and red so I wanted my table topper to match since they would be in the same room.

This is my completed table topper. It measures 15 inches square. The little camera I've used doesn't show the true colours. Unfortunately my camera just stopped working a couple of weeks ago and has to go back to Nikon for repair, I love the gold fabric and I wish I'd been able to buy more but the FQ was the last piece of it in the shop. The table topper is quilted in the ditch with gold top thread and red bobbin thread. The backing fabric is a red solid. I'm sorry I forgot to take a photo of the back which is silly because I spent ages enjoying how the quilting looked on the back.

I have also started a piece of cross stitch called O Christmas Tree. It's a DMC kit. I haven't taken a photo of my stitching as it is just blue half cross stitch. Instead of starting at the middle of the piece I started on the mid line  of the length and to the right of the tree which means I'm just stitching sky. Having just finished a piece of embroidery with lots of single stitches it is nice to work on a piece with an area of solid colour. This will be completed in time for Christmas but I doubt it will be this year. Most likely it will be ready for Christmas 2014.

As this hop started my Christmas preparations I decided to make some more mini tote bags. I made them last year to use as present bags. I had used up most of my Christmas fabrics making them  but I had this one cut out and waiting to be stitched. Some of them I quilted with an all over meander pattern but this one is stitched in the ditch. A trip to my local quilt shop restocked my supply of Christmas fabric and I've now got 10 cut out and waiting to be stitched together.

I must thank Madame Samm for organising this hop and Carol our cheerleader for keeping us motivated and on track. Here is the schedule for today. Go and visit everyone and see what they've been creating.

August 2

Quilt Doodle Doodles

life, quilts and a cat too

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Ridge Top Quilts

Editha

Stitchin By the Lake

Quilts, Fabric and Thread Tales

Sew Many Yarns

Kwilty Pleasures

Kris Loves Fabric

52 Quilts in 52 Weeks

Robin’s Fabric Nest

It's been lovely to have you visit. I hope you pop by again. Have a great day.

Lyndsey