Still haven’t got as far as uploading the stitched postcard photo – I’m sorry kylie, it’s lovely and I want to share it with people but the boy had the cheek to want to use his laptop!

In terms of craftiness, I’m currently doing a little cross stitch kitty and I’ve got a dress in mind to make should I ever get paid (long story there!) and be able to afford the material!  It’s from a pattern in issue 2 of Sew Hip (I got it free when I subscribed).

I am also revisiting Christmas.  The Grandparents are sorted now so I just have the boy, my immediate family and a couple of friends to worry about now!

I love the idea of giving some a cake mix in a jar and am considering using my Chocolate Brownie recipe as it only needs oil and milk adding to it.  Other ideas include coasters (quilted and made using tiles and ceramic paint).  And maybe more cushions!  Maybe some herbs in nice pots.  Drawstring bags to ‘wrap’ presents in.  And it looks like I’m not the only one thinking about this!

Two presents down!

The second cushion was completed last night.  I would have taken a photo but the camera is packed ready for the holiday!  So instead I’ve knocked something up in paint to give a rough idea of what I eventually went with.  Thank you Teresa for you suggestions – I was going to have a play with a few of them but I accidently cut the butterfly material leaving me with little option about how to proceed!

The final outcome has a square of the butterfly material with zigzag stitching round the edge and has butterfly material for the back.  Depending on how brave I’m feeling I might pick out some of the butterflies with embroidery between now and Christmas.

One Christmas present down… Alot more still to go!

Cushion front

Cushion back

I finished it!  I’m still tossing ideas around for the other cover.  It’s going to have a butterfly theme and I have some lovely butterfly fabric for the back and some lilac fabric for the background of the front.  However I’m torn between having one huge butterfly or a few smaller butterflies on top of the lilac…  I’m also torn between simple silhouettes or more decorated butterflies!  Thoughts would be greatly received!

In the meantime, enjoy a couple of flowers from our yard!

The second is actually a weed, but as it’s quite pretty we’re letting it stay for a little longer.

We wish you a merry christmas…

Horrifically I’m already thinking about Christmas…  I’m hoping to get a homemade element into my presents this year so thought it best to start early!  For my grandparents I was certain that I wanted to sew them something (they found my sewing machine at a boot fair so without them I would be handstitching everything!).  I’ve settled on making them both a cushion cover; it’s fairly simple and hopefully that means it will come off looking reasonably professional!

For my granddad I’m going for a tractor theme (and I might roll this out for my dad as well!).  I’ve bought the following fabric for it;

I'll probably use the second panel to decorate the front of the cover

And I'll use this for the back

For my grandma, I’m going to exploit her love of butterflies and have bought her the following fabric to use for the back and I shall look out for something for the front.

I’m quite excited!  The fabric should arrive in the next couple of days   Then I will need to decide whether I post them to them with a cushion cover in, or I let them sort that at their end…  Obviously I have quite a long time to consider this!  I think it would make a nicer present if it was all complete, it’s just how that will affect the postage and the ease of sending…