It's beginning to look a little like Christmas around here

So I got all the Fall decor to hop back into their plastic bins, and hauled out the Christmas decorations... okay to be perfectly honest my sons did the  hauling  as I supervised...its a hard job but someone has to do it and I am definitely more managerial material than  labor!  LOL

In anticipation of Christmasfying the house I realized that I needed a table runner for my new yellow display chest, and I whipped this together.

It is a simple runner but I'm happy with how it turned out. The fabrics are from  the one Mini-Charm pack of Aspen Frost by Basic Grey I found in my stash. The background was leftover from a little Schnibble I made last Christmas. I think that mottled white/cream with the little silver polka dot is quite festive.

My Janome was behaving and I was able to quilt the whole piece using a Sulky silver metallic. I like that bit of sparkle when the light hits it just right.


And here it is in action as the ground for my Nativity scene. Not a lot of it shows but I know how pretty it is.

This Nativity scene is turning into an heirloom. When I needlepointed these little figures (they are about 5 to 6 inches high) I didn't know that I would still be using them 30 years later. At that time I was into needlepoint, and I frequented a shop that had a professional finisher, She did a lovely job with these. On the bottom of each one she stitched my initials and the year "1984".

I  was pregnant with my first son when I  was stitching these and I envisioned a Nativity scene that could be handled with no fear of breakage and it has performed admirably.

I used lots of different wools, perle cottons and metallic threads and all the beards and the sheep are done in a stitch that makes them fluffy. My boys still love this set and they have never wanted me to replace it, so I haven't. There is a little part of me that hopes it lasts another 30 years or more and that some other little person will enjoy it someday. (It's still way too soon to think about grandkids, as my son and his fiancee aren't going to be married till April... but I can indulge in wishful thinking, can't I?)


And to get into the holiday spirit I took a trip to my local greenhouse -Benkens- love that place. A week ago I picked up two small pine trees for the pots next to my garage door. Today the place was wall-to-wall poinsettias - isn't that swath of red just gorgeous?

And I've never seen poinsettias this big - these were about 4 to 5 feet tall!

I took home a couple of these little gems - this poinsettia is in a teeny tiny 2 inch diameter pot and the whole thing is only 5" high. I put it in one of my Fiestaware condiment cups and placed  it next to the sink in my kitchen. Too cute!

Well, my Christmas tree is assembled but not decorated yet. I was thrilled that it all lit up this year. I just bought it last year and my experience with pre-lit trees is that you only get a few years use out of them before they start going dark a section at time driving you stark raving mad and sucking any good Christmas feelings you have right down the drain. Taking a deep breath now... fortunately we haven't reached that point yet with this tree... I give it 2 more years tops.

Hope things in your corner of the world are starting to look Christmas-y too!

happy stitching-
carol fun