Advent Calendar Wall Hanging

This week I have another finish to share with you all……….. I’m extremely happy to report that I’ve finally finished the Advent Calendar Wall Hanging that I started working on in  July of last year. 

All the little pillows had been stitched and I was only left with the quilted backing to make but I run out of time before the start of December .  Luckily I hadn’t promised it to anyone, so with no great rush to get it finished I put it in a cupboard and forgot about it……..actually that’s not quite true……. I hadn’t forgotten, it was more like avoiding having to finish it,  because I’m useless at machining. 

But not wanting to have all those little pillows hanging around for yet another year, I finally dusted off the sewing machine and got it done.

True to form, I couldn’t sew a straight line and the top Right-hand corner is narrower than the other side but over all I’m pleased with the way it turned out, especially as it's the first time I'm attempted to sew anything like this.

As I mentioned before, I didn’t have anyone to give the wall hanging to, I  only made it because I loved the look of it when I saw it in the magazine.

After giving it some thought though I wondered if  Haven House,  our local children's hospice might like it, so I gave them a quick call and yesterday afternoon I took it to its new home…….in good time for the start of December!

Hopefully the kiddies will have fun turning the cushions over and seeing what’s on the other side.

 

 

 

 

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Advent Calendar – Cross Stitching finished.

3rd December 2012

I finally finished all the cross stitching and making up of all the little pillows for the Advent Calendar but sadly not in time to do the quilt backing and get it to its new owners before the start of the month.

Never mind, no one’s going to be disappointed because I’ve not decided where it’s going to go yet anyway, so I can now take my time with the machining part of it and have it all completely finished before next Advent.

Here’s all the little pillows, complete with beading.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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October TUSAL – Filling Up Nicely

16^th October  2012

As you can see, it’s TUSAL time again over at  It’s Daffy Cat’s  which  means it’s time to show off my  Old RattyThreads.

I’m still ploughing my way through the little pillows for the Advent Wall Hanging so there’s still lots of Christmassy colours in the pot again this month.

I’m pleased to report that I’m nearing the end though.

I just have the two sides of one small pillow to stitch, both sides of the larger one for the twenty-fifth, and then it’s a case of making the remainder up, I’ve done about half already.

The final job will be to make the backing for them to hang against and I already have the material and wadding for that, so all that’s left to source is the star shaped buttons. 

You’d think with Christmas just around the corner there wouldn’t be a problem with that but you’ve no idea how difficult it’s proving to find 25 small and 3 larger Yellow ones, in fact I’m on the verge of giving up all together and going for round Gold coloured ones instead.

Anyway, as I’m nearing the end of the wall hanging I’ve begun to consider my next project, which is likely to be another of the Celtic Ladies.

Celtic Winter is top of the list at the moment but I think I may change the colours. 

The original is worked in White and Gold but I’m of the opinion that she would look far better in Pale Blue’s and Silver, so my first step will be to purchase the chart and then get to work with my colour charts, so wish me luck.

Thanks for stopping by and…….

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Advent Calendar started and TUSAL time again

16^th September  2012

I’m convinced that as we get closer to the end of the year the months are getting shorter because it’s TUSAL time again and it doesn’t seem like five minutes ago I was showing you mine from last month.

But it is the New Moon  and there's no denighing it any longer, so it means I have to reveal my Ratty Old Threads collected over my last month of stitching.

  

It’s filling up nicely with Christmassy shades of Red’s and Greens and a small amount of Gold threads too but I’m seriously wondering if my jar is going to big enough to see me through to the end of the year.

The project I’m working on at the moment is this Advent Calendar.

The chart was in a very old copy of Cross Stitcher and in actual fact I started to stitch it about three years ago but then had problems with my eyes and it was put in a cupboard and forgotten about.

So this month I’ve resurrected it and finished off the first little cushion that I had already stitched and managed to completely finished three more.

I’m also well on the way with the next five which just need stitching together so hopefully I’m on track to have it ready for one of the schools that work with  Kids Company by the start of December.

If you want to join in and show us your TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch A-Long) then  It’s Daffy Cat’s   is the place you need to go.  There, Sharon has everything you need to know to take part, so come along and join in the fun.

Here’s a closer look at the finished cushions.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x 

Wall Hanging for Bluebell Wood

August 2006

Somehow I’ve managed to get this project out of chronological order but as it was such a fab project to work on I still want to share it with you.

As mentioned in a previous post, I used to belong to a craft forum called  Crafts By Carolyn  where a group of us got together to stitch a charity project

Following the success of that one we decided we would all like to work on another  project together and settled on making a wall hanging/advent calendar  for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London.

On the front we had twelve Teddy Bear panels representing the months of the year, each one stitched by someone different and on the reverse we made twenty four felt pockets with appliqued numbers on and in each pocket was either a Christmas motif stitched on plastic canvas or a felt motif for the children to reveal each day.

One lady made all the felt motifs and myself and two other ladies stitched the ones on canvas. 
When they were all done they were sent to me so that I could back each of the canvas ones with felt and then I finish all the motifs off with Gold edges and a Gold crocheted chain to attach them to the inside of the pockets. 
I also added some beading to them to make them sparkle when the light catches them. 



These are the motifs that I stitched myself.     For a clearer view click on the photo.

Once everything was done I sent it all out to Nicki in Switzerland where she made up the wall hanging.

The finished Wall Hanging

There was also another panel that a lady in Canada had stitched some time ago that Nicki made into a cushion to go with the project.

Cushion

It was round about the time the project was nearing an end we contacted Great Ormond Street Hospital to tell them that we had made the wall hanging for them but sadly we received news back that we weren’t expecting.
Unfortunately due to Health and Safety reasons they unable to except the wall hanging unless it was put behind glass which sort of defeated the object of an advent calendar, so we then had to think of somewhere else that might like it.

Luckily one of the forum members knew of a new Children’s Hospice, Bluebell Wood that was still in the process of being built in Sheffield, so we approached them and they were only too pleased to except the wall hanging.

The Teddies stitched by the girls

The rest of the motifs

The Cushion detail  

All of the cross stitch charts, with the exception of the teddy on the cushion were found in copies of "The World of Cross Stitching" or "Cross Stitcher".

After the project was finished I wrote to "The World of Cross Stitching" and they featured our story in their magazine.