A handmade Christmas part 1

First of all, mucho apologies for not posting at all in the last two weeks. It's just the time of year, too much to do at work, Christmas shopping, along with a visit to my folks and the most time consuming thing of all, making lot's of my christmas presents!

So here's a sneak preview of a couple that have already been distributed but to friends and family that I know don't read my blog!

I made this patchwork cushion for my neice and her boyfriend. They have recently bought an old caravan (which they call the 'Caravan of Luurrve') and Sarah has been asking advice about getting a nice vintage feel to the interior. So I have attempted this look as much as possible with the fabrics used, and added the little detail of the felt heart and the sashiko stitching around it and and the border. I have also enjoyed using some of my New York fabrics and the beautiful sashiko thread for the first time.

Here is a lovely tea towel I made for my Mum and Dad. Mum likes to have a tea towel covering up her hob (slightly weird, but it's to stop it getting dusty...) which is where this will end up hopefully. I can't really bear the thought of it getting covered in food! I had a lovely time appliqueing and sashikoing (just made that word up) the tea towel.

I bought a couple of metres of white linen and cut them up, hemmed them and added a braid loop for hanging. I then traced a pretty simple design (stylised flowers in a vase - in case you're wondering!) on to them and got busy with my sashiko needle. The embroidery is done first and then the applique is hiding all the knots! You just slip the knot under the finished applique to do the embroidery on top of the applique. I have a photo of the back of one of the other tea towels I have done (so you can see how neat and free of knots it is!), which I will show you after Christmas.

Sashiko seems to be growing in popularity at the moment, check out Karen's gorgeous cushion she made from a kit on Blueberry Park's blog. This is how the real thing is meant to look (I'm just mucking about with my creations). Would really like to have ago at the full on 'white on indigo geometric patterns' someday soon.

Well that was your first sneak preview of the lovely things I have made this Christmas (feeling ever so slightly smug about it, especially as finally finished last thing yesterday!). More in a few days time!!