Christmas sewing

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! I think this photo sums it up for me! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

After just one week of work, I have started my maternity leave!!! I am so excited, as it feels like it has been a long time coming... One of my objectives of this precious time before our little bub arrives is to keep a little more up to date with my blog.

So, working backwards, a post about some of the sewing I did for Christmas.

First is a set of placemats and matching napkins for my brother-in-law, Neil and his fiance, Marianne who have just bought a house together, so it was a combined Christmas/housewarming gift.

The pattern is from Amy Butler's instiches book, and the gorgeous fabric is also Amy Butler!

Next on the list were matching travel dirty clothes and shoes bags for Mum and my sister, Jane.

You can see that I've blanket stitched around the shoe bag, but not the dirty clothes bag. I ran out of time before Christmas, but it was a great activity to finish while watching the boxing day test match!

I was pretty happy with how these turned out, if I do say so myself ;-)

And finally, some Christmas/baby sewing. Friends of mine, Tim & Anna welcomed their third little baby girl into the world on Christmas Day, Natalia Mary. Her baptism was last weekend and I made her a cot blanket from some of my fabric stash (heather bailey freshcut) and from the pattern from one of my Christmas sewing books - Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts. It really was last minute as we arrived home just a couple of days before the baptism!

Well, that is it for today! I promise there will be more updates over the coming weeks (provided baby mackenzie doesn't arrive early)...