I've been knitting, stitching and sewing up a storm lately, I feel like Santa's little needle-elf! There is a lot I can't show before Christmas, but here are one or two bits.
Here is the extremely pretty orrnament I recieved from Karen J (no blog that I know of) in The Gift Of Stitching Magazine ornament exchange. Karen also very kindly included the lovely calendar of Canadian scenes that you can see in the picture.
And here is the one I sent to Debbie (also no blog).
A few weeks ago, alone and unloved at the bottom of a plastic laundry basket full of textiles in the charity shop I came across a sad, limp drawn thread table runner, yellow with age and covered in stains. I couldn't bear to see it lying there, all screwed up, so I bought it and fetched it home.
I soaked it in bleach for a while and hung it on the line in the sun for an afternoon and it came up beautifully white, though I had to darn one or two tiny holes in it.
Inspired by a project in CrossStitcher magazine (loving their new look by the way), I used waste canvas to stitch these little heart motifs on it. I think it looks very Scandinavian and Christmassy.