Note to self: learn to walk before you attempt to run!

Today has been a big fat FAIL!!! However, I live and learn…

This morning I set about creating a (vaguely Christmassy) hanging which I had carefully planned last night whilst David was out a Christmas party. I know I shouldn’t but I do love nights in alone when I can do as I please. Anyway, I digress. I had taken inspiration from a lovely book that I have on Embroidery on Paper (click the title for link to the book). The design that I liked was a hanging of three hearts embellished with embroidery and beads. I decided to make a similar piece but creating three patchwork hearts and embellishing them with seasonal things such as bells and snow flakes.

So, after an early start (couldn’t sleep) and a lot of cleaning in the kitchen I set about making it. David didn’t surface until after one this afternoon and I’d just about finished it by then but this had been an ambitious project and I can’t say that I’m thrilled with the result. It turns out that getting the hearts perfect is not very easy at all. I’m quite tempted to have a go at Kirstie Allsopp’s way of creating fabric hearts using the much much simpler method of using some kind of wonderweb type material. I shall investigate further at a later date. Here’s a closer look at the three separate hearts below…

Disappointment number one!

Then, this evening I attempted to make a Christmas patchwork star. I carefully designed it, making sure that the angles were all exactly 45 degrees and thinking about the order in which I was going to stitch the eight pieces together.

It was all going very well. I cut out the pieces from some great fabric (from Ikea of course) and made the patchwork star before attaching it to my cream fabric to create the back of the star that I intended to stuff.

This is where the story ends. After stitching it together and trying to turn it right side out it became obvious that the points were almost impossible to turn because I’d stitched them too tightly. The pattern was just too small and fiddly. It went in the bin! Walk before you can run, Suzanne!! Next time I’ll try another cushion I think!