Phew! Just made it!

My son and his fiancée enjoyed their engagement party so all the hard work was worth it!  The rain held off and we were able to have the picnic themed party in the garden as planned and on the day I had a lot of helpers and it looked better than I had imagined it would!

Here is the picnic blanket scene I thought of and one of my helpers put together for me while I buttered a pile of bread slices for sandwiches!

So now that the party is over I started decorating the house ready for Christmas.  I started with hanging the stockings by the fireplace.  My youngest son thinks he's so funny messing with my HO HO HO!

My sons' partners both had different family plans for Christmas day with one of them going home for lunch and the other going home for dinner so for a while I thought we wouldn't get to meet up on the actual day.  My husband and sons have been shift workers for a long time so it wouldn't have been the first year we've celebrated on a different day.  As long as we do it it doesn't matter when it is!  I attempted to persuade Jim to take me away for the season but he wasn't keen and then we were all invited to Bree's house to celebrate with her family!

That meant I had to make gifts! And I decided to make stockings.  I went to Spotlight and, of course, the Christmas fabrics were depleted and they didn't have what I had in mind so I bought homespun.

I used a paper template to cut out my eight stockings.

Then I cut out cuffs.

I made toes and heels.

Then cut out eight stocking linings and stitched them together.  Eight lined stockings essentially means you're making 16 stockings!  Did I tell you it was now ten days until Christmas?!

I found batting that was just the right size for my stockings.

I used masking tape to mark where I was going to quilt them.

The masking tape was easy to follow and it helped stick the stockings to the batting so that I didn't need pins.  The tape was reusable too although it was getting very fluffy towards the end!

This is my design wall.  I'd used it to display engagement phots during the party and I haven't taken it down yet.

So I had to use my design dog floor.

I quilted all the stockings stitched the toes and heels on with a fancy decorative stitch and sewed the stockings together.

Then I went on a five day holiday to Cairns!  No pressure!  I was embroidering the family's names on the cuffs while I was away.  Do you like my messy bed?

This was my view!  It was a lovely trip.

We arrived home on Tuesday evening and I was too tired to even think about sewing so the next day, Christmas Eve, was a very busy one!  I had to sew strips for hanging loops, sew them and the cuffs to the tops of the stockings and then sew the linings to the whole thing.  I pinned the linings whilst watching TV!

They came together pretty quickly and I sewed up the hole for turning before giving them all a good press.  

Ta da!  Even though I couldn't find the fabric I wanted I think they turned out quite nicely.  I filled the human ones with chocolates and the doggy ones with treats.

We had a lovely lunch at Bree's family Christmas and after we'd gone home the family posed with their stockings!  How lovely!

My family are coming here tomorrow and we're having the beautifully laid Christmas table with gorgeous Thai takeaway!  This has been the easiest Christmas ever!  The only downfall is that there are no leftovers!  What's Christmas without leftovers!

I have no idea what I'm going to work one next but I think putting my sewing room back together after the party is first on the list!