A Homespun Christmas

I was looking at the calendar this morning. Wow! 25th September. Three months from today is Christmas Day, less than one hundred days away..

While I know that there are dozens of Bah! Humbug!-ers out there, I unashamedly admit that I LOVE Christmas. There is something really very magical about the whole thing...the twinkling lights, the get-up in shops and streets, the cooking, the planning of Christmas presents to make and buy... Okay, I don't enjoy the actual Christmas shopping as such...especially those times I'm rushing through shops trying to find the right gift for one of my children's teachers, one I swear I didn't know existed until we are one day away from end of term....

I got into the habit of making presents for close friends and family partly because of the hassle of shopping for the right item... I say partly because, when you make gifts for Christmas, you need to plan ahead, very much ahead... It would certainly be a disaster, if come Christmas Eve, I had to discover that the handmade tea-cosy I was planning to send to my Aunt couldn't be finished because I'd run out of fabric..

Well, this year no one can say I haven't been planning ahead... At the moment, I'm up to the armpits in fabric and patterns and designs.. 

For the past week I have been working on these homespun little beauties... They are intended as Christmas tree decorations, but they can be attached to presents to make the packaging a little more fancy.. 

And there's really nothing too complicated to them, some very basic shapes, a few details, contrasting coloured fabric  and thread (you could use tonal colours if that floats your boat; I just happen to prefer contrast..the golden rule of creativity is that there are no rules, and that is beautiful, since you can express yourself as you feel best).

I have always wanted a Christmas tree covered with homespun decorations....but back home, we have tree decorations bought from shops, lovingly hoarded over the years....and no one wanted to part with the old baubles either. This Christmas, our first in the UK, we will be buying a new Christmas tree. And I am running up my own personal challenge to have only homespun decorations on it...

Some of my work from this week... Although red and white will feature a lot in my work, seeing that they are the colours of the Maltese flag, my tree will probably be multicoloured affair that can best be described as eclectic.

This is something I am still halfway through, but I couldn't resist showing it off.. I love the crossword feel to it.. And I am especially proud of my cross-stitch, something I have only picked up seriously in the past few months...

So, what do you think??? Please drop me a line and let me know... Your input is important..