Kris Kringle

What do you give a woman who has everything?

I don't actually know, so in the absence of a great idea I made her a pillow.

I suspect history is about to repeat. Crafty things as presents echoes of my maternal grandmothers penchant for "china painting". Actually very sweet and well intended. For the first 10 years. Then it started to be a bit wearisome. All things considered though, I have never suffered the indignantly of being short of a bud vase or lacking a small decorative plate. And with my surfeit of doilies and crocheted hankies, I have never known a decorating crisis nor an unladylike attack of the sniffles.


I was actually quite chuffed with my magpies - until I realised my understudies were of the northern hemisphere variety and it was too late to change (Yay last minute crafting).

Now that I've realised, I can't seem to notice anything other than that at the very least their beaks should be white. Aargh. Perhaps I'll sneak into her house one day and make some ninja style modifications.

This was also my first attempt at binding. I forgot to get cord (one trip to Spotlight on Christmas eve was more than enough for me). So I used some wool yarn instead. Here's hoping it doesn't get put through the machine on hot. It turned out pretty well I think - I only had to unpick once when I forgot to put the binding on before the invisible zip. Yes I AM a professional.

Its hard to see in the photo, but the birds are actually a deep navy - which really pops against the natural linen colour (without being as severe as black would have been). The "glint" is of course my favourite acid yellow. The binding, which I really wish I'd taken a shot of, is a nice indigo and cream fabric reminiscent of the Eames dot pattern. And yes, it was the perfect excuse to lash out on some yummy Japanese linen. Even though I block fused the applique, it still distorted. There really is a lot of give in the weave of this fabric. But that is the nature of linen, which if it weren't for the pin stripe, none would be any the wiser.