I thought I’d begin this post with a picture of the Bustle & Sew team on their break. That is to say, the canine team members – who, when I got up from my stitching to make myself a nice cup of tea, decided to mount a sofa takeover. As you can see, young Alfie is a quick learner, having taken the coveted centre spot on the snuggly fleece throw for himself! Luckily they are all easily distracted by the offer of a digestive biscuit and I was soon able to resume my work!
The January magazine is always an odd one for me as while I’m putting it together we’re all excited for Christmas – reindeer, snowmen, baubles and more are the patterns of choice right now, but of course by the time the January edition is published at the end of December Christmas will be behind us for another year. I did enjoy stitching the hoop above for January though and I’ve called it “Homeward Bound” – those last few hundred yards at the end of a snowy winter’s dog walk with the prospect of hot tea and warm toes in sight. This could just as easily be our Boxing Day walk, a family tradition to work off the previous day’s Christmas lunch, though we haven’t often had snow on Boxing Day here that I can remember anyway.
I was interested to try a new way of working with different textiles for this design, having seen a reel on Instagram where the stitcher showed how she simply layered different fabrics to create a multi-textured background before beginning work. I can’t remember who this was (please tell me if it was you and I’ll be happy to credit you), but thought I’d try it on this piece. My verdict is just a little mixed in that it was a great way to add depth as the unsecured top edges of the fabrics sit a little proud of the background, but it was still necessary to applique the smaller shapes in the normal way as the hoop simply wasn’t sufficient to hold them in place.
Anyway, that’s probably enough about the January Magazine for now, Christmas is still ahead of us, though we are perhaps beginning to run out of stitching time, which is why I thought I’d share this Jingle Pennant pattern with you. It’s actually a really quick and easy make with applique and some simple hand embroidery on a felt background. My daughter Rosie snaffled the original and it does look nice as part of her Christmas decorations!
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