Progress on 12 Days of Christmas

Hi Everyone,
My 12 days progress has been slowed down over the last week as my brother and his wife have been in town. They are doing a month long trip around the North Island and have stopped in Whangarei to catch up with us for a few days. Not staying with us as the spare room is still full of everything Lol, but they are spending every evening with us and we are a having a few late nights enjoying their company.
The house is the cleanest and tidiest it has been in months and this is wonderful to enjoy, also the reason for not much sewing.
Thought I would show how I finish my baubles. I can't handstitch well enough any longer to follow Esther's technique so this is what I have been doing.

As you can see I add my batting before stitching my applique. 

Once my applique is complete I use it as my template for cutting the backing. doesn't matter if it is slightly bigger.I then stitch from this side leaving the top open from the edges of the gold top segment which I have not stitched down yet

From this side you can see my stitching with edges trimmed, bottom point cut off and any excess batting removed ready for turning. My finger only just fits thru the opening but having my batting held in place by my stitching as well as being fused, turning is relatively easy.

A little more easing out of the seam needed but top edges have been folded in and then the gold top stitched around with blanket stitch to close the opening.

Have also completed my Milk Maid

Faceless as yet, I'm scared to attempt it but one day I will.

My red background fabric is very vibrant and finding fabrics that work well is harder than I thought.

today I finished my Swan a Swimming

For me the Swan was easy - but the stitching on the wing!!!!

After a couple of days pondering as my free motion stitching is not great I decided to draw the pattern on to my wing with a fine yellow marker,  it wasn't a  gold mettalic but next time it would be.

However with my metallic thread slowly stitched over top I am happy with the result.

so that is 8 Baubles finished, four to go.

The day before my brother and SIL arrived I was frantic, my old dining table topper had to go and is now some restoration work. What to replace it with, a search through my wall hangings found this one from a few years ago. 

Butterfly Garden

My first and only Bargello attempt so far. I picked the colours of the Hydrangea for this quilt, got the pattern wrong as I reversed blocks I wasn't meant to, in the end a totally differnet result with a horrible center 4 blocks from my first attempt at stitching a Bargello. However I learnt quickly and the rest of the blocks were much better. I decided to add Mosaic applique butterfly to hide the center stitching flaws.

Covered a multitude of sins in my first blocks- but looked very lonely so I searched my butterfly patterns for other options.

A foundation pieced butterfly for my middle size.

And an applique butterfly for the smallest size. 

The result on the table was this.

With a vase of artificial  Hydrangea's in pride of place, this looks much better.

This week I am finally in time to link to Esther's WOW so doing so now.

Enjoy your Wednesday, 

Cheer's Jenny