Gift Bag Ornaments

While rummaging through my stash of Christmas kits/fabrics/miscellaneous-items-in-the-sewing-room I came across this kit of Gift Bag Ornaments purchased last year (I think!). I decided to make some of them up, thinking they would come in handy for gift cards, which so many of us very lazy people tend to buy so we don't have to shop.  This delightful set of ornaments kit is from Rachel's of Greenfield (which refers to Greenfield Road in Lancaster, Pennsylvania). Please check out her website; she specializes in kits for embroidery, quilts and punchneedle.

The kit comes with all of the felt and embroidery floss needed to decorate as shown on the pattern illustration. It took me several hours to cut out the felt but just a few minutes to glue them onto the envelope pieces. I can't tell you how nice and relaxing it was to just sit in the sewing room and work on something, well, not creative, but at least sewing related. I may try to jazz some of the pieces with some of the many, many beads I have on hand. Now I need to sew the felt pieces on to the envelope pieces, then get to embroidering.  Don't you just love the little kitten in the stocking? The directions are extremely easy to follow, especially so if you read them first. I have a lot of blue lines on the white pieces, so I'll spritz them with a bit of water before I do much embellishment. 

It's only one week to Christmas, and I still have a bit of shopping to do, but not much. Today will be spent baking and stitching these little pieces. I'm sure I won't get nearly as far as I would like, but I'll try. I'm sure I'll be able to get some serious stitching done in the car this week while it's my turn to ride in the carpool. The exacting part of this project, the cutting, is over, and the sewing and embroidery can be less than precise, making it a good candidate for the car.

What are you stitching today? Or are you shopping, wrapping and/or baking? I'll be trying out a new Panettone recipe from the magazine La Cucina Italiana and hope to get some cookies made. Tonight starts the second season of Downton Abbey here in the US, so I'll be sure to watch and record that! In fact, I'm watching the first season on Netflix while working on the ornaments just to get ready for it.
Update:  Oops! Season Two doesn't start until Jan 8. Reruns of Season One are on tonight.