Christmas Wallhanging Sneaky Peek

One of my plans for November was to create a festive replacement for my Welcome Wallhanging ready for displaying next month.

The thing is that the plan in my head is totally not what's going on here.

Somewhere between drawing little sketches of snowmen and Christmas trees and cutting out bondawebbed fabric letters, the design became something altogether different.  While I still think the snowmen and trees would have worked a treat, this year I really need to remember that what Christmas is celebrating is actually beyond amazing.  Immanuel - God with us, then in flesh and now in spirit.  It is beyond my abilities to describe how humble this makes me feel.

I hope you won't feel that this is preachy in any sense.  In fact, it's very personal.  Life is good, but it's tough (as I know it is for many of you too) and, of late, very confusing and over and over again in the past few weeks I have felt the need to remember that no matter how it feels, we are not alone, there is always Immanuel.

I had another wee go at sketching applique for this wallhanging.  It's a bit dodgy in more than a few places but I think I'll get away with it.  I indulged in a smidgin of satisfyingly simple hand stitching for the 'Immanuel' and I even tried out one of my sewing machine's decorative stitches as the edging of the hanging and the tabs. The design is obviously very simple but it was fun mixing these elements to create just what I wanted.

Apologies to those of you who had to steady yourselves at the sight of my fabrics with the gold, but I'm a traditional Christmas colours girl and I like a wee bit of sparkle too - gasp. A bit of bright, festive red and cream and gold and sometimes a wee bit of green too just seems to speak warm and cosy Christmassy-ness.

So, I'm safely checking the festive wallhanging off my November list.  What about you, are you adding any new homemade decorations to your home this year?