Christmas Countdown 25... Christmas Tree #1

Background : It has become a bit of a Christmas tradition for me to write an Advent blog - a series of posts leading into Christmas from 1 December . In the past, I have featured Christmas characters by the alphabet, all you ever needed to know about Christmas cakes, Christmas Firsts and Christmas traditions. I usually find myself on 30 November, thinking what to do this year? However, I've had the idea of "crazy " Christmas trees in the back of my mind since last year. So this year, it's about non- traditional, unusual, crazy, weird Christmas trees. There will also be a "handmade" element to my posts, so there may even be some links to tutorials or other ideas....

So here we go. Christmas Countdown 25 - 1 December.

Source : https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/455285843573622091

This is the image which started this line of thought.... a yarn bombed, crochet granny square Christmas tree. I thought I would like to crochet a tree like this, but perhaps another year.... This tree was created by the Urban Knitting Zaragoza Group for the Plaza del Pilar, Saragoza, Spain. They covered a metal frame with knit and crochet squares with embellishments - helped by two children's yarn bombing workshops

https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/35325178301076166/

Other places have had similar ideas Stoney Stanton, a village in the Blaby district, Leicestershire, England was yarn bombed for Christmas in 2016.

Source : https://www.hinckleytimes.net/news/local-news/gallery/stoney-stanton-yarn-bombed-christmas-12286641

If you think time is not on your side for this Christmas, perhaps a tree skirt or some of the smaller Granny square Christmas tree projects might be possible.

Link to online tutorial for Christmas tree skirt

Link to a online tutorial for Granny square tree decoration.

And if Christmas trees and granny squares don"t sit well with you ... perhaps a fashion item for your Christmas party.... We have seen crochet granny squares used for all sorts of crazy wearable items and even in fashion shows and on the celebrity red carpet.

Sources : https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2017-menswear/moschino/slideshow/collection#57

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2017-menswear/moschino/slideshow/collection#57

https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/288019338654505631/

Source : https://www.demilked.com/crochet-shorts-schuyler-ellers-lord-von-schmitt/

Source: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/135389532532708655/?lp=true

Here's a video tutorial on how to crochet a granny square - the beginning of many projects, even a Christmas tree.

For more information about Christmas trees go to a previous blog post.

Bilby Infatuation

Wrapped wire and fabric bilby sculpture : Wilma Simmons 2016 Over the years I have been fascinated with the plight of the bilby and it has inspired quite a few of my cloth creations... With long pinkish-coloured ears and silky, blue-grey fur, the Bilby has become Australia’s version of the Easter Bunny. Unlike the rabbit, bilby numbers are falling rapidly. There were originally two species but the Greater Bilby is now commonly referred to simply as ‘the Bilby’ as the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is thought to have become extinct in the early 1950s... Bilbies are nocturnal, emerging after dark to forage for food. Using their long snouts, they dig out bulbs, tubers, spiders, termites, witchetty grubs and fungi. They use their tongues to lick up grass seeds. Bilbies have poor sight and rely on good hearing and a keen sense of smell. To minimise threats from predators they’ll mostly stay within 250m of their burrows, but sometimes roam further afield depending on the food...

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Non-Committal Collage Anything Goes

Have you heard of non-committal collage? I hadn't until one of the other participants of the 100 Day Project started doing this each day and showing the results.... Here are Peggy's rules : 1. S elect 9 scraps of paper from collage box/stash 2. Make three different compositions using each scrap at least once. (some pieces can be used more than once) 3. Do not alter the scraps of paper in any way. 4.Do not use glue. 5.Take photo, disassemble and return scraps to box. I thought this would be a fun and quick exercise to do for Tag Tuesday's theme , Anything Goes... so here are my "non-committal collage" tags.... Did you spot the nine pieces? Would you like to suggest some titles? And I repeated the exercise before putting back the 9 scraps of paper, so these are different items. Hope you will try this exercise - it is lots of...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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