Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Today's "Christmas Carol" Card  has been repurposed from a free motion machine embroidered piece I made for last year's Christmas Countdown.   What is your favourite Christmas Carol ? This is one of mine, played with one of my favourite instruments, the cello.   

 Today's Christmas card features a vintage postage stamp issued in Australia in 1968 . It is a collage with paper, fabric,  gold  foil and thread.  The Stamp celebrates the Christmas Hymn ' " Adeste Fideles " - Oh Come all Ye Faithful and here is some information about this well known  Christmas carol....  "O Come, All Ye Faithful" is a Christmas carol that has been attributed to various authors, including John Francis Wade, John Reading, King John IV of Portugal, and anonymous Cistercian monks. The earliest printed version is in a book published by Wade in 1744 ( Wikipedia) 

  20 December Christmas Countdown #25envelopes - Dickens’ Christmas . In the next few days , I’ll be taking my copy of’ A Christmas Carol’ from the bookcase for its annual reading . What would Christmas be like without Dickens? One of the favourite Christmas stories of all time, A Christmas Carol  recounts the story of  Ebenezer Scrooge , an elderly  miser  who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner  Jacob Marley  and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man. Today’s envelope does not include a portrait of Charles Dickens- it is just a collage attempting to recreate the atmosphere of the author’s novels . However, those British spostage stamps are modern!

  Christmas Countdown : 3 December - #25envelopes  Today, inspired by  some lyrics of the Christmas carol "Joy to the World" , I collaged some green fabrics and handprinted papers  on to a used envelope. This envelope  was  already decorated with a stamped plant image when I received it so it just seemed logical to add to it in the traditional red and green of  the season.  The  beautiful stamp, also used,  repeats the colours  And here's a 50 second video of the stitching on the envelope 

Each year, it has been my custom to create a blog Advent calendar with a  post a day in December until Christmas Day. Last year, the very popular Christmas Countdown of Christmas cake can probably not be equalled, but here is the first of 25 - the ABC of Christmas characters.  ( Aren't there 26 letters in the alphabet, I hear you ask ... yes, perhaps there will be a bonus letter on one of the days). To make this even more interesting, I will create 25 sketches to accompany the story behind each of the characters of Christmas 2016. The Little Drummer Boy -  watercolour, ink , pencil - Wilma Simmons  A is for Aaron ... who ? This is the name given to the Little Drummer Boy in the 1968 animated film, based on the Christmas carol. The Little Drummer Boy is the story of a poor orphan boy who had no gift to give to the Christ Child, so he played his drum, with Mary's approval. Delighted with the drummer's music, the Baby Jesus smiled. The Christmas carol, first entitl...