Flutterby Patch

My four nativities

As a child I was always fascinated by the variety of Christmas nativity scenes I saw at school, in shop windows and of course in churches.

I was about fourteen when I was inspired to make a tiny scene of my own from odd scraps of fabric and pipe cleaners. My first nativity can be seen above and has witnessed many Christmases. The figures are about 3 ins (cm) tall.

A few years later at college I created a second one (below).

I was a little more creative this time as I had more fabric at my disposal but again used simple cardboard tubes and cones for the bases which were easy to cover.

After I left college I lived at home with my parents for a couple of years and as they had a large niche in their library I was inspired to create a third nativity to fill it. This time my figures were about 9 in (22 cm) tall and they each had smiles and black bead eyes.

I notice I used vintage lace for the baby's gown!

I had great fun making all the figures for this scene and even found some woolly sheep which were just the right size for my shepherds.

Two of the kings were dressed in brocade and the third had a gown made from fabric that I tied and dyed and then embroidered.

The kings came bearing gifts that were made from match boxes and a scent bottle. They were all covered in shiny chocolate wrappers.

Soon after that I met and married my husband and we had a home of our own. I left my three nativities at my parents' house and set about making number four which you can see below.

Its amazing what you can do with a few tubes (made from thick paper) covered in stripy fabric.

Heads are made from circles of felt gathered and stuffed to form ball shapes. Hair and beards are wool.

The kings are made from cones covered in brocade and decorated with beads. Their gifts are fancy fastenings from vintage necklaces.

This was my fourth and final nativity and it puts in an appearance every year even though it is now looking somewhat tired. Since my parents passed away I have all four nativities in my possession once again. They don't all get displayed these days but finding them every year amongst the Christmas decorations brings back endless happy memories of Christmases past.

If you or your children feel inspired to make a nativity scene I can promise you the design is a simple one. Simply make cardboard tubes or cones to the size you require and then choose suitable fabrics to glue on. Then the fun bit comes in finding just the right trims that will make your figures look like lowly shepherds or wealthy kings.

I trust all your Christmas preparations are going well.

Until next time,

Eli

Trees for Christmas

This afternoon was fine and, as a watery sun had put in a rare appearance, we decided to visit our local Christmas tree farm.

Nestling in the shadow of the Lakeland hills, we travel to the farm every year to select a suitable tree for the sitting room.

At one time we delayed our visit until the week before Christmas but these days, if you don't get there in early December you can be left with a poor sad specimen that has been rejected by everyone else and has been trampled underfoot for a couple of weeks or more.

I don't like to see trees in this sorry state. I much prefer them looking healthy with their roots in the soil. But Christmas is approaching fast and so I have to put my emotions to one side for a while.

We chose a tall, plump fellow who will hopefully hold a good many decorations and fit nicely in the sitting room corner. I also gave a home to his smaller companion as I took pity on him (typical of me!) Apparently he was considered too thin and would be rejected as no one would want him. I on the other hand thought he looked a really cute fellow that would fit nicely at the foot of our stairs so without delay offered to give him a good home.

With both trees securely netted, we queued up to pay.
 

Then onto the car roof-rack they were hoisted and we headed for home.

The two trees are now behind the garage with their trunks in buckets of water to keep them fresh until Christmas. Next time you see them they will (hopefully) be standing proud and dripping with festive colour.

Until next time
Eli

Grey days

This is the view from our study window. It has looked like this for weeks.....grey on grey. Yes, I fear here in England's Lake District we are still enduring wall to wall rain. The flood waters have receded quite a bit but of course there is no chance that homes will start drying out until we get a prolonged dry period. We might have a long wait. Yesterday, to cheer myself up, I decided to check out the Christmas decorations in a large local shop only to find..........

.......grey is the dominant colour this season!!! All around the shop I saw grey. Yes, I admit, there was some black, white and silver thrown in but all I could see was grey and more grey and display after display favoured this combination. Not for me I'm afraid.

Moving on I was confronted by a large singing Santa. My kids would have been terrified by this when they were little! I can see the appeal I suppose, but I fear the constant serenading of Christmas songs would very quickly drive me mad.

Ah! This is more like it..... a cute (silent) Santa.

What a sweet fellow. I looked more closely and, as so often happens, decided I could make something similar at home. I think we all do that don't we?

As always there were dozens of colourful characters to choose from and all were so appealing with that "come and buy me" look.

Oh dear! Here's the type of sad little person I dread seeing. If my daughter had been with me we would have had to give this snowman a good home.

He was the last one of his type left on the shelf as all his friends had already found good homes. He looked so forlorn and unloved...... I was getting seriously tempted when......

husband spotted me lingering and insisted that we didn't need any more Christmas 'stuff'. He was right of course, we've collected more than enough over the years.

So back to the car we went (empty handed). The roads in our immediate area are open again and the lake is back in its right place. During the recent flooding the water rose 8ft (2.5m) and several boats were sunk as their mooring ropes weren't long enough to allow the vessels to rise with the water level.

The wooden jetties are one by one re-appearing after having been completely submerged.

Grey will definitely not be my chosen colour for Christmas decorations. I'll stick to the traditional red, golds and greens and dream of the warmer brighter days to come.

Until next time
Eli