As Christmas slips away...

I am not sure if I showed this last year - I might have shown you bits but not the finished scene, anyway, if I did then bear with me!

This is our nativity.

The plan was to add to it each year.

I have to confess - I added nothing. The poor shepherds did not even get hair.

The backdrop is just some dark blue panne velvet with the stars glued on - I want to make some trees to stand in front of it to help it merge more with the stable.

The poor green King seems to be 'scalped' once each year! There must be something about his little sparkly sequin on the crown that is irresistible.

I did of course make two baby Jesus' last year as I was sure that one would go missing (which it never did).
The girls discovered it and declared "Baby Jesus has a twin sister too!"

They found it hiding at the bottom of the box again this year.
So while most of the time the crib looked like this...

I did find it to be quite a full crib on a couple of occasions!

And those poor bald, sheepless shepherds in their needle-felted robes.

One of my aims for this year is to make good on the "one new character/ animal for the nativity for 2011" pledge.

After all, a good bit of hand sewing is just what I need to take with me for Sew It Together 2011 in March, don't you think?

The road to Bethlehem is long!

I realised that while the nativity has been set up here I have neglected to fill those of you in blogland in on the progress to date.

Well, the main folk, Mary and Joseph, both got hair and also shrouds/veils and then they were ready to go.

Joseph had me stumped for a while as I wanted he and Mary to look a little less 'polished' than the kings and nothing seemed quite right for a while.

Then I found some red cloth with a slightly coarse weave and secured a small ring of rafia around his crown with a few stitches.

All the kings received a gift to pass on to the small babe; a decorative silver box,

a golden chalice;

and a gold pouch.

And an angel appeared overnight, all floating fabric and whispy ethereal hair.

They are now all set up, though their surrounds are changing daily - I'll include pics of this soon.

There is a backdrop of blue crushed panne velvet with gold stars on it and a small wooden stable has been made, though it is yet to be lined with the many twigs I have collected for the purpose.

Sadly the shepherds are still bald (not enough hours in the day at the moment!) and the oversized sheep has not joined the party, but I am OK with this as it gives me more to go on with.

It really has been a most enjoyable project to work on and I am looking forward to watching it grow along with our girls in the years to come.

Making progress...

Well there you go - I did take a short blog hiatus after all.

An unintended one though, the whole Melbourne Cup long weekend thing meant we had lots of activities to fill our days (picnics, movies, swimming, trips to the beach) - none of which I remembered to take photo's of.

I have been making some progress on the nativity though.

I'm lucky enough to be able to sew in the car which helps, nope no sign of travel sickness at all.

So here's the progress.

The main players are ready to get some hair and shrouds/veils.

Mary on the left with the babe and Joseph on the right - the felt under Mary's main cloak is actually a gorgeous deep red.

I've kept them simple - they weren't rich folk like the kings.

Then a couple of shepherds - with woolly cloaks in my first attempt at needle felting.

I was going for a rustic, earthy look.

Their cloaks need some sort of closure at the top and then hair, beards and coverings too.

I also have underway what now appears to be a grossly oversized sheep...

The pattern was reduced to 70% of original and I thought it would be OK - but after putting it near the shepherds today and I am not convinced.

I think it could be a rogue sheep and would not be able to be contained by them.

And that just won't do in such a peaceful scene.

And lastly the star - to which I will add a little more razzle dazzle - it is a star after all so OK for it to shine.

I'm thinking more of the seed beads branching out from the centre of the star.

I'm pretty happy with where I am at given that it's still early November.

I want to get a donkey and angel done as definite items and there's an inn-keeper also on the go if I get time.