Christmas Decorations Swap

Hello! I'm not even going to attempt to make excuses for why I haven't blogged in over 2 weeks.
Today I have some cute Christmas decorations to share with you. A while back I signed up to join the Christmas Decorations Swap that Marilla Walker was hosting on her blog.
I was paired with Jo, who doesn't blog herself but does all sorts of crafty things, and strangely enough lives in the road I worked on a few years ago! It's a small world!
It took me ages to decide what I was going to make for Jo, but I eventually settled on something that used the free motion embroidery I love doing. I made a sweet little holly garland for her.

The base is some of that lovely pompom trim that I'm always admiring and can never normally find a use for. I found the perfect use for it here.
I drew and cut out pairs holly leaves, stitching them onto burlap so they looked nice from the back too.

Once cut out I added red sequins for berries, and a little bit of sparkle, then stitched the leaves onto the pompom trim.

A few days after I posted my package to Jo, one arrived from her. I was very intrigued to find out what it was as she'd dropped several hints about it being something she'd had to go somewhere special to make and she'd had to wait a while to pick it up.
A very carefully wrapped package was received and I opened it with equal care, not knowing what was inside.
Not one, but two gorgeous handmade decorations greeted me, with this one obviously being the one that had been made somewhere special.

Isn't it lovely?
Jo had also included this pretty hand beaded decoration along with the handmade glass one.


I'm not sure exactly where I'm going to hang them yet, but the decorations are going up this weekend, so I will make sure to find them somewhere special.
Thank you so much Jo for your beautiful decorations, and of course, thanks to Marilla too for organising such a fun swap.