Come visit with me as I stitch and craft my way from one Christmas to the next - I like to have Christmas projects close by me all year. I have a particular fondness for Santas and Angels. If you have the time, leave a comment so I know you've visited.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for February

I can hardly believe it's the 15th of the month again.  It's come around so quickly.  So, it's time to do an update for Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL (there's a link in the sidebar).

In the past month, I have made up into ornaments the designs I stitched last month, and a few extras I stitched since the last report.  Here are the pics:

A gift for a friend's grandson.  It's actually a replacement for the one that went missing in the mail in 2013.  The stocking design is loosely based on one in LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet, and the little bear is adapted from a design in one of the Graphworks Christmas Miniatures leaflets.



Christmas gifts for young sisters from a family partial to nutcrackers.  The Nutcracker designer is Jeremiah Junction.



Christmas gifts for three of my great-nieces and nephews.  The teddy is a Dale Burdett design (I changed the floss colours), the Santa is a Barbara Mock design (floss colours and trim on parcel changed), and the stocking design is adapted from LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet and the teddy bear adapted from Graphworks Christmas Miniatures design.



The Santa is a gift for a nephew and his partner, and the stylized tree design is a gift for a young friend who will be receiving her twentieth Christmas ornament from me this year.  The Santa design is adapted from a chart in LA's Celebrations magazine Premier Issue.  I decided on floss colours and added back-stitching, as it was originally designed to be stitched with fabric strips on a jute mat.  The only part of the stylized tree that needs to have a designer credited is the 'Merry Christmas' teddy bear design, which was in a Graphworks Christmas Miniatures leaflet.



 Christmas gifts for another great-nephew and niece (siblings).  These designs came from Barbara Mock's Christmas Quickies II booklet.  I've shown the front and backs of these ornaments.



And finally, I have stitched a Baby's First Christmas ornament for another great-nephew who is expected to arrive in March.  I will have to wait for baby's name before I can finish this one up.  This baby will be born in USA to Aussie parents, so I added a koala to the stocking.  I may stitch a kangaroo or two on the back before I finish it up.  The koala design is adapted from Di Noyce's design printed in Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch magazine, and the stocking design is adapted very heavily from the stocking design in LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet.


That's it for me.  I think I'll take a break from ornaments now and start stitching on the secret santa chart for my niece Aislinn.

Valentine Day Blog Hop


Isn't this just so sweet?  It's the pic I received in Jo's Valentine Day Blog Hop .  I'm off to see if I can find the stitcher of the lovely bunnies.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

I'm a little late with this WIPocalypse report, as I've just returned home from a seaside holiday with friends.  It would have been very relaxing except for the fact that my 7 month old puppy was so exuberant and  overpowering in her desire to play with the hostess's three tiny dogs that she had them cowering in the corner every time she appeared on the scene.  So we're off to obedience training classes on Sunday. 

This month's discussion topic is an interesting one for me to ponder.  I've never really had a time when I felt that I was in a rut with a project, but I have felt overwhelmed and stifled by one project - the largest I have attempted.  I'm 'a one project at a time' stitcher, but when I was stitching my HAED Jolly Old Fellow, I knew that I would have to have a break from stitching it from time to time. So I decided to stitch solely on it for a block of four to six months each year then pack it away and stitch my other projects for the rest of the year. That worked for me. 

I've had quite a busy time in the past month, but I have managed to stitch up three more ornaments.   

These two are for my great-nephew and great-niece, brother and sister.
The dog and cat charts come from Barbara Mock's Christmas Quickies II booklet.



This one doesn't have a designer to credit,except for the "Merry Christmas" Bears design, which was in a very old 'Christmas Miniatures' leaflet.  It is for a delightful young lady who will be receiving her 19th Christmas ornament from me this year.

And I finished up the three nutcracker ornaments (charts from Nutcracker Factory II by Jeremiah Junction).

and I also finished up the three ornaments I stitched for Amelia, Finley and Angus:
The Santa Teddy Bear is designed by Dale Burdett, the Santa by Barbara Mock, and the stocking is heavily adapted from a design in LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet.

I hope to get more stitching time in  February than I did in January.