The two Donna Kooler Santa ornaments

Today I added the bead border to the larger Donna Kooler Santa, and made up both ornaments   The larger one was stitched as a gift for a Christmas visitor, but there's a strong chance it may stay in my Santa ornament collection.  I do like it very much, and I haven't stitched this Santa before.  The crescent Santa ornament is for my youngest sister, Wendy. I have stitched an ornament for her each year since 1982 (which is when I first started to cross stitch), so she has quite a collection, but this will be her first crescent Santa.  I always stitch a Christmas message on the back of Wendy's ornament - here's the back of this one:

Tomorrow I will start finishing the Sam Hawkins heart Santa, and by the end of the weekend the two Dale Burdett Christmas teddies should also be finished up.  In February I will be stitching ornaments for some little girls - perhaps some angels.

2013 Ornament SAL Report for January

I have stitched five Christmas ornaments in January, but I haven'r yet made them up.  I'll be doing that in the next week.    Here are my ornaments:

A Donna Kooler Santa (from her paperback 555 Christmas Designs to Cross Stitch, 2000):

Another Donna Kooler Santa (crescent Santa) from the same book, and two of Dale Burdett's Santa Teddies;

 And lasy but not least, a Sam Hawkins Santa:

I'll be getting out my beads tonight and starting the finishing (my favourite part of ornament making!)

WIPocalypse Report for January 2013

I haven't yet decided on all my projects for 2013.  So far I have a stitching list which almost entirely is made up of Christmas ornaments (the list is in the side panel).  Usually I stitch myself a large Christmas project each year, but this year I'm thinking I'll give that a miss.  Wall space is at a premium in my house, and it's hard to see where I can hang any more cross stitch projects - at Christmas or during the year.  I do have in my stash a TW sampler (of an English Tudor style house - I've forgotten the name of the design) that was sent to me by a British stitcher many years ago.  She had started it, and decided not to proceed, so sent me the entire kit.  My youngest sister absolutely loves the design, so I am tempted to get out the kit and stitch it for her.  The jury's still out on that one, though.

I have had one finish this month - the Wedding Sampler I started last year for my niece and her husband.  It's adapted from Rosewood Manor's Baltimore Rose Wedding Sampler.  It is currently with the framer.

In January I also stitched four Christmas ornaments, but haven't yet made them up.  The pictures are in the post below.  I did finish stitching the border and back for the heart Santa ornament (but haven't yet added the beads):

and I've started another Santa ornament.  It's from Donna Kooler's 555 Christmas Cross Stitch Designs paperback (2000).

I had wanted to make the ornaments up before the end of January, but it's more likely to be early February now.  I do like to 'batch' my ornament finishing, so they'll all have to wait now till the latest Santa is ready for making up.

My first Christmas ornaments for 2013

They're not finished up yet, but here's what I have stitched:

I just finished stitching this Santa a few minutes ago.  I still have the names and borders to stitch.  This Santa is from ASN booklet by Sam Hawkins - 50 Santas to Cross Stitch (1993).

 The teddy is Dale Burdett's Santa Teddy, and the crescent Santa is a Donna Kooler design (from 555 Christmas Cross Stitch designs, 1999).

 and another Santa Teddy - this one is for an in'law who gave me the Santa salt and pepper set from her Christmas Day table setting this past Christmas.  She's a teddy collector.

I'm hoping to have these four finished into ornaments by the end of January,

Look what my niece made for her wedding

One of the many floral balls she made.

And this is one individual flower (a table decoration) 

This is the central table decoration - you can see the individual flowers scattered around.

The bride's bouquet:

She also made bouquets for the bridesmaid, two miniature bridesmaids, and for the flowergirl.  Origami has always been an interest of hers, but so far this is her biggest project.My niece is multi-talented,  As well as the origami flowers, she also did the hairdos for the three child attendants (her nieces).

This is my niece Ciara, the bride's sister and her only adult bridesmaid:

Aislinn and Ben requested that we did not publish photos of them, so I can't show a pic of the bridal couple. It was a lovely wedding, and so suited the two of them.  The happy couple are honeymooning on a yacht in northern Queensland, and I am sure they are having a wonderful time.

My first 'finish' for 2013

Just in time for the wedding (tomorrow), I have  put in the final stitches in my niece's Wedding Sampler.  I rather heavily adapted the design from Rosewood Manor's Baltimore Heart Wedding Sampler.  I omitted the outer two borders, changed the remaining border completely, changed the pink floss colours to purple shades, changed the central message completely, and made changes to the design of the large flowers.

I've tried to load a pic of the finished project, but so far no luck.  I did manage to put a pic on the sidebar in the 'My Latest Finish' section. 

I am really looking forward to my niece's wedding tomorrow.  They are such a lovely couple.  My niece Aislinn has made all the flowers for the bridal party using origami, buttons, ribbon and tulle.  I saw the completed bouquets today, and they are just amazing. She is having four attendants - her sister as the bridesmaid, two pre-teen nieces as miniature bridesmaids, and another younger niece as flowergirl. The children are so excited to be in the wedding party.  My sister is really enjoying being the Mother of the Bride - even if it did involve helping to assemble flowers for the origami bouquets!  Tonight she has both her girls home with her, which is so special, as both girls moved out of home many years ago, and Ciara now lives in Perth - way on the other side of this big country.  She and her fiance have come across for the wedding.  And in March next year we will all be trekking across to Perth for Ciara and Johnny's wedding.