It's Christmas Eve

Lorri Birminghan Santa

I wish you Christmas Joy

My final finishes for 2014

The last of my Christmas ornaments for 2014.  I stitched these for two delightful neighbour children, sisters.

This year I have stitched and finished 51 Christmas ornaments and made two stitched pieces for framing.  Not my most prolific stitching year, but I am pleased to have finished all the projects on my stitching list for 2014.

More Christmas Pics - my Kitchen and Sitting Room

My biggest White Santa.  He has been art of my Christmas since the early 1990s.

Angela inspecting my 1970s Christmas tree

and a better pic of the 1970s tree

Angela posing in front of the snowpeople

My Christmas salt and pepper shakers on the kitchen windowsill

My 1950s tree

Christmas Joy

Miss Angela, wearing her new Christmas collar sent to her by Julia in WA:

Thank you, Auntie Julia

And I have  more finished ornaments to celebrate.  These are for the latest members of my extended family.

And I have stitched and finished two more, but mailed them to England without first taking photos. I thought these would be my final ornaments for 2014, but I'm stitching again - Christmas ornaments for two neighbourhood little girls who will be visiting me before Christmas.

Some more Christmas photos:

My "Santa" Tree

A close-up of my larger vintage Santas

My vintage Santas in their display cupboard

My very special Santa brooches

My Santa candles and candleholders

My Santa pens

My Christmas House - Entry Foyer and Dining Room

Santa stands at my front door to greet visitors.

My "Elements of Christmas"display box in the entry foyer.

The "Angel Room" (the dining room)

I will be back in a day or so with photos of my kitchen (christmas salt and pepper collection and fridge magnets) and sitting room (Christmas trees and white Santas), then later with pictures of my top landing (Jim Shaw Santas), lounge room (Santas including my vintage Santas) and study (nativities and nutcrackers)

HD - Wedding Sampler finished

I am so pleased to have finished this Sampler for my niece.  As usual, the picture doesn't really do it justice.  The fabric is not really quite so dark, and the date isn't really leaning uphill.  I found this chart quite frustrating to stitch.  The chart wasn't true to the picture that came with it, and I found it necessary to change the shape of the hearts and also the birds, to smooth out the square edges. The chart was Beautiful Birds Cross Stitch from Modern Cross Stitch Patterns.

Introducing Angela Roselea

 Angela is my Maltese Terrier puppy,  13 weeks old, who joined my family 9 days ago.  She is a gorgeous ball of fluff, weighing in at 2 kg (just over 4 lb).  She is a delight, and such a quick learner.

And more good news - my Christmas "Welcome' is home from the framer.  I am very happy with how it has come up, but not very happy with the quality of this pic.  The framed piece is not dull and lifeless like this pic - it is quite vibrant and sparkly.

I hope to be back early next week with a pic of my current project, which is almost finished now.  It is a wedding sampler for my niece Ciara. Not the type of design I would have chosen for a wedding sampler, but as it was chosen by the bride, I am hopeful she will like it.  Beautiful Wedding Birds. In all my years of cross stitching, this is the only project I have stitched which has taken four skeins of DMC 310.  Apart from the black, there are only two other colours on the design - red and white.  I replaced the charted DMC 666 with DMC 816 and 321 (randomly, separately and in combination).  I didn't like the shape of the hearts as charted (they were much squarer than the those in the pic) so I rounded them off, and also back-stitched them.  I'm stitching it on a hand-dyed grey Rustico Aida 18 count.

A Christmas Welcome

Here's my latest finish - I will have it custom framed.  I stitched it for the 'new' Santa I got for my birthday.  He's seen quite a few Christmasses, but he's new to me.  He is an impressive Santa - way taller than me.  He is over 1.85 m (6') tall.  He will be holding this "welcome" to greet Christmas visitors to my home this December.  I would put in a picture of him, but I can't get a good enough one.  At present he is standing in my craft room, getting ready for Christmas, and I can't get far enough away to get a good clear pic.  I used letters from "Christmas Alphabet" by Barbara Christopher, from Leisure Arts Magazine December 1992.  I totally changed the C and both E's, changed all the floss shades, and added blending filament and  the little angel. It measures 30 cm (12") long.

Three more Christmas ornaments

It's been a sad time for me over the past three weeks.  My Dad finally lost his hard-fought battle with heart, kidney, and liver failure.  He almost made it to his 92nd birthday.  He suffered in his last weeks, and so did his family. It was a blessing to see him at peace.

I've hardly picked up a needle in the past few weeks, and I must say I didn't really feel like stitching today, but I had a stern chat with myself and feel a lot better for having finished up these three ornaments, which were waiting in my basket for finishing.

This is adapted from a Renee Nanneman in Need'l Love Company's L10-HN "Huckleberry Noel".  I changed the message from "Christmas Love" to "Christmas Joy".

These two ornaments just grew as I stitched.

Two Santa ornaments

I stitched these as Christmas gifts for two friends - former work colleagues.  The Santa designs are from Dimensions #175 'Christmas Quickies' by Barbara Mock.

I'm getting towards the end of my Christmas ornament list for 2014 - I feel a larger project coming on!

Six more Christmas ornaments finished

This ornament is for a young Christmas visitor.  The Santa is adapted from a chart in the Jeanette Crewes '32 Santas' leaflet [One Nighter's series] and I free-styled with the lettering.
Front:

 Back:

The next four are for my nieces.  The little angels are adapted from a Donna Kooler design, the tiny Santa is adapted from an old BH&G Christmas Ideas design (possibly 1976 edition), the Santa & sleigh is adapted from the one in Jeanette Crewes '32 Santas' One Nighter's leaflet, and the rest is free-style.

 And this one is for my sister (who collects cupids).  The design is from Christina Marshall's Angels in Cross Stitch booklet.

Message for Juliaoz

Sorry for the delay in responding to your request.  Sometimes I just don't know what I do with my time.  The magazine was the December 2012 Australian edition.  I do have an extra one and I'm happy to tear out the section with the ornament info and charts and send it to you.  Just send me an email and I'll pop it into the mail for you.

Here's the cover:

 and a pic of the ornaments in their original form.

My latest finishes

Today I finished up the last of this batch of six Christmas ornaments.

The crescent Santa is a Barbara Mock design (floss colours changed), and the Manger design is adapted from LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet.

The ornament designs are adapted from designs in the Christmas issue of BH&G magazine from 2012. I stitched these for four siblings.