Three finished ornaments

I made these up tonight.  Had Angela not been such a busy little baby there would have been four ornaments in the pic.

A disaster - and it was all my fault!

I was making up one of the ornaments I had stitched last week.  I had just the last side to finish when I decided to have a short break, and sat down at the computer (in the next room) to check on this month's GG posts. Minutes later I heard the sounds of a very happy puppy growling and rough-playing with her toys back in the lounge room.  Something made me go and check - too late, unfortunately.  Miss Angela had got into my work basket (which was on a box well over a metre (3 foot) from the floor - and was playing with my almost-finished ornament.  Luckily she left the needle behind in the basket.  This is what I retrieved from her (eventually - she thought it was a great game):

She has not only chewed off some of the edging and inner border beads, she has torn several holes in the stitched design and shredded the seam allowance of the side I hadn't yet stitched.  I have no option but to start again. Fortunately for Angela, I love her a lot.  And she is still a puppy - almost. It's not the first time she has got away with one of my stitchy projects (though up till now I have always rescued them before too much damage was done), so I have only myself to blame for it.  I am going to have to get cleverer about protecting my basket.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day - and hopefully life goes on!

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for July

Well, I sort of met my target for this month, and I have made an impact on my 'to stitch' list.   I have had quite a busy month.  And apart from my stitching, we had a birthday in the family - Miss Angela turned one.  Her favourite Auntie taught her all about party caps and opening presents.

So - the stitching.  My target was ten ornaments, and I have stitched and finished 8, and stitched another 4 - so I'm calling that a win! I also stitched and finished two other gift items. These four ornaments, are the ones I have yet to make up. The Christmas tree is for a favourite aunt who likes a bit of Christmas bling, and the other three are for children who will visit me at Christmas time.

The chart for the candy cane (but not the letter T) came from

 Alma Lynne's Christmas Alphabets booklet - I did change all the colours

(only because I used floss colours already in my work basket).

The Santa hat alphabet chart was in Alma Lynne's Christmas alphabet booklet (I changed the floss, and removed some of the hats - also changed some of the letters). I adapted the star design from a Dale Burton design, changing the floss colours and adding backstitching.

I also made this pendant (well, made the double-sided cross stitch insert for the pendant), as a gift for a friend.

I also stitched and made up these eight Christmas Tree Christmas ornaments - the first two are for friends (ex-work colleagues) who will visit at Christmas, the other six are for children who will come to see my Christmas house.

And I made this lavender sachet holder for a friend's 50th birthday. 

The inspiration for the letter came from the very first cross stitch chart book I ever bought - also the first one I ever saw! - a very old Vanessa Anne booklet.

Another pendant

This pendant is for a friend, who provided the double-sided pendant, and asked for a Christmas design on one side and a butterfly design on the other.

Front

The little butterflies were inspired by a Dale Burdett chart, from her Borders booklet.

  The initial was a freestyle addition.

Back

Santa was adapted from Sam Hawkins '50 Santas' book.