Smalls Report for May

It's just one month today since we lost MIL, dear Joan. It has been quite a disturbed month in my household, and I didn't get as much stitching time as usual.  I have managed to stitch six Christmas ornaments, and I have finished up four of them.

These two ornaments, as you can see, are not yet finished - I will add beads to the cross stitched border, and hopefully finish them up in the next day or so.  They will be heading overseas shortly for the two grandsons of an old friend.  Nanna is going to deliver them for me when she visits her daughter in England in July.

The Santa initial is from LA's Alphabets Galore booklet (I am stitching a few of these this year!)

And here are the four I did finish up - front and back views.

I used the Alphabets Galore Santa Alphabet chart for the "Alex" ornament, but omitted the Santa and changed the height of the letters.The "Memories" ornament uses the verse from Susan Greening Davis's ornament in JCS 2015 Christmas ornaments magazine.  I added the border. The teddy is an old favourite, a  Dale Burdett design  from A Mini Christmas booklet. And  of course the little Santa A is from LA's Alphabets Galore. The kangaroo on the back is adapted from Marianne Portener's design in her Emblems of Australia book.

And that is the extent of my May stitching, and the finish of my May Smalls SAL report.  See you in June (hopefully).

I have popped back in to add the pics of the two ornaments I finished up today.

It will not surprise you when I say that the Santa initials are adapted from the Santa alphabet chart in LA's Alphabets Galore.

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for May

There's not been much stitching happening in my house recently, though I should be able to settle down with my needle more often now that things are getting back to what passes for normal here.  It has been an emotional few weeks, but things are more under control now.

I did make up all the ornaments I had stitched by the April report.

Teddy is a freebie from DMC website (colours changed).

Santa initials from Santa alphabet in LA's Alphabets Galore 

(colours changed and some changes to design).

The beaded trees are my own design.

I have stitched (but not yet made up) three more Christmas ornaments.  The first is destined to be a Christmas gift for a one year old Aussie-American great nephew living in New York. The front is on the right, the back is on the left.

The teddy is a Dale Burdett design, from 'A Mini Christmas' 

booklet (floss colours changed).

The kangaroo is from the 'Emblems of Australia in Cross Stitch' book,

 designer Marianne J Porteners (floss colours changed).

The other two Christmas ornaments are Christmas gifts for two little English brothers, grandchildren of an old friend. This time, the front is on the left, and the back is on the right.  Despite evidence to the contrary, the ornaments are the same size.

The Santa initials are from the Santa alphabet in LA's Alphabets Galore booklet (1998).

As usual, I changed the floss colours, and I also filled in the blank areas on Santa's sleeve.

Way back in the last 2 weeks of April (it seems like ages ago) I did work on Christmas Dreams (chart, fabric, and most of the floss purchased with birthday money).  I finished my seventh page, but I haven't touched it at all in May - in fact, I banished it upstairs while my house was filled with visitors, and it hasn't yet made its way downstairs to my stitching chair.. I hope to have some progress to show next month - maybe. Here's what it looked like when I took it upstairs.

That's it for me.  I'm keen to look at all the lovely blogs to see what everyone has been stitching in the past month.