Gifted Gorgeousness Report for April

I am writing this report from my hospital bed - well, actually from a chair right next to it. A couple of days ago I had my second knee replacement surgery for the year. Either my memory misled me or this time there is a lot more pain! I do think it's a case of selective memory. Everything is going well now but it was a rocky start. I spent the first two nights in Intensive Care, which was unexpected.

I have been working my way through my Christmas gift list. My reward for finishing all my Christmas gifts will be bringing my HAED Christmas Dreams out of the craft room and down to my stitching chair. It is getting close to 12 months since I stitched on it, and I am very keen to get it out again.

At the risk of boring anyone who wandered over to see my Smalls report, I am going to put up a few of the finishes I showed there. Starting with this Angel Tree I stitched for my sister Gayle, who has a fondness for

the colour pink,  angels, and a bit of Christmas bling. The Angel Tree is a JBW design but I made quite a few changes, including filling in areas of the faces and dresses that were left without stitches on the chart. I also changed all the floss colours.

I finished off the two little gingerbread ornaments for my two-year old greatnieces.
Also my great-nephew's Feather tree ornament, and a pair of ornaments for children who will visit this Christmas.

I stitched this lovely old Santa for my oldest nephew and his wife - well, to be totally truthful, for his wife - my nephew really isn't that interested in Christmas items!

Santa is from LA's 'Christmas Celebrations' booklet. I stitched him exactly as charted, using DMC threads specified, but used 22 count and stitched over 1, and  I centered the greeting and omitted the suggested charm. I love this Santa. I am trying hard to stick with the plan and gift it. I have found a pretty pre-loved wooden frame which is the perfect size for Santa. My partner kindly repainted it white, and just as soon as I get home from hospital I will be framing it and wrapping it ready for gifting. Don't be surprised if I stitch another Santa for myself and make it up into an ornament. I have kept the floss card just in case.

I am currently stitching a set of nutcracker ornaments for three sisters who will visit at Christmas. This will be the third year I have stitched nutcrackers for them. They share a love for nutcrackers, which feature heavily in their family's Christmas celebrations. The nutcrackers are from Jeremiah Junction's 'The Nutcracker Factory III'. If you are familar with the JJ Nutcrackers you will probably notice that my need for symmetry has led me to reverse the charted colours on one side of each nutcracker. I tried to resist the impulse, but it was quite overwhelming. Sorry about the effect on the designer's carefully placed shading. Despite evidence to the contrary, they are all roughly the same size. I still have two of the borders to stitch.  I'm hoping to finish all the stitching while I am in hospital so that they are ready to make up into ornaments as soon as I get home.

And that is the end of my GG Report for April. I am looking forward to checking outcall the GG Reports.