April Smalls Report

 It's been a slow stitching month for me. A busy month, but not as much stitching time as I would have liked. 

I did stitch a tiny Christmas stocking ornament. I think I may keep this one to hang on my own tree this Christmas.  As I have done before, I smoothed out the edges on Kooler's Littlest Stocking chart, and backed it to make it into a real little stocking.

I stitched two little Christmas ornaments for a friend's puppies.  I found the chart in the premier issue of LA's Celebrations magazine. 

 

I also stitched Day 10 of Barbara Sestok's 12 Day set. 

And I stitched three L& L Angel freebies (1986  & 1987).

I changed the floss colours, and swapped hair for the cap on the Amish Angel. I have another two to make - I'm thinking yellow and blue, maybe on ice blue floss. 

The Smalls  SAL is hosted by Mary at Mary's Thread, usually on the final Friday of each month.

   

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for April 2022

 It's a busy time of the month - Easter Blog Hop and Gifted Gorgeousness Report both due on the same day. Jo at Serendipitous Stitching is our host for both. My Blog Hop entry is just under this GG Report.  This month all my stitching qualifies for inclusion in the GG report, since it was all done using gifted supplies, and most of the stitched items will be gifted. 

I found a chart I really like, called Snowflake Merry Christmas Tree, on Etsy. The designer is a Ukranian lady, who stitches under the CrossStitchForFun label. I have stitched it four times now - twice on 28 count 2 over 2 ( top 2), and twice on 22 count 1 over 1 (bottom 2). The larger ones will fit on a standard 10" x 8" (25cm x 20cm) mount in a larger frame, and the smaller ones measure 5" x 4" (12.5 cm x 10cm) and will be made up into large ornaments.  All will be going to my youngest sister and her 3  adult children this Christmas.

I stitched some tiny little Christmas designs to fit into some tiny gold coloured metal frames I've had in my stash for way too long - maybe 15 years. They came 6 in a box for a super reasonable $A2.  I decided that this year I would aim to reduce my tiny frame stash by at least 2 boxes. I stitched 6 designs each for two nephews and their wives, so that's met my target for this year.

And here they are packed up and ready to go back in their boxes to wait for Christmas. The Santa hat alphabet designer is Alma Lynne, the tiny Santa is based on a Santa from the premier issue of LA's Celebrations magazine (I slimmed him down a lot), and the others just grew as I stitched. All the frames are the same gold coloured metal, more like the ones on the right of the top photo than the ones on the left.

The other designs I have stitched in the past 4 weeks are from Barbara Sestok's 12 Days of Christmas set. Believe it or not, despite the colours in the photos, all are stitched on the same ice blue 24 count evenweave.  As I'm making individual ornaments I've changed the borders and the position of the number, and in theDay 9 ornament I also changed the dress colours, the facial features and the hair. My Dancing Lady is more sedate than the charted one. 

So, that finishes my report for this month.  

Easter Blog Hop

 Jo from Serendipitous Stitching is once again hosting the Easter BlogHop. The starting point is Jo's blog, and then follow the posts, collecting a letter from each one to discover Jo's message.

I don't have any Easter stitching to show, so I decided to show my L&L Tea Garden flowers. The violets and pansies were stitched last century (1994 & 1995), and I always intended to stitch the rose to finish the set, but I didn't get around to it until late last year. I will be getting it framed soon, and hang it with its chart-mates.  

The 'letter' I am sharing is actually a symbol - find it here.

Your next stop is Jocondine's Blog.

Happy Dance!

 A major Happy Dance at my house - all of the stitched items which have collected in my work basket over the past six weeks or so are now finished up.  There were twenty four stitched pieces in all. Twenty one are now Christmas ornaments, and the other  three are in tiny gold frames.  I now remember why I usually finish my ornaments on smaller batches. A group of 24 is very daunting, and a lot of work!

 

This set is my  favourite one:

And I also like this set, for neighbourhood children:

These are for two English boys and their much-loved cat:

These are for family pets:

And these are for family and friends:

I have also stitched a snowflake Christmas Tree, from a design by the Ukrainian designer 'CrossstitchForFun'. I used an ice blue evenweave fabric and three shades of blue floss, because the niece I am stitching it for has a distinct preference for blue. I am really pleased with how this turned out  though if I were stitching it for myself I would have added a light scattering of silver delica beads. My niece, unfortunately, does not share my love of Christmas bling.  It will fit nicely into a purchased frame with a 9" x 7" (22.5 cm x 17.5 cm) or possibly 10" x 8" (25 cm x 20cm) mat. I am about to start another for a different niece. It will be in white floss on a dark fabric. 

Gifted Gorgeousness report for March

 It's the middle of March - time for the Gifted Gorgeousness report, hosted on the 15th of each month by Jo at  Serendipitous Stitching.  Anything stitched with gifted supplies, or stitched to be gifted, qualifies for inclusion in the GG report.

It's been a hectic month. I've done some stitching of Christmas designs to turn into Christmas ornaments but no finishing up of the ornaments. I currently have 22 stitched design in my work basket. Some of them have been shown in previous posts, so I'll only show the 'new' ones here.  Usually I try to keep my finishing batches to 8, or 12 at a pinch.  22 is daunting, even for me! 

First up, four bead decorated trees, just because  stitching them relaxes me.

I did try to go easy on the beads, but I wasn't very successful.  I did omit the usual beaded borders on a couple as a compromise.

This little angel will be going to a friend who likes 'quirky' angels. I adapted the design from a Christmas Borders leaflet.

This one is for my youngest sister. I adapted a Sam Hawkins design, by changing the floss colours and facial features  and adding the text and border.

I stitched two more of Barbara Sestok's 12 Day set. I know it diesn't look like it but the fabric is the same for both of them - an ice blue 24 count evenweave.

I hope to be able to finish up the 22 ornaments soon, but it may not happen. My household is very disrupted at present. My partner's cancer is more widespread than we had hoped for, and metastasised from an aggressive cancer we thought was beaten 10 years ago, so we are well and truly on the cancer treadmill once again. 

Smalls Report for February

The end of February is just around the corner, so it's time for the Smalls Report, hosted on the final Friday of each month by Mary at Mary's Thread.

I was hoping to have some finished ornaments to show for this Smalls report, but it's not to be. There are now 13 stitched designs in my work basket waiting to be made up. And I am still waiting for a delivery of the cardboard and felt I need to finish them up.  

I have stitched little heart wreath designs for four neighbourhood children.  The heart wreath designer is Claire Crompton.  I swapped beads for the red cross stitches on the chart. The top pic is a closeup, and all 4 are together in the bottom pic.

I stitched a Sam Hawkins design for English brothers, grandsons of an old friend.

This sampler style design is for a great-nephew. I used Claire Crompton's holly  alphabet for the name.

The final one I have to show is  a Kooler Design Studio design stitched  for a niece. I did make some changes to the wording.

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for February

 I promised myself that this year I was not going to comment on the speed at which it was passing - but, really! Mid February already! It seems like a minute past Christmas to me. The good thing about it being 15th February is that it's time for the Gifted Gorgeousness report, hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  If it's made with gifted supplies, or stitched to be gifted, it qualifies for inclusion in the GG report. Most of my stitching falls into both of those categories.

 This year has been a difficult one for me already. Within the past 5 weeks my partner has been diagnosed with a brain tumour, had it removed, and received the news we were dreading: it was a fast-growing metastatic tumour, so there is a Stage 4 cancer somewhere else that has not yet been found. We are now waiting for further investigations and an appointment with an Oncologist. This is our third fight with cancer in the past 10 years - my partner's second. I am grateful that I have my stitching to help keep me strong.

I do have some finished ornaments, and some unfinished stitching to show this month.   First, the angels I had stitched last month. Four adapted from L&L's Amish Angel (1986) freebie, and the odd one is from the L&L 1987 Christmas Angel freebie.

I also made little gingerbread people Christmas ornaments for some of the children on my stitching list.  I chose gingerbread people this year because I noticed last Christmas that this group of children really loved the gingerbread babies I bake. I adapted the chart from Barbara Mock's 'Christmas Quickies II' leaflet.

I made a (belated) start on my 12 Day set in February, and have finished Days 1 and 2. The designer is Barbara Sestok and the chart is in the BH&G book, 2001 Cross Stitches.

I have stitched some ornaments for much-loved four-legged members of my extended family (including my Angela). I used the holly alphabet from Clare Crompton's book 'Christmas Cross Stitch' to stitch the pet's name, and substituted beads for the red criss stitches on the chart.

My final picture is for an ornament for a great-niece. The wreath chart is also in Clare Crompton's 'Christmas Cross Stitch' book. I substituted tiny star beads for the red cross stitches in the chart  and added a heap more of the stars, because Miss Chloe, like me, likes a bit of Christmas bling.

That's all that I have to show this month. I look forward to  seeing all the lovely GG stitching. It is one of the high points of my month.