Smalls Report for January

I've been working hard on my Smalls in the past month, and I am pleased to be able to say that all the little ornaments I stitched in late December and January have now been finished up. There were 22 in all. This year the Smalls SAL is being hosted by Mary at Mary's Threads blog.


These 5 ornaments are for the dogs in our extended family. If you have excellent vision you may see the 'bones' decorating the heart wreaths. I adapted the design from a Pat Waters wreath in 'A Christmas Collection' by substituting Smyrna crosses over 4 for the cross stitches over 2, eliminating some of the decorations, and rounding off the edges.

Here are the four Jeremiah Junction nutcracker Christmas ornaments I stitched for the grandchildren of a friend.

These three Dale Burdett Christmas teddy ornaments will be in the Christmas stockings of our family toddlers having their third Christmas in 2019.

Four Christmas stocking ornaments for Christmas visitors. They were inspired by a design in LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet, but I totally changed the stocking, which I stitched with Smyrna crosses over 4. The tiny teddies are adapted from  Graphworks Mini Motif Designs Christmas Vol 8.

My favourites - two beaded Christmas tree ornaments, my own design.

Three little angel ornaments, stitched for neigbourhood young girls. I was inspired by TIAG's Amish Angel, but the only parts that survived unchanged (apart from changes to the floss colours and decoration) were the wings and sleeves.

And, last but not least, a quirky Sam Hawkins ornament for a neighbourhood young boy.

Here are all 22 Christmas ornaments together in one picture.

I have made a good start on my Christmas stitching. I still have lots to cross off the list, so I plan to be stitching as much as I can in February.

Gifted Gorgeousness Report January 2019

Already half-way through January - how did that happen! There goes my NY resolution #1 - not to complain about the speed at which time is passing. I knew I couldn't win on that one! Today is the reporting day for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.

I have made a good  start to the New Year. My radiation burns are now healed, and I am pretty much back to my usual activity level. This week I resumed my hydrotherapy exercise sessions, and I already feel the benefit. I am a happy camper!

I've been busy with my needle in the past month, and there are now 21 stitched designs waiting to be made up into Christmas ornaments.  I don't quite know how that happened - usually I stitch a batch of 4 to 6 designs and then finish them up. I guess a lot was happening in my life, and it was just easier to keep on stitching. I will be busy finishing up the ornaments in the coming weeks. I did show pics of some of these stitched designs in my Smalls post for December, but I have since added the bead trims, and stitched the matching back pieces, so they are now ready to make up.

This is my latest 'finish' - my first bead decorated Christmas tree for 2019. It will be the first ornament in my box of take-home gifts for 2019 Christmas visitors.

This group is for the extended family dogs. If you have good vision and a touch of imagination, you may see bones decorating the wreaths. I adapted the wreath design from a Pat Waters design in 'A Christmas Collection II' leaflet. I replaced the cross stitches with Smyrna crosses over 4 with 3 tweeded strands, omitted some of the decoration, and smoothed out the edges.

I have stitched several of this design every year for over 30 years, for different children - obviously I like it! I really enjoy changing the stocking designs. I think I have stitched one for every child who has  come into my life. The original design is from LA's Christmas Caboodle leafket (1986). The tiny teddy is adapted from a design in Graphworks Mini Motif Designs Vol 8.

This Dale Burdett teddy ('A Mini Christmas' DB 132, 1990) is another favourite to stitch. I have stitched many of these over the years.

I loved stitching these little angels for two neighbourhood sisters. The starting point was TIAG's Amish Angel freebie, but really the only things that survived relatively unchanged were the wings and sleeves.

Another angel for another little neighbour, and a Sam Hawkins design for her brother.

And, finally,  the four nutcrackers I stitched for the grandchildren of a long-term friend.

I have to be quite stern with myself now, and get these designs finished up into ornaments before I stitch any more designs. So, tomorrow will see me washing, ironing, cutting cardboard and felt, and getting the job started.

December Smalls SAL Report

Another year is almost gone. Soon we will be trying to remember to use '2019' when writing the date. And if 2019 passes as quickly as 2018 did, we will be waving it goodby way too soon for my liking.

I have made a start already on my 2019 Christmas gift stitching. So far I have stitched 5 designs which will be made into Christmas ornaments for the children in my life. I have stitched four Jeremiah Junction (Nutcracker Factory 3) nutcrackers for the grandchildren of a long-term friend. They  will be flying to opposite ends of the world in November - the boys' nutcrackers to England, and the girls' nutcrackers to New Zealand.

The other design I have stitched will be a Christmas gift for a young neighbour. The designer is Sam Hawkins, and the chart was in a booklet called '50 Santas to cross stitch'.

So, that brings my 2018 stitching story to an end. It was quite a productive year. I stitched 59 Christmas ornaments and  8 framed pieces, all but one given away as Christmas gifts. My crochet hook was also quite active. I made 4 dresses and 2 ponchos for toddlers, a number of beanies, and lots of crochet shopping bags for young girls.  And I beaded 51 largeish angels, very few of which are still in my possession. As you might guess, I had lots of sitting time in 2018, recovering from assorted operations and medical interventions. There were times when my hands were pretty much all I could move! Fortunately I had a  grandmother who gave me excellent advice when I was 17. She told me to keep my hands busy to ward off arthritis. I have always followed her instruction, and while it didn't prevent arthritis (I have severe osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis), it has allowed me to keep my hands flexible. I have always been grateful for her wisdom.

So now there is nothing more to say than Happy New Year!

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for December

Well, here we are - the final GG report for 2018. This year has slipped  by way too quickly for my liking. I am hoping that 2019 will proceed at a gentler pace (and also require fewer medical interventions). If you're not familiar with the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL, you can check it out on Jo's blog.

I had thought that all my gift stitching was finished, but when I found stitching on my floor frame was too uncomfortable, and I had to return my HAED Christmas Dreams to the UFO basket until I have healed from my radiation treatment, I decided to stitch some extra Christmas gifts. Earlier in the year I stitched a dinosaur name sampler for a great-nephew, and I was quite taken with the dinosaur alphabet, designed by Clare Crompton.  So I decided to stitch name samplers for three young honorary nephews (two brothers and their first cousin). To keep the cost down I decided the samplers would need to fit into purchased frames. Here are the stitched (not yet laundered) samplers I stitched, which fit matted 23cm x 18cm (9" x 7") purchased frames:

It's hard to believe given the colour variation in the pictures  but they are all stitched over 2 on a solid colour very pale blue 28 count fabric. 

And here are the framed name samplers. The photos have some reflections unfortunately. I wasn't able to get any clearer photos.

I have enjoyed taking part in GG this year, and watching progress of all the lovely gift-related stitching. I wish you all a happy Christmas.

Smalls Report for November

I thought I had finished all my Smalls for the year, but here I am again with three Smalls to show.

A friend found me a preloved TIAG Band of Angels chart (dated 1987), and I just couldn't resist stitching a few little angels. This one I am keeping for myself.

This one is for my youngest sister. It is not fully framed yet - I am trying to find the right window mount board.

And my final Christmas ornament for 2018 - this is for the latest addition to my extended family - a newly adopted puppy.

So, there you have it. I will enjoy popping in to see all the lovely Smalls stitched this month.

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for November.

I've not achieved much in the past month, so there is little to report. I did crochet an outfit for a pre-loved kewpie doll which will form part of my Christmas gift for a 1 year old great-niece. Sarah loves musical sounds, and Kewpie has a lovely squeak when pushed in the middle, so I think she will be a hit. Kewpie's underwear (with press studs for easy dressing):

And in her new dress:

I have finished all my planned gift stitching except for a growth chart for which I am waiting for measurements, so at long last I was free to drag my HAED WIP out of it's basket in the craftroom and bring it down to my stitching chair. The chart, fabric and most of the threads were bought with birthday money, so it qualifies as a GG project.  It's 16 months since I last stitched on Christmas Dreams, and I am keen to finish 5 pages to complete the 4th row of pages by the end of the year. Wish me luck! I am finding it a bit hard to get 'into' it, but that's pretty normal for me. I'm pretty much a 'one at a time' stitcher except when it comes to huge projects, and I'm not good at swapping in and out of projects. In the first week of stitching I spend more time than I like searching my floss cards for the one marked 'J' until I finally realise that what I am really looking for is the floss marked 'n' (x 90 symbols, many of which are very similar), because my stitching is sideways and I marked the floss cards before I understood that I would be stitching with the left side of the design upwards. I usually eventually swing into it and convert without thinking about it (fingers crossed that it happens this time). I am about one-third through this project; I have stitched 19 of the 66 (large format) pages. Here's where I started on 1st November, about one-quarter of the way through the 20th page, which is actually page 48:

I tried to stand my fabric up to take the photo, and that has made it look quite out of shape, which isn't how it appears. The edges are really very straight. And here it is back on the frame and ready for stitching:

(If you have good eyesight you may notice my L&L Angel of Love - my very favourite piece - hanging in the right side of the pic.)  It is a bit tricky, stitching sideways, but it wouldn't fit on my frame the other way. I am forever consulting my little plan to check that I am working on the correct page, and I did already fall into the trap of re-stitching three stitches at the beginning of each row on two consecutive pages - that resulted on several months of frogging and restitching to correct the error.  Something I am so desperate to avoid in future that I have written reminders to check on each page. This is where I am on November 15, having completed a good section of the 20th page:

Nov 18
I am sad to say that I have taken Christmas Dreams back upstairs for amother rest. Hopefully not for long this time. I was finding it too uncomfortable while stitching on the frame, and my concentration has been a lot better than it is right now. I' m going back to small projects for the next few months.

Gifted Gorgeousness report for October

Mid October already - this past month has really flown by. My mind is still back in August! I'm quite recovered from my breast cancer surgery and so happy that I have finally lost my drainage tubes (on Day 24 and Day 32 respectively. The second one actually came out accidentally when the stitch just fell to pieces, otherwise I may still have been carting it around.) I will get my radiation therapy schedule this week when I see the radiation oncologist for the first time.

I have not been very productive this  month. I did crochet three cotton bags for three little girls on my Christmas list.

                                    

   

I finished up this replacement 'Baby's First Christmas' ornament for a friend's grandchild. I still have trouble understanding how I could have mis-spelled her name for so long. I am usually so careful to check spellings.

Just to keep my fingers moving, and my mood happy, I made two more beaded Christmas tree ornaments, to add to the basket of take-home gifts for Christmas visitors.

I have added the birth details to my great-nephew's dinosaur birth sampler. I have found a suitable frame, so now I need to get a mat cut so that I can frame it up for Christmas. 

And that ends my GG report for this month. I look forward to seeing all the lovely projects as I pop in to check the GG reports.