Gifted Gorgeousness report for February

I can hardly believe we are already in mid February, but here we are. It's the 15th February, so it's time for the second Gifted Gorgeousness report for 2021. GG is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  Pretty much anything stitched with gifted supplies or stitched to be gifted will qualify for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.

In the past month I have been working very hard on my HAED WIP, Christmas Dreams, and since the last GG report I have stitched another five pages. Christmas Dreams qualifies as a GG project because the chart, fabric, and most of the floss was gifted to me or bought with gift vouchers. I am so happy to be able to say that I have now completed 90% of the design. Two rows of charts still to go  but the very good news is that the final row of charts is just 2 stitches wide! So I will be stitching rows 10 and 11 together, treating them as one page rather than two. I am really hoping to be putting in  the final stitches before Easter. Yay! I've made a small start on the 55th page  but this photo was taken when I completed my 54th page, finishing row 9.

I also stitched Days 1 and 2 of the 12 Day set (KDS, designer Sandy Orton) I am stitching for myself, with supplies either gifted to me or purchased with gift vouchers.

I probably won't make up the 12 Days ornaments until after I finish Christmas Dreams. I so want to finish Christmas Dreams!

Secret Valentine Blog Hop

 Once again, Jo at Serendipitous Stitching is hosting the Valentine blog hop. It is one of my favourite blog hops.

Jo sent me this lovely picture to show. I'm very keen to know who stitched this sweet piece.  I'm very much a fan of fairies, and I am now on a mission to search out this chart and stitch it for one of my great-nieces.

Gifted Gorgeousness Report January 2021

So, another year begins. As it's the 15th January it's time for the first Gifted Gorgeousness report for 2021. The Gifted Gorgeousness SAL is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching and anything stitched with gifted supplies or stitched to be gifted qualifies for the GG report.

I don't have much to show this month. I have made some progress on my HAED Christmas Dreams, and am currently working on the 50th page.  Christmas Dreams is stitched with gifted supplies.  This pic shows Christmas Dreams at completion of the 8th row of charts, which brought it to 80% stitched.

Since that photo was taken I have finished the first page on row 9, and made a good start on the second row 9 page. I took this photo with the fabric still on the floor frame, but I did turn the photo round for ease of viewing. 

I will be working on Christmas Dreams for the next few months - until it is finished.

The only gift I have made in 2021 is a crochet ed cotton market bag for my youngest sister, a birthday gift. I used a purchased pattern for the wildrose market bag for guidance, but used a simpler granny square for the body, and made the handles wider.  The colours in the pictures are not true - it's less pink and more purple.

That finishes my first GG report for 2021. I am keen to visit all the participant blogs to see all the lovely gift stitching.

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for December 2020

 Wow! What a year - and it is almost over. This year there have been so many changes to adapt to, and more constraints than I have experienced as an adult. The only consolation is that we were all in it together, and there was good reason for the changed behavioural requirements.  One outcome for me was extra time at home, most of which I was able to use for stitching. This being the 15th of December, it is time for the monthly Gifted Gorgeousness (GG) report.  GG is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  Anything stitched to be gifted, or stitched with gifted supplies, qualifies for inclusion in the GG report.

In the past month I have stitched five Christmas ornaments - a Santa initial adapted from LA's Alphabets Galore book, and four that just grew as I stitched. This brings to 75 the total number of Christmas ornaments I have stitched and finished this year. Of these 63 are to he gifted this Christmas  and the remaining 12 are mine, but were stitched with gifted supplies.

I used the last of the gifted fabric from  which I made most of my 12 Days of Christmas ornaments to create a new set of wings for a rescued angel who had lost her wings. The angel stands 60cm (24") tall, and I think she is quite beautiful. She was the first of my Advent gifts for this year, and now she is standing watch over the Advent gifts.

I added some crochet and beaded butterflies to finish off this little shopping bag for my 3 year old niece. I made it to use up some cotton left over from a sundress I made for her earlier in the year.

I made another cotton crochet shopping bag, which will be a Christmas Gift for a 5 yr old greatniece.  

I made another 20 beaded angels this month, bringing this year's total for beaded angels to 35. Most will be gifted, but I will keep some of the cream pearl drop angels (my favourites!). I am shoe-horning them into GG  as the pearls I used to make them were a birthday gift.

Earlier in the year I stitched name samplers for a little brother and sister, and a birth sampler for a greatnephew.  They came home from the framer last week, and I am very happy with them. They are all to be Christmas gifts. I had Boden and Niva's samplers framed in the same wood used for their older brother's name sampler 5 years ago, and George's mum opted for a white frame.

This year I stitched a total of 24 pages of HAED Christmas Dreams, which leaves 22 pages still to stitch. Christmas Dreams is stitched with gifted supplies (except for a few skeins of floss).

This is where I started on Christmas Dreams in June this year, after a long rest:

And this is what Christmas Dreams looks like now, at completion of the 44th page:

I have enjoyed participating in the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL once again this year. It's a bright spot in my month! I hope to do it all again next year.

Advent Blog Hop

 Jo from  Serendipitous Stitching hosts the Advent Blog Hop, which is one of the blog hops I most enjoy.  Pop over to Jo's blog to find the doors that lead to each day's Advent blog post.  This year we have been asked to show something with a Christmas or winter theme that we have crafted, and to answer the question that Jo has set for the hop participants.

I have decided to show my Dowelling  Christmas Tree. It is a tree of my own design, made by my partner many years ago. The trees consist of a central wood post through which holes have been bored to take pieces of dowelling that form the branches. It is 3 dimensional, in that there are three branches at each level - one each side of the central post, and one at a 90 degree angle to the central post. It hangs on a picture hook in the wall when in use, and after Christmas the branches come out for easy storage. My trees are painted gold at present, though for the first 10 years they were painted green. I have two of these trees, one a little larger than the other.  The smaller one is 150cm (5') tall.  On one I hang angels, on the other I hang Santas. I like these trees because I can hang hundreds of ornaments on each tree, many more than I could hang on a conventional tree.  The ornaments are clearly visible, and the trees do not take floor space, which is in high demand in my house at Christmas. They are not my only Christmas trees (I have five other large Christmas trees, and dozens of small ones) but they are the ones I most enjoy decorating. 

My Angel Tree

My Santa Tree

I'm now wondering if I can really claim the dowelling trees as something I have crafted. The concept was mine but I didn't actually make the trees.  So, here is something Christmassy that I did craft myself. It is L&L's Oh Christmas Tree, and it's one of my (many) favourite Christmas stitcheries. I remember that I had a moment of panic when I was stitching it: suddenly I couldn't find my place on the chart, and nothing looked familiar. It took me longer than it should have to realise that I had inadvertently turned the chart over - one side of the chart had a graph for the decorated tree (which I was stitching), and the other side had a graph for an undecorated tree. I hadn't noticed that before.

 Jo has asked us to nominate our favourite Christmas book.  Not a particularly easy task for me. I do like books  and I have quite a large number of Christmas books.  After lots of thought, I decided on Anne Geddes' 12 Days of Christmas book.  It is a most delightful book, containing (as one might expect of an Anne Geddes book) pictures of babies posed in 12 Days of Christmas scenes. Some do require a little imagination. I choose to believe that no babies were harmed in the production of the book. Certainly they all look quite relaxed and cooperative.  

Thank you for visiting. I hope your Christmas is a happy one, and that 2021 brings a healthier and more settled year.

Smalls Report for November

 I'm a little late with my Smalls report. I've been away inland in the caravan, and that is why I actually have some Smalls to show this month. If I had been at home it is likely that all my November stitching would have been on my big WIP, Christmas Dreams.  The extreme heat we are having (today the temp reached 45C or 113F) ended our caravan trip earlier than planned, which is why I am home to make this report. The Smalls Report is hosted by Mary at Mary's Thread.

I have stitched three little Christmas ornaments. They are all ready to have their beads added, and be made up. My task for the next couple of days.

They will all look prettier when they get their beads.

Gifted Gorgeousness Report for November

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

My WIP, HAED Christmas Dreams, is stitched with gifted pattern and supplies, and I am very pleased to report that it is now 71.8% finished. It's on track to be completed by mid 2021.  This time last month I was working on the 38th page. I have now stitched 43 of the 66 pages, and made a start on the 44th page.  I took this photo (off the frame) when I finished row 7 of charts (42nd page).

This next photo shows where I am up to now. I didn't take it off the frame for the photo, but I have turned the photo right-side up for ease of viewing.

I picked up my crochet hook  and made a little shopping bag for Miss 3. I had cotton left after making her a dress for her birthday, and thought that would be a good use for it.  I've ordered some large glittery butterfly beads to brighten it up. Miss 3 loves bags,  butterflies, and bling  so I think she will approve. I didn't have a pattern for the bag, but used my favourite twisted treble stitch for the body because it is quite a stretchy stitch and I thought it would work well as a bag.

I also made a batch of beaded angels, using pearl drop beads I was given for my birthday by a friend who recognised that the beads were crying out to be angels. I will keep most of these for my 'hand-crafted' Christmas tree, but some will be gifted this Christmas.

That's all I have to show this month  except that I did make up the Christmas ornaments I had stitched last month.

 I am looking forward to visiting the GG blogs to see all the lovely projects completed and WIPs.