Smalls SAL, May

 

Very soon May 2022 will be just a memory. This year is slipping away at an alarming rate. I have a few Smalls 'finishes' to show this month. Mary from Mary's Thread is our host for the Smalls SAL, on the final Friday of each month.

I spent last week finishing off all the stitched designs in my work basket - well, all the ornament sized ones. I still have three waiting for framing.  

I have finished my 12 Days of Christmas set.  I stitched mine as individual ornaments, although the designer Barbara Sestok charted it as a single project.  I made a few little changes to the charted design, including removing the charted borders, and moving the numbers.  I made a few floss colour changes too.

And I also finished up these other ornaments, all of which will be Christmas gifts.

That's all I have to show this month. I'm hoping to be back in June with a few more finished ornaments (there are just 6 more on my stitching list for 2022).

Gifted Gorgeousness report for May

 Last time I looked it was May 10. And now it's May 18. How did that happen! I certainly can't blame my stitching for my tardiness in writing my GG report. It's not been a very productive month.  I have little to show this time. 

I did stitch some little angels which will be Christmas gifts for a cousin and her 4 grand-daughters. The angel charts are L&L Christmas freebies from 1986 & 1987. I did give the Amish angels hair instead of caps  and I changed some floss colours.

I stitched a Sam Hawkins design for my cousin's grandson.

And as my cousin has a much-loved puppy, I stitched another gift-bearing rabbit design for Buddy. It's the same chart I used for a friend's puppies last month, and I really like the design, which I found in the premiere edition of LA's Celebrations magazine.

I stitched the rest of Barbara Sestok's 12 Days of Christmas designs. Hopefully next month I can show the set of 12 finished ornaments. As it stands now, just 4 have been finished up, and eight are waiting to be made up - along with another 11 stitched designs also requiring finishing into ornaments, and another two waiting to be framed. 

I hope to have lots of finished ornaments to show in the June GG report. Our host for Gifted Gorgeousness is Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  Most of my stitching qualifies for inclusion in GG  as it is either stitched to be gifted, or stitched with gifted supplies.

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.