Sept 30/12

The wedding present for my brother and his wife has finally been picked up from the framing shop and given to them! They were married August 11/12 so I figure that I have done well to get it to them in the same year as it was unusually too hot to stitch this summer which threw off my expected finish date of mid-July. I was overwhelmed when the shop clerk unwrapped the piece for my approval before I paid. Having only a small sample piece of the frame and matte makes it hard to really see what the piece will look like when it is framed but the long and agonizing session of choosing the mattes and frame were well worth it.

The happy couple

 Close up view.

 

 Wreath of Roses

Dimensions

While that piece was away at the framer, I focused on stitching up some ornaments for the upcoming Christmas season.

 Peace on Earth

Debbie Booth of My Big Toe Designs

Just Cross Stitch July /Aug 2011

I have included the original picture so that you can see how I modified it because I made a fabric cutting boo-boo.

 Frosty Kiss

Patti Connor of SamSarah Design Studio

Just CrossStitch July/Aug 2011

I love the Frosty series of ornaments that have come out over the years and have stitched most them at least once. Instead of using the suggested threads for the random snowflakes, I used one of my DMC Pearlescent Effects E3747. They do not show well in the photos, but the stitches do catch the light.

 Santa in a Box

Susan Myers of Acorn House Designs

Just CrossStitch Nov/Dec 2010

Flipping through my pile of magazines looking for possible ornament designs, I came across these panels for the Santa in a Box. The snowman is outlined with a smyrna stitch and the tree is outlined with a rice stitch. The rice stitch was a new one to me!

In other news, there is a loaf of apple bread baking up in my breadmaker and I am about to fry up a mess of tomatoes and peppers from both my garden and the garden of my best friend to put on a pasta. The apples came from a wild growing apple tree down the road from me as I was too late to get the apples from my own trees. Now, what to do with all the carrots I harvested today?

Sept 21/12

The other day I drove 1.5 hours to the closest cross stitch shop to me with the intention of buying some fabric for stitching Christmas ornaments. Really all I wanted was a metre of a certain type of Lugana, but unfortunately they do not have a website and I did not want to do the purchase by email so I drove there. I also had the intention of going up to the commercial area of the city and buying a pair of running shoes as mine are starting to protest.

Funny how I ran out of money at the cross stitch store. Lookee! Lots of fabric stash:

I could not get a good photo of this particular piece but the colours were so lovely that I could not resist and another woman in the shop came over to tell me that she just loved the piece I had in my to-purchase pile.

Now to save up for my new running shoes......

Sept 7/12

There has been some stitching of ornaments finally! These first four come from a book called "Cross Stitch Wit & Wisdom" by Joan Elliott. They are stitched on a light blue 28 count mystery fabric with threads from my leftover box.

 

 Next we have an ornament from Just Cross Stitch July/August 2011. This one is called "Two Year Supply of Calling Birds" by Tracy Horner of Ink Circles. You can not see the sparkles in this photo but I used a fabric with a hint of sparkle in it to stitch this along with DMC 304, 934 and a mystery yellow.

 

Last but not least I found this one in a design called Christmas Patchwork designed by Cathy Bussi and published in the December 2009 The Cross Stitcher. Stitched on white Aida (not sure of the count) and with mystery threads as usual! Some day that box will be empty. Most likely because someone cleaning out my house after my demise has dumped the contents in the garbage, but some day!

 

A friend of mine is visiting from Boston this weekend and she is quite allergic to cats so I should get back at the de-hairing of the shack. If that fails, I have lots of Aerius in the cabinet....