Dec 2/12

I was just about to start wrapping and addressing the ornaments made for my friends who live away when I realized that photos had not been taken of my recent handiwork. Eighteen ornaments have ended up finished and hanging on my privacy screen.

There are a few that have been in my stitched-but-not finished bag for a couple of years now. Others had the final stitches put into them a few weeks ago. I am surprised at how many I did have to finish when all was said and done because my usual summer start was greatly delayed by needing to stitch the wedding gift done for my brother's wedding.

Some have been stitched before but I enjoyed stitching them so much the first time that I did the patterns again. My kitchen table then turned into a finishing table as glue, batting, clothespins, scissors, felt and ribbon scattered across the table to come together as finished ornaments. Fortunately the cats who live with me now have no interest in craft supplies so I was able to leave every thing out on the table. There was one cat in the past who would have destroyed every thing she could get her paws on. She is the reason I own so many plastic tubs and containers to contain my craft supplies.

Now to finish wrapping the parcels for the mail and sorting out which co-worker gets which ornament. Then, I will consider making some order out of the craft supply chaos which I am also considering making worse as I have a handy coupon from Michaels for double Air Mile points.

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 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....

Dec 19/11

The great ornament giveaway of 2011 has begun at work. Here they are on my dining room table without a cat looking them over. Cooper, my youngest darling cat, has claimed the table as hers recently so she has been seen jumping up on the table and sailing across because she landed on some felt or an ornament that acted as a skate.

Someday I will figure out how to better manipulate photos on here. You get the general idea though.

For the bird ornaments, I found a starched felt at Joann's in Bangor that I just love for the backing because there is no fuss or muss. Just cut to size, glue, hold in place with clothespins and trim. My kind of easy finish!

Nov 29/11

 The Christmas wreath hit the front door on Sunday after it was purchased at a local craft sale that afternoon. The mixed green wreaths are so much more beautiful than the ones decorated with ribbons, bows and ornaments in my opinion. Then again, I am not really a Christmas decorating kind of  person and with this wreath, my decorating is about 50% done. Only the removing the Charlie Brown tree from its box remains and that is not done until a gift actually arrives because the feline contingent get all bent out of shape when I co-opt their end table that conveniently sits in front of the window that they like to sit in on sunny days.

On a stitching note, I have stitched up these two stockings from the Crosstitch and Needlework Jan 2012 edition as well. I used up some more of the threads that were left over from the bird ornaments I stitched both this year and last year and the fabric is a white 14 count Aida.

I am not sure in what way these will be finished and gifted in the upcoming flurry of gift giving during the month of December.

At the same time as I am getting ready for Christmas, I am also getting ready for a trip to Burkina Faso in January. Where is that you ask? Well, it is here in green:
The country was known as Upper Volta when I first studied geography in school. Why am I going? My cousin moved there two years ago for several convoluted reasons so I want to see where she is living and why. Plus, I will get to add a stamp from an African country to my passport! A handful of my French-speaking customers are helping me get ready for the trip by speaking to me in French when they are in the store, one of them being from the Congo so I am learning a bit about the French African accent which sounds rather different than the French Canadian accent I hear here.

So yeah, things are busy here but good for the most part. Well, beyond the usual family and work BS, but heck, life is not perfect!

Nov 23/11

Oh my heavens, there has actually been some stitching going on in this house! The January 2012 edition of Cross Stitch and Needlework had this adorable pattern so I just had to stitch it up immediately. I am a little behind in my Christmas stitch and mail schedule so a quick and easy pattern like this was perfect for my time line of already having missed the international mail deadlines. The first variation was done with threads from my mystery box and the colours are fairly true to those used in the model version in the magazine. The pattern is stitched on 28 count fabric (I forget the brand) that has a sparkly thread woven into it.

 For this version, I decided to use some of my Light Effects threads to add a little more sparkle. I think that if I use them again, I will combine them with regular floss because this version looks a little flat to me.

 This last piece was stitched up for a friend of mine who lives in the US. I love lighthouses and I wanted something to represent the region where I live so finding this pattern when I was cleaning up my craft room was a perfect find. The card was purchased from Michaels. The pattern was stitched on a piece of scrap 14 count Aida and the threads are, you guessed it, from the mystery box!

Dec 19/10

The result of last night's efforts and a gratuitous cat picture all in one! Tree by Charlie Brown, ornaments by Vee and Gabby the cat! I forget the name of the designer, but I do remember that this design is called a postage design and is found in the 2010 JCS ornament edition.

Sept 28/10

Well, what else to do on a wet and rainy morning besides pay bills and finish several little projects (submitting continuing education tests and fixing my bird feeder)? Oh yes! Update my blog. My needle has been going fast and furious in the evenings these past few weeks:

These first three ornaments are the almost finished versions of the bird stamp Dimension series that I purchased earlier this year. I am doing two at a time because I bought two of each, but have only taken a picture of one of each pair as an example of what I have been up to. The back stitching still needs to be done on all of them so they are far from complete although it is a nice feeling to at least have the main body completed.

 I am fascinated with cardinals these days after seeing a couple of them two years ago. They are making an appearance in our region of the country and I was lucky enough to have some of them in my yard. Birds are such amazing creatures and I am also very surprised that any survive in my yard because, yes, I am one of those cat owners who lets her cats out without bells. Before anyone yells at me, no one in my immediate neighbourhood has problems with mice so there are trade-offs. I used to put bells on my cats until the little beggars figured out how to adjust their collars on their necks so the bells did not ring.

 And who can resist Lizzie Kate? Not me! I have also been playing around with floss and fabric colours, using whatever I have on hand to stitch up these ornaments. I always keep the pattern photos close by while selecting the floss and stitching so that I remain true to the designer's original ideas in terms of colour and constantly refer back to the photos. These ornaments come from L*K's Tiny Tidings VII and XV.

 Last but certainly not least came this beautiful post card from my brother. At first I thought that it was a photo and then I looked at the caption on the back. This picture is titled "A Long Halt" and was painted by Silvia Pecota. You know that our soldiers have been there more than long enough when there are postcards of their missions.......



Sept 17/10

Stash picure for Christine (and others!). Here is what I managed to limit myself to last weekend when I was at the cross stitch shop, Because You Count, in Moncton. The fabric is even weave odds and ends. The rolls of linen were tempting, but my hands break out after handling linen any length of time.

And here is the result of using one of my new patterns and a piece of the odds and ends:

The threads were taken out of my trusty mystery thread box, of course. I have a couple of co-workers who are as cat-mad as I am so I am thinking about doing this one again, but maybe with a dark grey cat this time.

Well, off to workity work I go so that I can continue to feed both my stitching habit and my cats!

Mar 21/10

It has been a while since I have blogged! Between work and my trip to Newfoundland, I just have not had the time to update things.

I found this kit in the NONIA shop on Water Street in St John's. The jellybean houses of St John's are a delightful splash of colour that captivated me so I was pretty excited to find this kit by chance as I was about to leave the shop. I am not sure when I will stitch it because the guy I visited in Newfoundland ended things between us the other day and it was painful to even look at the package today to photograph it. Maybe when time has allowed a few wounds to heal......

These four photos are of "Snow Wishes" by Cathy Coombes of The Victoria Sampler-Designs by Cathy Jean found in the 2009 JCS Ornament edition. I used 28 count Monaco and played around with the colours from my mystery thread box. I mimicked the design colours in the first photo and then played around with the combinations on the other three just to see what would turn out. I used beads on the snowflake for the first design and then switched to just using DMC Light Effects E3747 because I like how the blue tint mimics the colour of snow.

March 2/10

So, over the past few weeks I have been glued to my television watching the Olympics on the 4 different channels that were available to me. Apparently I was not alone as I heard yesterday that 26 million Canadians watched the men's hockey gold medal game on Sunday night! All of that tv time of course meant stitching time and I got a good start on my ornaments for Christmas 2010.

"Peace" by Blackbird Designs was stitched on mystery 14 count Aida with threads from my mystery box. Both designs can be found in JCS 2009 Ornament edition.

Although this photo does not show it well, "Peace" by Homespun Elegance was stitched on a remnant of that 14 count Aida. This ornament was stitched at the Hampton Curling Club during the men's gold medal curling game on Saturday night between Canada and Norway. One of the club members who was there watching the game reminded me of sashiko, a form of Japanese stitching that I remember seeing my grandmother do when I was a child. Unfortunately, my grandmother died when I was 15 years old so she did not get to teach me much about sashiko although I do have a piece that she stitched as a table runner. My mom brought me some sashiko kits from Japan when she was there in 2008 so I should dig those out and try my hand at it.

Three more sleeps before I head to Newfoundland! It is going to be a whirlwind visit, but I am looking forward to meeting Michael's extended  family and to seeing a Canadian province that I have never been to before. Michael told me last night that he is not 100% sure how to get to Signal Hill, the one place I really want to see, even though he grew up in the St Johns region so I told him to let me ask for directions because I can get away with more having a mainlander accent!

Dec 18/09

Here is my last batch of ornaments for this year. I glued on the felt backs a week ago and attached the cording the other day while I was home adjusting to life without Hayes who always sat with me on the couch when I stitched.


I finally managed to pick up the stitching itself the other night after at least a week and a half of being so emotionally played out that I could not even open the plastic container where I keep my stitching. HAED Iris is slowly coming along.....page 2 is underway!


In other news, I am underway with the initial stages of planning a Habitat for Humanity trip to El Salvador next year. Yay! Dating on the other hand is not quite as successful. Oh well!

Oct 4/09

Alrighty, finally some stitching photos:

I like the final results of this kit (sans finishing), but as has happened a few times before, I can short on some of the threads. Fortunately, there were threads in my mystery thread box that matched well enough to be useful. I assume that this is a fairly new kit as I just bought it from the most recent Mary Maxim catalogue so I should write a complaint to Dimensions so that they are aware that they goofed when doing up their thread packs.


On a more fun note, I saw this design in the JCS Preview issue and really liked it. Then I saw it done up on another blog and liked it even more so I had to stitch it! The design is "Trimming the Tree" by Sharon Crescent done on 28 count Charlescraft Irish linen. I used the DMC suggested colours as I have not invested in any overdyed threads yet. Because I like the design so much, I am going to stitch a couple more with different coloured balls (working on blue at the moment and planning on doing purple as well). Finishing is not my strong point so I am undecided about whether I will finish these as flat ornaments or perhaps use them in the Christmas themed photo insert cards that I bought recently. To be honest, I am love the stitching part and really could care less about what happens after I am done stitching. There is something captivating to me about taking a pile of skeins and a blank piece of fabric and watching a design come to life under my fingers. Once the design is stitched, my fascination ends. Being part of the blogger community has motivated me to do more finishing as I view the beautiful results of all the other stitchers, but finishing is more of a necessary evil to me.

Aug 25/09

Meet "Heartfelt Harvey" from the JCS 2008 ornament issue, designed by Imaginating Inc.. I did not have enough thread in my mystery thread box to stitch the design in its intended redwork style so I played around with the thread and fabric colours to end up with this finished ornament! The blogs all seem to be pretty quiet these days. My visitor count is way down and I see that few people have been posting to the Ornament SAL. Perhaps once the cooler weather hits the Northern Hemisphere, more people will come indoors and have more time for blogs.

Aug 17/09

I was checking out the Christmas Ornament SAL blog that I post to and I was very pleased to see that the designer of the last ornament I had stitched complimented me on my ornament! How awesome is that?! Thanks to Brooke Nolan for designing "Elf In a Box" and for her kind words!

Aug 3/09

Because I have not been able to find the motivation to start working on some of my big projects, I am still concentrating on smalls. This ornament is from the JCS July/August issue in the ornament preview section. The design is called "Elf in the Box", designed by Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books. I stitched it up in the evenings after work this past weekend on mystery cloth and with mystery threads. The little ornaments that the elf is holding are supposed to be stitched on perforated paper which I dislike working with so I used some of my little decorating snowflakes that I have in my stash instead.

May 1/09

I finished these ornaments last night. Sorry that the photos are so dark, but it is grey and rainy here and I could not wait to post the photos! The ornaments are double-sided.
Side 1:

Side 2:

They are stitched on 14 count Aida that has silver threads woven into it. The silver gives it a snowy sparkly effect. The threads are from my miscellaneous box so no two ornaments are fully alike because I was playing around with the colours and most times, I only had enough to stitch just one ornament. The designer is Alma Lynne and the designs are from a booklet called "Snow Folks at Home".