Stitchy Christmas Gifts and Other Stuff

Wow, it seems that I go longer and longer between posts. Part of my problem is that I dread wrestling with Blogger and what problems I might encounter trying to put this together.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. It was cold in South Dakota, where we spent Christmas, but we did not encounter any weather issues in our travels. The morning we left home there had been snow here the night before, but not much. Trip went off without incident.

Want to share with you some of the stitchy gifts I received for Christmas.

Received this ornament from Martha. Right after the JCS ornament magazine came out I won a contest on her blog. She was going to stitch the winner the same ornament that she stitched for her grandchildren. I was the lucky one. I love Harvey.

This ornament comes from one of the Sunflower Stitcher, aka--Monday Night Stitchers. Sometime last year I found this little tree pattern as a freebie online and Reina saw the pattern at my house when she was setting up my Ipod. She asked to borrow it. Little did I know that I would get one for Christmas. Now I don't have to stitch one for myself. She did an awesome job. The trim around the sides are all beads done in little loops. Way more beads than I could ever do. The green tinsel on the tree are also beads.

The last stitchy gift I received has quite a story behind it. I received the pattern and birds eye maple Quaker box as a project at one of The Silver Needle's camps. So when I was going through my stash to find things to donate for our retreat prizes last fall, i put this in the bag of goodies. I was pretty sure that I would never stitch it. Was a lot of over one stuff and I don't do much of that. Anita saw it in the prizes and said you are not putting that in there and she took it. Little did I know she was going to stitch it and give it to me. I love it. Now I need to find some very small scissors to put in it. All the ones I have are too big.

Sampler Scissors Box

by Fancy Work

32-ct Lambswool Linen

Silk 'n Colors Fiber

Speaking of over one!! I am always trying to get into doing more over one stuff. Here is my latest effort in that direction. Had this done before Christmas, but the last time I tried to take a photo it was all blurry. Probably won't get finished into an ornament for a while.

2008 Christmas Tree

by JBW Designs

28-ct Raw Natural Linen

Belle Soie silk - 1 strand

Here is my progress on Aloha. All that is left is back stitch and we all know how boring that can be. Just need to sit down and get it done. The person I am doing this for is actually going to Hawaii the end of the month. Maybe I can have it ready to give to her by the time she gets home.

My STO Yahoo Group had a New Year's Day SAL. You know it is good luck to start a new project on New Year's Day. I started Willow Hill Samplings "American Baby". Here is my progress for a day or so. I have since ripped out the part of the sheep and bunny. (They are hard to see). They were in GAST Oatmeal and did not show up very well. I had changed the colors from the original because I did not like them. Took it to stitching on Monday night and Anita helped me pick out other colors. Now most of the sheep is back in with his head too. Looks really good. Told Anita yesterday that I should always take her color recommendations and not question because they were usually right on. I am sure that she will remind me of that many times as I stitch on her designs.


Have done some work on LHN From Sea to Shining Sea and My Mansions Sampler. The weekend before Christmas, I stitched up the freebie that The Sunflower Seed will have at the Nashville Market in February. Now I am working on another small little design for her. We have had to change a couple colors, so it is going a little slow for a small project. The Sunflower Seed was closed the week between Christmas and New Year's, so the Monday Night Stitchers had to take our show on the road for our get together on the last Monday of 2008. Thanks Janet for hosting us and for the wonderful Mexican Soup.

During our long car trips, I have found that I can crochet was a dog in my lap better than I can cross stitch, I have been working on both an afghan and a prayer shawl for the church. The prayer shawl is done except for tying on some fringe. Picture next time. Tonight I got another shawl started, so it will ready for the trip to Manhattan tomorrow for the KSU basketball game.

Have struggled long enough getting this together. Off to bed for me.Just checked the preview and it shows the previous two paragraphs messed up. If Blogger posts it that way I will redo that part later. It did this to me a while back and I could not figure out how to fix it. #$%*!! I guess in trying to fix the problems, I deleted the Amerian Baby photo and I am not going to go back and add it now. Will include next ##**^&*!!