Christmas was Great

So it has been a bit busy for me these last few weeks work had stuff that HAD to get finished and then getting ready for the invasion of the kids. (excited!!!!!) And just all the things we all do to make the holidays fun. But in that time I did get stitching time.

I needed to get a present for my son's girlfriend and I just do not know her well enough to know what she likes so I asked my son and he said Totoro......??????? What???? I guess it is a  1988 Japanese animated movie. So I was able to get some fabric with the characters on it and I made her a clutch. She also likes bright colors and her favorite are orange and purple. well bright orange and purple do not exactly mess real well so I subbed it a color I thought would be better.

 

So that was the last present I had to make and I am good to go for Christmas. 

Christmas Eve our daughter and husband flew in. We picked them up at the airport so everyone is here for the holidays. It was actually quite easy getting them no one was on the roads. 

Christmas day we had a nice relaxed day just enjoying the time talking and catching up. I got 3 stitch related presents. Well 4 but that is a shelf for my stitching room to help organize things so does that count???? The other items are directly related to my cross stitch infatuation. 

 pretty nice presents and they weren't even things I had asked for. :-)

So to update the actual stitching I am working hard on the HAED Snowman and getting progress on that and I made a new start, I had to all the blue and grey and brown was making me bonkers. I needed a few different colors so I started the Mill Hill kit I bought just before Christmas. I still do not care for beads in stitching but this kit is so cute I am going to do it with the beads. There are not alot of them so I think I can work through it.

 

Last weeks progress was the finish for pages 7 and 8. Page 8 is only 12 squares wide so I am counting this as just a single page finish. 12-15-15

And this is the progress from 12-15 to 12-21-15

And finally from 12-23 to today I have almost completed the chimney

I still hope to finish this row before the first of the year............


I hope you have all had a wonderful and warm holiday and that the new year will bring you a fresh start and joy for 2016. Blessings to all!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snowman Project

It has been a very fun week. I was able to just relax and stitch on my Snowman Project. All the Christmas presents are finished, wrapped and the ones that needed delivered are delivered. The house smells like baking and the decorations are all shining. Christmas is close and in a little over a week our daughter and son-in-law will be arriving. What a great time of year.

I have had a full week to work on my Dona Gelsinger, Christmas Cottage. I am working this one on 16 count dove grey aida. I have finally made it to the right hand edge. The top row is so close to complete that I will probably be done with it by Tuesday night and I am working into the second row when I need to.....ie..... the thread is long enough and the symbol moves to the next page. I hate finishing off a thread if I can complete the thread on the next page.
This is the progress as of 12-5-15

This is the progress as of 12-13-15

And this is the entire picture

Also this week I received the 3rd parcel for the Gadgets, Gizmos and Great Inventions Club. It was called Clippy Things and the picture will explain why.

2 great new scissors that are small but so nice and sharp. The clips are to make it easier to hold your projects, charts or threads where you need them to be.

Ready for Christmas!!!!!!

So here it is the first Saturday of December and I am ready for Christmas......yes ready and waiting. I had been worried that I would not get all the gifts done but I worked hard and they are complete. I finished off the last 2 this week and I am so happy that I was able to get them done. If I had stayed on my schedule that I made for myself at the beginning of the year I would not have been so close to Christmas with the finishing. But as all us stitchers do I let myself get distracted with new patterns and fun SAL's. My last 2 finishes are a Santa and a pig. I have a friend that is from Austria and in that culture pigs are lucky so I made her a towel with a little pig on it.

 And that was the last of the stitched gifts but I still had some homemade gifts to finish. Every year I try to find a new idea for snowmen and this year I came up with this cute candle holder. Inside the heads of these cuties has one of those battery candles.

Some other sewing that I did was items that I had a commission on. I have shown you some items that I make for sale and these 2 were order and I had to get them done for the customer.Yeah I know Halloween but that is what she wanted........

 

And the day after Thanksgiving is my day to decorate the house for Christmas. I have done this ever since I had my son. His birthday is on the 28th, so the day after Christmas all the decoration come down so that he has a separation from the Holiday. So I have a house full of Christmas and I love it. I collect snowmen and they are the majority of my items. I have 69 figurines/decorating items, I have 15 ornaments for the tree and I have 8 cups/plates/towels. Along with all of that I have a full 8 foot tree with nothing but Disney ornaments (97) and miscellaneous other decor. 

And finally the trees. The one with the blue and silver has my snowmen, the other is the Disney tree. 

Now that Christmas is ready and waiting I can get back to stitching for me. From now until the end of the year I want to spend all my time on my HAED Snowman. I want to get a big portion of it done. 

WIPocalypse.....November

Who the time has just flown by. I can not believe it is already time for WIPocalypse again. where has November gone?????? We will have a nice quiet Thanksgiving, just the hubby and me. The kids can not make the trip. They are coming for Christmas and that is much more exciting!!!!!!

The Question this month - Which designer has inspired you to stitch the greatest number of designs and why do you think that is? (via Hazel) 
I guess I would have to say Stoney Creek Designs I just love the style they have. It reminds me of growing up. That time before we had so many responsibilities and rules. A more innocent time. I also enjoy stitching Glendon Place Designs especially the Halloween designs.

So What have I done this month? Well I think all of these have been on my blog previously when I finished the stitching but I was able o get in my sewing room and make the bags up. All of these are Christmas presents for male friends.

I was also able to start and finish this towel. Took just 4 days. It was a design from the Winter Issue of Stoney Creek Magazine.

I also was in a sewing mood and I made this clutch purse for my daughter as a Christmas gift. And a couple of Autumn themed Owls.

 

I have a friend that is gaga about pumpkins. I was going to stitch her something but time is running out so I looked on Pinterest for an idea and I came across wine glass candle holders. Now my painting skills are limited but I think these are passable. I am sure she will love them. I found the glasses at the Dollar Store and the stems were already green so that was perfect. 

 

Lastly I am working on a Sue Hillis Santa design. He is her 7th of the Santa series. H will be a present for a dear friend for Christmas. You can not see in the photo but the snowflakes and the snowman have blending filament in with the floss.

A finishing week-end

I had several project that I had completed over the last few weeks and so I decided that this week-end would be the time to finish them. All of these are going to be gifts for Christmas, for some of my male friends.

First one  is a pattern I made up because I could not find the type of pattern that I wanted. The compass rose is a charm  that I found and added to the bag.
Outside and inside pictures

 

Then I found this cute little Lightening McQueen for a friend that races cars. There are 2 charms added to this one, a piston on the rod and then a gear shifter.

Outside and inside pictures 

 

This one I did not think the pattern would show up if I used waste canvas so I used 18 count aida and attached it like a patch. This is of course for a friend that loves to gamble, mainly poker.  The interior of this one is the same fabric as the exterior. 

Finally I showed you the wallet I made for myself when I took a class at a local fabric shop. Today I made a second one I will be giving to my daughter as a Christmas gift.