August Smalls

 I have lots of small goodness to share this month. Only one was actually stitched this month and that's my sweet little August pillow by Nikyscreations.

Isn't it sweet? I loved it the first time I set eyes on it and knew that i just had to stitch it.

The rest of my post is made up of smalls that are FFO (finally finished objects or ornaments). I pulled out 4 small stitched fall pieces that I figured it was about time I finished off so I could display them this season.

First up is Autumn Greetings, designed by Country Rustic Primitives.

Followed by Early Workings Vintage Jack,

Threadwork Primitives Ever So Grateful,

And finally Threadwork Primitives Give Thanks Pinkeep

I gathered them all together into a small display to see how they looked.

I've pulled out some Blackbird Design Halloween smalls that I hope to get started on for next month. With any luck I can complete more than just one!

Since autumn will have arrived at our next smalls posting, I'll leave you with a photo of my summer stitches which I currently have displayed on my dry sink. A couple of the finishes are from friends and it makes me smile every time I see them!

PS I'm not quite sure why my writings are appearing in different sizes and fonts when I selected just the one type. This new Blogger format is a learning curve!

October Smalls

The celebration of all things spooky is upon us and I chose to stitch a new design for my small finish in honour of Halloween.

Meet Vintage Jack.....a new design by Tina Woltman of Early Workings. Tina has lots of small designs which are perfect if you love primitive stitching.

With all that solid stitching Jack took me a lot longer to complete than I expected. I'm hoping to finish him into a pillow tuck but with a twine hanger. I would love to hang him from the door of my dry sink cupboard.

That's all that I had time to stitch this month. My nephew's wedding which was out of town, followed by our Canadian Thanksgiving, took up a good chunk of my free time this month. I do love fall weddings!! I leave you with a few pics: the first is the table decorations at the head table of the wedding I attended and the second is to celebrate the first anniversary of my son's wedding which took place last October on Friday the 13th. My son is a writer and a horror film aficionado. We knew that there had to be a spoof from some horror film showing up somewhere, lol! (Photos courtesy of Shawn Descarie)

December WIPocalyse and Smalls SAL

December.... a busy month at the best of times and not enough time for me to post twice this month. Consequently you get a combined WIPocalypse and Smalls SAL post. 

 Blackwater Hollow had very little attention paid to it this month. I suddenly realized how little time I had left for Christmas stitching and put this one aside. Sadly I don't expect to have it complete by year's end as I had hoped, not unless I have a stitching marathon which is highly unlikely. Our family have not had their Christmas gift exchange and dinner yet. My sons and families are only arriving on New Year's Day for our celebrations.

I did manage to get three small finishes completed in time for the Christmas season. Only two of them received final finishing as they are gifts for my granddaughters.
First up is A Festive Noel by Tina Woltman of Early Workings.

This is the third small involving a fruit basket which I finished this year. I have since purchased a couple more which I hope to complete in the next month or two. I love this design and can't wait to see it finished up as a small pinkeep.

The next two designs are by Prairie Schooler from their Evergreen leaflet. My granddaughters each picked out the design of their choice. Summer wanted the reindeer and Oceanne picked out the Peace design.

I found the backing fabric for these in my village fabric shop just last week. I love it and thought it was perfect to finish off these small stitches. I know the girls are going to love them!

I also started a larger work on a Christmas theme. I took a fancy to one of the new releases by Plum Street Sampler called Pomegranate Santa. As you can see, I haven't gotten very far on it yet.

Since our family wasn't joining us for Christmas dinner, we were invited to the neighbour's home for dinner with their family. All in all we were 14 and enjoyed a lovely turkey buffet dinner. I just had to show you a pic of the dessert we all enjoyed. It's a chocolate mousse cake! Yup, those are Kit Kat bars all around the outside!

Christmas Eve between church services, Bob and I took a drive up to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to see the Canadian Heritage light show. It was the perfect evening to see this as it was fairly mild. The show had been running since early December and would finish on Christmas Day so we definitely made it a point to get there to see it.

The light show was fantastic and pictured the adventures of a snowman, fox, and grizzly bear. It started with a countdown on a clock and ended with a tribute to Canada's upcoming 150th birthday in 2017. In anticipation of that event there will be a huge fireworks display on the hill on New Year's Eve. I wish I could be there but I don't think I'll make it since I'm picking up my granddaughters that day out of town.

I'll leave you with a pic of sweet Clarisse, enjoying my little twig tree on which I display all my stitched ornaments. She loves hanging out by the tree whether it's this one or the larger one downstairs. Happy New Year everyone and I'll see you then!

November Smalls

I thought I had screwed up on the date for this post but then realized my mind is better than I thought, lol! I managed to complete two smalls this month.
As you saw in my earlier WIPocalypse post, I stitched up Threadwork Primitives Christmas Fruit Basket. I had a few small patterns in my stash which contained fruit baskets. I got the bright idea that perhaps I should stitch up a few of them, finish them into pin pillows and display them for the upcoming Christmas season.
Here are the next two fruit basket designs I completed. The first is by Heartstring Samplery and is called The Holly Bears the Crown.

The second finish is by Tina Woltman of Early Workings and is called A Colonial Christmas. I especially love this one!

I have one remaining design, another Early Workings, which I'd like to complete and add to these. I know I'll get it stitched in time but there may not be time for my final finishing now. I've managed to fall behind in some stitching for Christmas gifts. I like to stitch a couple of ornaments for my granddaughters but they like to choose the designs. I only just received their requests last week so now I'm concentrating on getting these two stitched and finished first. I will have pictures of these up for my December Smalls along with the last fruit basket finish. See you then!