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December has been just a flurry of smalls stitching. As usual I waited far too late to get started on my ornaments which I was gifting and ended up doing a marathon of stitching and finishing. All in all I'm pretty happy with the results. The first two pictured were for my sons Jeff and Daniel and their names can be found in the tree branches.
The remaining three are word trees and spell Snow, Rejoice and Santa.
I love doing these name and word trees! They stitch up quickly and make awesome gifts. All of the above designs were created by Helga Mandl. Unfortunately she is no longer designing. M Designs also did name trees many years ago. I tried contacting them as well for more charts but there was never any responses to my emails. I am fortunate enough to have ordered all the charts for my immediate family plus a chart pack of 10 designs for Christmas before they were no longer available.
If anyone know of another source for these could they please let me know? I would love to order more name trees for close friends. The ornaments I have gifted so far have been very well received and loved.
In addition to these 5 I finished off the ornaments for my granddaughters. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the finished pieces before they were gifted. Here's a photo of one of the girls displaying her gift.
Now I'm off to start some more word trees. I ordered some lovely new overdyed floss from ColourComplements and from Nina's Hand Dyed Floss just for stitching more of these ornaments. Maybe I'll be ahead of the game for next year!
Most of December's stitching was accomplished in the first few days and the last few days of the month. Early in the month I came down with a bout of vertigo due to a sinus infection which meant that stitching was out of the question. I'm feeling much better now but I'm still unable to lie down with my head flat without feeling off balance. So I continue to elevate my head with 2 pillows for sleeping. I'm just starting to feel like picking up my needle again. Thank goodness that of my stitching gifts the actual stitching was complete and only the final finishing remained. That took place in the last few days before Christmas.
Here are my name trees which have now been gifted with resounding success.....Robert, Chris and Violet!
These were designed by Helga Mandl. In addition I completed the final finishing on a design I had stitched a couple of years ago by The Primitive Hare called I Believe in Christmas. I did an easel finish and gifted this to a close friend, Trish.
I also managed to squeeze in one final small finish for 2017. This is a sweet little design by Diane Williams of Little House Needleworks called Potted Poinsettia.
For my December WIPocalypse I managed to finish off a piece which I started early in the year or it might even have been last December. This is Joy by SubRosa Designs.
I stitched this with a Gloriana silk called Winter Woods. I love how the variegation turned out! I'm on the look now for a box on which I can display it.This will be my final finish for 2017.
In addition, I managed a small bit of time on Heartstring Samplery Sing We Then Merrily. I'm hoping to complete this one in early January, ready for next Christmas.
A few days before Christmas I picked up a piece of my stitching from 2016 which I had framed for display this winter. This is by With Thy Needle & Thread and is called Paper Snowflakes.
The frame on this complements another piece by the same designer which my husband framed for me a couple of Christmas' ago, Heaven & Nature Sing.
So another year is coming to an end and 2018 looms on the horizon with all its promises and possibilities. Looking over my WIPocalypse list I'm pretty pleased with what I accomplished this year. I completed 4 of my original list and started 2 others. In addition I stitched 18 other pieces not on the original list. That's usually how it goes though. I always change my mind and start something other than what I originally chose. Here's a link to the page with pics of all this year's finishes.
November's smalls look more like December since I have been concentrating on some Christmas stitching. So far the stitching is complete but the ornament finishing is yet to be completed.
These are name trees, designed by Helga Mandl. I ordered them from her 3 years ago and tried to contact her again to order more but I have not had any response. Does anyone know if she has retired from designing?
These trees are fabulous because when turned on their side the branches of the tree spell out a name.
In case you haven't figure them out they're Violet, Chris and Robert! I also have some Mill Hill treasure stars to add to the top of these. A Christmas tree has to have a star, right?
I have a few other charts of name trees to stitch in the future. Some are Helga's designs and some are from M Designs which I ordered years ago. I'll have some pictures of the finished ornaments on next month's Smalls post. See you then!
