December Smalls

 December was another busy month for smalls in terms of final finishing. I needed a push in the butt to get moving because once again I left things to the last minute and with less ambition and enthusiasm.

My granddaughters ornaments were the first priority specifically their requests, the snake and the rabbit. Here are the results of the final finishes. I've included photos of the backing fabric I used as well.

It was difficult to find a fabric in my stash to back the snake with. The fabric I chose reminded me somewhat of a snake's skin although it's not as clear in this picture as I would have liked.

With those two finished I moved onto finishing their Christmas ornaments. I cheated and pulled two previous stitched ornaments out of my pile and finished them up.

I squeeked out the final finishes on Dec. 14, packaged all their gifts up and mailed them out by Xpress post on Dec. 15. Believe it or not, they arrived at their home in Quebec two days later!! I was shocked. After all we all know how long it's taking to receive mail during the pandemic. 

I wasn't able to see the girls over Christmas but they took and posted a few pictures for me to see them opening their gifts. It looks like the ornaments were a hit as well as their requested pieces.

I also managed to finish off a name tree for my friend Trish and I finally got around to stitching one for myself after all the others were finished.

The first name tree is designed by Nouveau Encore Designs and my name tree was designed by M Designs who unfortunately is no longer designing.

I also finished the stitching on two small ornament finishes of a design called Twinkles by Stitcharoo Gifts. I spotted this little ornie on either a Facebook or Instagram post by another stitcher. I thought it would be a sweet and quick little finish.

I have stitched in on two different fabric linens. One is a pink-blue colour and the second is a light green with brighter colours for the floss.

As you can see, I have almost completed the final finishing on the first one. These will be put aside for next year's gifts for my granddaughters so I'm already ahead of the game!

I don't know how but I managed to squeek out all my finishes on time!

November Smalls

November has turned out to be a very productive month in terms of stitching. I needed a kick in the pants to get moving and I don't know where it came from but it sure worked! I started out the month working on my Christmas gifts for my granddaughters. The oldest requested a snake and the youngest, a rabbit.

 They both turned out far better than I could have hoped for. The snake is called Tribal Snake and is a design from KLT Charting Designs while the rabbit is simply called Rabbit and is from an Alisa Kit out of Russia. I will be turning these into flat ornament finishes so they may hang them or display them on an easel in their room.

I also give the girls a tree ornament each year and this year, to put less pressure on myself, I decided to use one of the many unfinished but stitched ornaments that I have in my collection. I plan on finishing these up this coming week. 

Next I finished most of the stitching on a name tree for a friend. I ran out of floss just as I was finishing the stitching on the tree stand. I ordered more but if the floss doesn't make an appearance in time I will substitute with one other that is extremely close in colour or I may just leave it as is. This name tree is designed by Nouveau Encore Designs.

I know that I had another skein of the floss but I suspect that it fell in the wastebasket near my work area and went out in the trash. This particular tree spells Trish but that T looks more like a C to me so I hope she likes it. I made a small error in counting in the letter R but rather than frogging I adjusted and made sure the same error appeared on the opposite side of the tree so the branches would appear the same. The picture doesn't show it but the fabric is a lovely silver opalescent. If the floss arrives and it's finished, the tree stand will be wider than it is in the picture. Right now the tree looks a little top heavy!

After finishing my gifts I was relieved but didn't know what to tackle next. While rooting through my stash I came upon a partially finished ornament from a start in Oct. 2011. I think I abandoned this one because I didn't like the appearance of the Toasted Marshmallow for the snowman but didn't want to frog it all out. I had got as far as stitching the main body with the Joy lettering. I had no idea what floss I had used other than recognizing the Toasted Marshmallow. The original chart called for DMC for the remainder of the floss and I could tell that I had used an overdye for the red. So I dug out several reds and compared them to what I had done until I found the right one. It had been some time though since I'd stitched with 2 strands of floss, lol!

Here is Sam Sarah Design Studios Winter Joy. It's can be found in the 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Preview issue for those of you who collected these issues.

I decided that it was about time that I had a name tree for myself on our tree. I had a custom pattern by M Designs from 20005 that I ordered sitting in my stash. Imagine.... I've had it for 15 years and hadn't stitched it yet!! I still have 2 others waiting for me to stitch for my sisters too. M Designs has retired as I can no longer get these from her so I am glad that I ordered them when I did!

Mine is not completed yet but I'm stitching it on the same silver/grey opalescent as the previous one. I'm using a really lovely Christmas green silk floss by Gloriana called Serene Green. I love it so far. I've got as far as stitching the letters Y and one of the Ns.

My name tree is stitching up faster than I expected considering it's stitched over one. If I had stitched it over two as I had the earlier one it would have been far too big and I wanted to hang it on the tree, hence the over one.

I have found several other UFOs in my Christmas stitches that I might work on throughout December or I may just stitch something completely new. I haven't decided yet.

I also managed to finish off two of my larger pieces this month which I will post about next week on my monthly WIPocalypse.

Not too shabby this month considering my previous motivation, lol!

August Smalls

I finished one new small this month but I also managed to get my smalls from last month finished into ornaments for gifts. The first is a name tree which I gifted to my cousin Sheryl and it's designed by M Designs.

The second gift was for my friend Nan who will be moving to Hawaii once her home in the US is sold. This is Aloha Tree by Nouveau Encore Designs.

I'm so happy that they both loved their gifts! It makes me so happy to see their faces when they open them. I'll be making more of these in the future. I've yet to complete one for each of my sisters.

My small finish this month is courtesy of my friend Nan. Nan is the genius behind Threadwork Primitives Designs Recently I got together with several of my close stitching friends at the home of Cathy, in Sudbury. Nan brought each of us a small design she had created for fun. Along with the design she provided a piece of linen and floss so that we could each work on our project while we were all together. 

Here's my finish:

  Nan has already made her finish into a drum and it looks fantastic! I'd love to give this a try but I'll first have to obtain some sawdust for the stuffing. Fine sawdust is very easy to compact and make a firm drum. I have an example of a beautiful drum to share with you. This was given to me as a belated birthday gift during my visit with my stitching friends. This particular drum was created for me by Theresa Meloon who designs under the name Dulaney Woods Treasures.

Isn't it beautiful? Theresa, or Tee as we call her, makes the best drums! She has some very clear directions in her patterns and I hope to be trying a finish soon because she also gifted me with her latest design along with some Victorian Motto floss I had admired when she was stitching with it.

Cathy also gifted me with her latest design release for my birthday. Her chart also contained the fabric and floss neccesary for the final finish.

After all this, each participant received a gift from Tee and one from her sister Jo along with their mom Bev and friend Shelly.

 Tee designed the needleroll from an antique one that she picked up. Each needleroll was made from leftover fabrics and contains a thimble and pin cushion ends in addition to the felt for your needles. Brilliant!! 

Jo, Bev and Shelly combined forces to create the sweetest ort jars. Each jar was wrapped in a piece of needlework with the Canadian and US flags, our inital and a charm. The lid of each holds a magnetic needleminder!! How cool is that!

I am indeed blessed to have such wonderful, generous friends. 

Autumn is knocking on the doorstep and I'm in the mood for some fall stitching. Time to raid the stash again! See you next month.

July Smalls

Just one quick little Small finish to post for this month. This will be a Christmas ornament for a friend whose moving to Hawaii! Shhh! It's a surprise! This is the Aloha Tree by Nouveau Encore Designs.

This is stitched on a 32ct Silkweaver Solo opalescent Lugana using Silk 'N Color Turquoise Fields.

I took this finish along with the name tree from last month's finish and got everything ready to do my final finishing yesterday. I was annoyed as heck when I discovered that I had misplaced my sheet of mat board to use in the ornament finishing. It was residing with all my other craft materials, that is, until we emptied the room for the new hardwood floor. The craft room was the third and final bedroom to have new floors installed and since everything has been placed back in the room the mat board has gone missing in action. I had just purchased it recently and it was a fairly large piece too so it can't hide just anywhere. I have one last place to look and if it's not found then it looks like I will be making a trip to Michael's tomorrow. I want these ornaments finished before I go on holidays in August. Of course you know I'll find that mat board after I've bought a new one, lol! See you next month with a pic of both finishes and a new small as well.

P.S. Someone has taken over my stitching chair in the gazebo!!!