December Gifted Gorgeousness and last finishes of 2016

Gifted Gorgeousness is an idea thought up by the lovely Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching to get all us stitchers using those items in our stash that have been gifted to us or that we intend to give as a gift.   

This month I only have Funky Street to share with you once again but this time in all it's glory because I finished it on December 22.

I bought the kit for it early this year and it was partly paid for by a voucher I received for Christmas which is why I'm counting it

On to my last finishes of 2016

I then went on to finish the Tomatoes that have been my away from home project, I knew I wouldn't be going anywhere else this year and wanted one less PHD starting off 2017

 The last stitch went in them on December 27

It's now 11.45 pm on December 31 and after spending all of today and pretty much most of the last couple of days doing nothing but stitch about an hour I finished Alchemical Romance.

This was my Jan 1st start this year and I struck the urge to try and make it my last finish of the year as well

Midnight is almost here so I wish you all a very Happy New Year and may 2017 be a happy healthy one.

TUSAL time

It's rubbish picture posting time once more and the last time in 2016 for the Totally Useless Stitch A Long as I write I have no idea if it's going to carry on into 2017 but I for one hope it does.

Since last time I've added orts from Daffodils, Funky street, Victorian Fan, Tomatoes, Alchemical Romance and sewing thread from hexies

And my beading orts.

All the white is from the family Christmas ornaments there is also some fireline from Bad Jack and some grey from Lucy's bookmark there's also some white from a dish I'm test beading for a friend 

This years Christmas gifts

As is becoming tradition I made both Daughters beaded gifts this year for Christmas.

Mel's Bookmark unfortunately I can't remember where I got the pattern from :(

Lucy's bookmark  came from Beading patterns 2013 on etsy a seller I have used several times and will use again

Lucy also had Bad Jack designed by Julia Pretl

This years family ornaments

Every year I make ornaments for my parent's, both daughters and my fella.

They are always the same one but I change them a little in some way normally it's a simple as different colours.

This year is a candle in a bottle 

Just so you can see them better here's a close up of fella's one.

This year for once I decided I was going to make one for myself and although it's started it's not as yet finished :(

Skill Swap

Long time readers may remember that last year I did a skill swap with Julie she very kindly knit a penguin for me and Made her an ornament.

Well we've done it again this year.

This time it's an elephant called Hatty

for a 3D star

Julie had no idea what ornament she'd end up with so it was a leap of faith on her part and I'm pleased to say that Julie is very happy with it :)

Funky Street progress

I did OK last week and better that I hoped.

The 2 houses are finished and the big tree (that's probably a flower) is well under way and I forgot  to mention the small flower last time I posted progress but that's done as well :)

I've been working on it again this evening and the centre of the large tree/flower is now filled in and the green around it is further on.

I'm hoping for a finish on Wednesday fingers crossed

Daffs progress

When I pulled my Daffs out this afternoon to start stitching on them for the weekend it dawned on me that I hadn't shared my progress for the last couple of weeks :(  I have no idea how or why that happened but I'm putting it right :)

Weekend of Dec 3 +4 I completed all the yellow

Last weekend  (10 + 11 Dec) I stitched the leaf

And it's been a while since I shared an overall pic so here's one of those as well :)

I've gone back to the left hand flower again this weekend and I'm making good progress on it

Funky Street progress

I was back working on Funky Street last week now that the models are done and sent back (I'll share them in March when they are official)

I need to tape 2 bits of chart together to finish the first house and I was never home in daylight to get it done!  it was so annoying flipping between 2 bits of paper so I moved on to the next 

I have those 2 houses to finish, a very large tree and another house to do as well as the 'ground'  I'm aiming to get around half of that done this week so keep your fingers crossed for me

Ornament exchange

I took part in the Needlecraft Haven ornament exchange again this year and opening day was Dec 1st.  I did open it on time but only got round to taking pics today :(  life has been busy the last couple of weeks and I've hardly been at home during daylight hours to take any.

Here's the one I sent out to Angi, I do love making stars :)

And the gorgeous one I received from Mary in France.  Mary also sent me some fabulous festive coloured threads that just demand to be used on something Christmassy 

Christmas puddings

Last weekend I made 3 Christmas puddings for friends at Bowls, they went down very well :)

The pattern is from Thread a bead and is one that I really enjoy making so every year I try and come up with new people to give them to!

I still have one to make, fella asked if I would make one for him this year and I've said I will but he may not get it until after Christmas now because I've still got to finish the annual ornaments for everyone and a couple of gifts 

Victorian Fan progress

After a couple of weeks of little or no progress I got a few hours in on Victorian fan last Friday

Late TUSAL once again

It's that time once more where us stitchers from across the globe post pictures of rubbish :)

Yes you guessed it's Totally Useless Stitch A Long time

First my stitching orts and I've added ones from Funky Street, Victorian Fan, Daffodils, 3 models and sewing thread from hexies

And my beading orts, all the red is from Santa and his Sleigh the white is from Stan and the 3 Christmas Puddings I've made over the weekend

Meet Stan (again)

I got up a little earlier yesterday so I could finish off Stan for Mel and here he is

And here he is with his brother Stan :) 

November progress and December goals

For November I said
Get the next RR stitched when it arrives    It's not here yet
Finish something   No :(
Get the silk ordered for Alchemical   No :(
Work on hexie flowers    Yes
Make a dent in the beaded Christmas gifts/ornaments   I've got a couple of gifts done
Sell some stash  Yes a huge pile found a new home
Post every day for NaBloPoMo    Yes

For December I'd like to
Order the silk for Alchemical
Finish Alchemical
Work on hexie flowers
Get the beaded gifts/ornaments done
Finish something else
Sell some stash


I stitched for 54 hours 36 minutes in November, not to bad a time but it would of been more had I not spent 3 weeks making grime guards.   I had 3 starts and 2 finishes none of which I can share for a while yet as they models and I stitched every day although some days it was only a few stitches :(

Current PHD total = 29 :( 

Not quite :(

I didn't quite get to finish him today after all :(  I had a couple of appointments today and they took longer than expected.

He only needs his face and buttons adding and I'll do that in the morning before heading out to go Christmas shopping with Mel and other family members so I can hand him over to her

New beading project

Since finishing Santa a few days ago I've made 2 stars but can't share either of them just yet but I can share the project I started yesterday  (and should finish tomorrow).

This is Stan the Snowman Candlestick Holder from Oak Tree Crafts (well there's a surprise :) ..... not )

I have made him before only this one is for Mel.

He would of been almost finished today had I not missed out a row and had to frog everything from the start of his hat to about 1/3 off the bottom :(

I left a cupboard door open.....

and look what happened :)

Santa and his Sleigh

Is finished :)

Hexies

It's been a while since I last managed to get any hexies done but today I sat and made a couple of flowers up

Hopefully I should have more time for them now 

New stash

I've been up to Harrogate today to help Kate out on her stand (C265 just in case your off there over the weekend) and I had time to do a little bit of stash enhancement :)

I've been lusting over the Union Jack cushion for a while now but it's always been out of my price range :( today I found it at a price I couldn't turn down.

The Nimble Thimble is selling off their LHN and CCN charts at half price so a couple of those had to come home with me the other chart was a gift off my fella (Oooooo future Gifted Gorgeousness project).

I splashed out on some Tulip beading needles a couple of beading friends have raved about them so I thought I'd give them a go and the pearls are to make Christmas tree's

I also picked up an order of Delica's from Spellbound but forgot to put them in the pic :(

Yet another beading PHD

While looking through my pics to see if I had anything I could post about today because I had nothing planned and it's to late take any half decent pics I found these ones.

This is one of the sphere's from The Beaded Sphere

I have a Santa

Santa is ready and waiting for me to put the finishing touches to his sleigh

And a back view so you can see little bobble on his hat :)

More sleigh bits done

The stockings and Candy canes, the one's with candy canes in are attached to the sleigh 

And Santa's blanket to keep him warm is done

The other side of it

Daffs progress

More leaf bits, some of the brown withered stem and finally finished the back stitch on the big bloom  

Victorian Fan

A different shade of green and a bit of pink added on Friday 

Grime Guards

I've been spending as much time as possible with my sewing machine the last couple of weeks making Grime Guards because Kate is going to have them on her stand at Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show next week :)

Today I sent her a box with 54 in 

Funky Street again :)

I've added another house this week :)  the end is in sight now

Lucy has just sent me this pic of Teejay with the flower I sent him a couple of days ago.

Whenever they visit I make him a flower but last time it didn't get finished before he left :( so rather than wait until Christmas I sent it to him. 

More sleigh progress

I've finished both sides now and added the holly to them :)

A few days ago I posted this pic of the side I'd finished

This is the same side after I'd taken the gold off round the edge and redone it, can you see the difference?

And both sides together, now i just have to glue them on the mould once it's had a second coat of paint