This year's Christmas gifts

I can now also share the gifts I beaded for Christmas this year.

For Mum I made the Wildflower box from Julia Pretl but used my own colours for it.

I made it right after I'd made the one for me in this post

For Lucy I made Happy Jack also from Julia Pretl

Unfortunately I had a little hiccup with the box for Mel and it wasn't finished in time for Christmas :(  and still isn't but Mel knows all about it

She did however get her annual bookmark

You may or may not know that Mel is a Detachment Commander with the Army Cadets so anything to connected to poppies and remembrance holds a very special place in her heart so as soon as I saw this one I knew I had to make it for her.

Lucy's one this year is skulls, after making her a Doctor Who one the last couple of years I wanted a change

And lastly a couple of little stars that went to two stitching friends that I spent Boxing day with this year

This year's family ornament

This year I made star's for my family using a pattern adapted from anabel

I gave Teejay the boxes with them in and he handed them out

Lucy had the red one

Mel got the green one

and my Parents got the lilac one

Seventh Day

One of the facebook groups I belong to is doing a advent challenge and because I'm working on a model I decided to pull this out to work on for it.

I've finished Seventh Day

and made a start on Eighth day

And here it is as a whole project

BTW it's Plum Street Samplers 12 Days freebies that were offered on her blog a couple of years ago

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas 

Christmas bracelet

Almost everything that I've stitched or beaded lately I can't show yet but this one I can :)

For a while now I've wanted to make myself a bracelet to wear over the festive season and I finally got round to doing just that a couple of weeks ago.

The pattern is called Christmas trees on Red and it's from Threadabead.

I started it at beading group and finished it there as well, the clasp was added the following day and I've worn it ever since.

Happy Dance

I finished the sampler a few days ago and sent it home.

The owner is very happy with it and no it's not the lady whose name is on it 

TUSAL time

As ever I'm a little late with my TUSAL post for this new moon.

I've added orts from the Family Sampler, a model, Monday night and 12 days

And my beading orts.

Lots of white and pale blue for a change but I don't think that shows up

Christmas cakes

Over the last few months at WI craft group we've been working on our Christmas cakes step by step.

In October we put the marzipan on (well apart from me, I have double icing because I'm not a fan of marzipan!)

In November we put the icing on

And in December we decorated them, me being different did 2 of them but one is a gift.

This first one is mine and I have to admit I didn't do the bow, I was getting short of time to get mine done because I did the gift one first so the fellow member that was showing us what to do did that for me.

And the gift one, the person receiving loves marzipan so the decorations are made from it.

For someone that has never decorated a cake before I'm really pleased with how they turned out and there is every chance that we'll be doing them again next year :)

ABC's of Needlework

Yes I know I scrapped in with the finish in November but between being busy and losing Baby it's taken me a while to get round to taking a full length pic of it.

This was my birthday present from Lucy this year and also my birthday start which meant it was also my Gifted Gorgeousness project for most of the year.

The threads are included with the chart and I used Dr Smiths Tonic from Sparklies

And some closer views

RIP Baby

Baby passed away on Monday December 11

Looking for a new home

A few years ago I made a start on a HAED QS and never really enjoyed it.

I've been toying with the thought of trying to rehome it for a while now and the time has finally come.

It's on 40 count and I will send the stitching so far, the chart, key and enlarged chart I made for it but not the DMC, I was pulling it as I needed it

I'll leave it open until Sunday night and get Mum to pull a name out on Monday if there's more than one person interested

Mini Poppies finished

Back in early November I posted about a new start I'd had of John Clayton's Mini Poppies.

I had hoped to get it finish during the month but I never got back to it :(  

Friday night it came out to play and by Sunday bedtime it was complete

I do have the kit for the full panel as well and I'm thinking about starting it sometime in January

Ornament exchange

Last Friday was opening day for the Needlecraft Heaven ornament exchange.

As usual I sent out a beaded ornament, this time I went with a star.

I've used this pattern before and it is one of my favourite ones to do but as you can see I went with Christmas colours.

I sent it off the Christine in plenty of time (for once!  I often end up as tail end Charlie) and by pure chance Christine also sent to me

And this is the beauty she sent me

From reading Christine's post it's Carol Manning's design from this year JCS ornament issue with a few changes and finished with vintage lace.

He is perfect for me and I love him

New Model

On Saturday morning a model arrived for me from AAN with this beautiful piece of fabric for it.

It's called Fabric of Clouds and should be available on the AAN website early in the New Year (pic is posted with permission)

Next time you see it it'll have the stitched project on it once it's released

Family Sampler

As I said in my monthly goals the Family Sampler I've been stitching for someone is complete as far as it can be until I get the info to add to it.

And here it is

She is aware I need the info to complete it but as yet it's not arrived :(

I think a reminder is on the cards because I really want to get this crossed off the list

November progress & December goals

For November I said
Finish the model.   It's as finished as it can be until I get the names and dates for it
Finish CdC    Done
Another finish would be nice    I scrapped in with Needlework ABC's
Sell some stash    I can't remember if I have or not!!
Post every day    Done

For December I'd like to
Finish the mini poppies
Finish the Monday night project
Start the new model that's on the way
Not start anything else!
Decide on my Jan 1st start

November was another good month for me with 105 hours 26 mins of stitching time and 1 day I didn't get time with a needle (but I did get to play with fabric all day).   I had 1 new start and 3 finishes during the month which I'm quite happy with

Current PHD total = 29!

Novembers Gifted Gorgeousness

I'm quite literally scrapping in with a finish for GG this month!

I put the last stitches in this, whipped it off the frame, took a very quick piccie and jumped on the puter to write the post

Why does it qualify for GG?

The chart pack was my Birthday present this year off Lucy and it was also my Birthday start

I added my link with just 10 minutes to spare!  then came back to tell you that :)

Monday night (mostly) progress

I say mostly because I did a little bit today while at Mum's.

That wide band above the swan (at least I think it is) marks the end of part one and I'd say I'm about 1/3 done with part 2.

Next week is the last bowls of the year but I've decided I'll keep on working on this for a couple of hours on Monday to try and finish it before the end of the year

Snowman Parade completed

I tried again today to get pics of the completed ornament and although they didn't turn out fuzzy it is a bit dark :(

But here it is and I have to say it was great fun to make and at some point I'll make it again for me

Rosie again

I was planning to show you the completed ornament from yesterday's post but they all turned out fuzzy inc the one of Rosie checking all was OK with it!

So instead have another pic of her to look at 

Snowman parade ornament

A couple of months ago a post appeared on the local Facebook group about a teenage girl who is sick and wanted to raise money for Alder Hey children's hospital.

She was planning to organise a Christmas party and was asking for help.

I offered to make an ornament as a raffle prize and my offer was accepted.

It's not finished yet because I had to wait for the bead fair today to get the facets needed but here it is so far

Woohoo

I'm a happy camper tonight the green of the border meets up :)

Now I just need to fill it in and the border will be done but that's a job for Monday tomorrow I plan on a day off this one

Rosie

Rosie was sat on my lap earlier so I took the opportunity to take a piccie of her

Monday night progress

I'm almost at the end of part one now but have to admit that it's had a little more attention this last week than just Monday evening.

It's seen a little progress in the hospital while I waited for Mum to have her physio and a little more while I waited at the Docs

WIP Wednesday

I had to move the frame so thought I'd share a pic

I think I'm in with a decent chance of finishing the border this week never mind just getting across the bottom

The complete train

As promised pics of the completed train

it's about 10 inches in length

there may well be more carriages next year, people have been asking (inc me) 

Major happy dance time

At 11.30 pm last night I put the last stitch into CdC and just in case your wondering it was the one in the top right corner :)

Started on Jan 1st 2011 and left in the PHD drawer for most the time until August 3rd when it became my weekend project.

I'd seen lots of these done on dark fabric with colourful thread and I wanted to be a little different so went with bright fabric (Opal sunflowers from Sparklies) and black thread.

Ink Circles

Cirque des Cercles

The goods for the goods carriage

First I made the Candy cane (thread heaven lid for scale)

then I made the present (well guessed Jo)

and lastly I made the lollipop

here they are in the goods carriage

What I forgot to do was take a pic of the entire train but I will

TUSAL Time

Yes right folks it's time to post pictures of rubbish once more and for the first time all year I'm on time!! Please don't fall off your seat in shock.

First my stitching orts and I've added ones from the family tree sampler, CdC, snowman, mini poppies and my Monday night freebie since last time

And my beading orts 

It was lovely to use black thread for a change and although you can't see it there is some apple green in there as well unfortunately I'm back to white thread 

If after all this time you have no idea what the TUSAL is all about click here

Family sampler progress

My aim for this week was to get to the bottom of this one and not only did I do that but I've made a small start on the bottom of the border and the flowers along the bottom of the centre panel

Overall it's looking like this now

Next week I'd like to make it all the way across the bottom at the very least but would love to finish the border completely