Goals for Christmas!

Now it's the first day of November, I feel I can concentrate on Christmas! I've done a long list - almost as long as Santa's, I'm sure - although looking at it, there's not mountains of actual stitching to be done, as most projects are going to be quite small - it's the finishing that's going to take time, as I've a stack of ornaments from previous years stitch a longs to make up!

Stitching

Ornament for Parents - Checking His List by Dragon Dreams
Ornament for Niece
Ornament for Sister
Ornament for Simone's Exchange
Ornament for Crazy Exchange Exchange
Christmas Bells - Janlynn - this will be a Christmas card for my parents.
Ho Ho Ho Scissor Case - Lizzie*Kate - something just for me!

(there is no ornament for partner, as he loathes Christmas, and only tolerates it for my sake!)

Finishing
Christmas Ornament - Brightneedle
Christmas Rose - Elizabeth's Designs
Dear Santa, I Can Explain - Lizzie Kate
Ho Ho Ho - Lizzie Kate
Jingle Bell Time - SanMan Originals
Joy Ornament - Just Nan
Joy To The World - Lizzie Kate
Jungle Room Plaque - Dimensions/Sunset - my niece's Christmas present
Merry Little Christmas - Bent Creek
Noel
Peace - The Victoria Sampler
Peace Joy Love - Lizzie*Kate
Ready or Not - Lizzie Kate
Snow - Gail Bussi
Snowman Ornament - Bent Creek
Star Santa Ornament
Winter Peace - Sisters and Best Friends

UFO
Advent Wallhanging - Needlecraft
Christmas Sampler - Leisure Arts
December Sampler Accent - Periwinkle Promises
Hearts of Joy No. 2 - Charland Designs
O Christmas Tree - Prairie Schooler

Goals Review - October

Finishing - If The Broom Fits - Lizzie*Kate - not done - and I'm not sure why, as I have the goggle eyes, I have the felt ... this has to go to the top of the list after Christmas!

Finishing - Pig Fridge Magnet Freebie Kit - done

Finishing - July Needleroll - The Victoria Sampler - not done - and again, I'm not sure why!

Finishing - Groundhog Day - Bent Creek - done

Stitching - Acorn Scissor Case - Lizzie*Kate - done

Stitching - October Sampler Accent - Periwinkle Promises - not done. Having finished the September one, I didn't really fancy doing another.

Stitching - Pot Pourri Sachets - DMC - done

Stitching - September Sampler Accent - Periwinkle Promises - done

UFO - Bee Treat - The Trilogy - done

UFO - Country Mice - Needlecraft Magazine - not done - I couldn't find the chart!

UFO - Moonshadow Sampler - Shepherd's Bush - not done - I'm finding the fabric difficuly to stitch on, as warp and weft are different colours.

UFO - Pumpkin Flower Sampler - Bent Creek - done

UFO - Schoolhouse Needleroll - Shepherd's Bush - done

WIP to finish - Pastoral Sampler - Helen Philipps - not done - I'd to frog a lot!

WIP to finish - Sampler Bookmark - Needlecraft Magic - done

WIP to finish - Strawberry - Needleworks by Sue Hawkins - not done - there's a specialty stitch block that's causing me problems, so it's going away for a bit so I can return refreshed!

WIP to finish - Potted Flowers - The Bold Sheep - done

However, these are the things done that weren't on the original goals list!

Finishing - Sampler Bookmark - Needlework Magic - made up into a laminated bookmark

Finishing - Two Hardanger Squares - Mary Hickmott - made up (using The Drawn Thread's method) into scissor fobs

Finishing - Winter Fobs Needleroll - Heart In Hand - finished as (surprise surprise!) a needleroll

Finishing - Schoolhouse Needleroll - Shepherd's Bush - finished as (yes, you guessed!) a needleroll

Finishing - Peace Needleroll - Jeannette Douglas Designs - finished as (who'd have thought) a needleroll, although quite a small one.

Finishing - When This You See - Cathy Bussi - just for a change, I made a mini pillow/pin cushion

Finishing - Merry Mooseness - Something in Common - I made this into a Christmas ornament for my brother in law. He likes mooses!

Finishing - EduCATed - Bent Creek - another mini pillow!

Finishing - Tartan Thistles - Textile Heritage - although the kit calls for this to be made into a needlebook, I made this into a pin cushion instead!

Finishing - Robin on Egg - Bent Creek - I finished this as a mini pillow for my smalls basket.

Finishing - Groundhog Day - Bent Creek - I made this into another mini pillow for my smalls basket

Finishing - Fall Freebie - Trail Creek Farm - I turned this into a fridge magnet.

Finishing - Pig Fridge Magnet Freebie - and I made this one into a fridge magnet too!

UFO - The White Cat - Bent Creek - this only needed a few buttons on, and I finally had some I liked for this

UFO - Lamb - Shepherd's Bush - this again just needed buttons, and as I didn't want to spend the large sum needed for the recommended ones, it's been a matter of waiting until I found some suitable ones!

Miscellaneous - Buzz - Bent Creek - this has been finished for years, but the buttons I originally chose were too large, so I replaced them with some from my new haul.

UFO - Bee Treat - The Trilogy - I needed some small bee charms, and found some in a chart pack that I don't actually want to stitch. So they got re-assigned, and this piece is now finished - and framed!

Stitching - Fall Into Autumn - Rainbow Gallery - my only "new start" for October that I hadn't planned, so I'm feeling quite proud of my restraint!

UFO - Winter Needleroll - Heart in Hand - again, just a button job

Stitching - Fall Freebie - Trail Creek Farm - stitched for an exchange on the Bookcrossing UK Yahoo group.

UFO - Plum Berry Sampler - Bent Creek - yet another button job!

UFO - Pumpkin Flower Sampler - Bent Creek - this was only half finished when I picked it up again, so I stitched the pumpkin and vine, and added the buttons.

UFO - Schoolhouse Needleroll - Shepherd's Bush - this needed beading.

Pay It Forward

As inspired by Carol at Garden of Stitches, I am running a round of Pay It Forward gifting!

The first three people to leave me a comment asking to sign up will receive a hand-made gift from me, sometime in the upcoming year. In return, you will need to post to your blog that you will make gifts for three other people. Sound good? Sign up! :o) Don't forget to leave me a link to your own blog so I can the kind of things you like!

Potted Flowers - The Bold Sheep

This was last month's travel prject - stuffed into handbags, worked on in waiting rooms, on buses, trains and trams... I'm quite relieved it only came out with one small mark on it!

The kit was quite straightforward to stitch (although there is an error in there, but I've worked round it!) and there was a generous amount of fabric and thread included, so I was happy!

The finished piece is about 4 inches square, so I will ikely make this into a cushion centre.

It anyone would like the chart, please say so in the comments!

Design Details

Fabric: 14 count aida, white
Threads: Anchor stranded cotton
Designer: Louise Ellwood- The Bold Sheep
Kit Details: Potted Flowers CSPOT - The Bold Sheep (c) 2004
Stitch Count: 57H x 57V
Stitches Used: Cross Stitch
Threads Used: Anchor 31, 185, 246, 295, 387, 109, 187, 265, 376. Cross stitch in two strands.
Embellishments: None
Modifications Made: None. Although there is an extra column of stitches on the left hand side.

Winter Needleroll - Heart in Hand

It's not quite winter yet, but I thought I would get these cheerful chappies ready anyway! I do like needlerolls as a way of finishing smalls, I did this one very simply with a standard "dressmaking" hem.

Design Details

Fabric: 28 count linen, natural
Threads: DMC stranded cotton
Designer: Cecilia Turner (Heart in Hand)
Chart Details: Winter Fobs - Heart in Hand
Stitch Count: 44H x 62V
Stitches Used: Cross Stitch, Back Stitch, Rhodes Stitch, Oblong Smyrna Stitch, Closed Herringbone Stitch
Threads Used: DMC 712, 355, 680, 3740, 926, 729, 922, 844, 612, 3778, 927, 3362. Cross stitch in two strands.
Embellishments: Two star shaped buttons.
Modifications Made: Own choice of buttons. DMC conversion used.

Hats, Hats, Hats!

There's 20 miniature hats in the picture.

"What on earth did you do those for?" I hear you cry!

It's all part of Innocent Smoothies The Big Knit

What's that? It's a fund raising campaign for Age Concern. Innocent want lots of knitted hats to put on the top of their bottles of smoothies. These behatted bottles will then go into Sainsbury’s in November and for every one sold Innocent and Sainsbury’s will give 50p to Age Concern.

Almost 25,000 older people died of cold related illnesses last winter, so it’s important to not only raise awareness, but to raise money to stop it happening again. Age Concern will use the money raised to provide support to older people in winter including hot meals, blankets and advice on how to keep their houses warm.

My gran was frugal in many ways (hey, she was Scottish!) but she knew the importance of keeping warm. I've knitted these in her memory because I'm thankful that she didn't scrimp on her heating bills, and that she was in a position that she didn't have to.

I didn't find out until very late on about the campaign, so nwext year I'm hoping to have more hats to send. If you have any oddments of double knitting wool lying around, I'd be very grateful for it!

Pumpkin Trick or Treat Bags

I was in our local "everything £1" store and saw the kit that made both of these - a bargain or what!?

They are made from foam, and I had to lace together the backs and fronts onto a gusset, then attach the handles. I also had to stick on the features. A tip if you find something similar - use a decent glue, double sided tape doesn't work!

I'm keeping one chap, and the other is going to my toddler niece :o)

Fall Freebie - Trail Creek Farm

I stitched this for an exchange on the Bookcrossing UK Yahoo group I belong to - I made the design into a fridge magnet, as it was stitched on plastic canvas. I backed the design with white paper to hide reverse, and used UHU glue to stick on a (supposedly) self adhesive magnet.

I used different colours to those charted, but I think it looks pretty similar to the model. For a bit of extra pizazz I added a button from the bag I used on the Pumpkin Flower Sampler.


Design Details

Fabric: 14 count plastic canvas, fawn
Threads:various overdyed threads
Designer: Trail Creek Farm (Linda Ebright)
Chart Details: Fall - Freebie available from Trail Creek Farm's website
Stitch Count: 29H x 29V
Stitches Used: Cross Stitch, Back stitch
Threads Used: The Dye Is Cast: Aztec Gold, Pumpkin Patch. Weeks Dye Works Pistachio Nut. Cross stitch in two strands.
Embellishments: Heart shaped button.
Modifications Made: Own choice of threads, added button.

Plum Berry Sampler - Bent Creek

I think I said pretty much what I wanted to in the last post :o)

I did wonder if the purple was a bit too bright, and thought about frogging all the specialty stitches and re-stitching in a more mulberry sort of colour, but then reality and common sense took over!

Design Details

Fabric: 28 count linen from Silkweaver - Lichen Moss
Threads: DMC stranded cotton
Designer: Bent Creek (Marsha Worley & Elizabeth Newlin)
Chart Details: The Plum Berry Sampler BC418 - Bent Creek (c) 2000
Stitch Count: 40H x 101V
Stitches Used: Cross Stitch, Rhodes Stitch, Smyrna Cross Stitch, Algerian Eyelet Stitch
Threads Used: DMC 3835, 3023, 3787, 3021, 311, 869. Cross stitch in two strands.
Embellishments: Seven assorted buttons.
Modifications Made: Used DMC conversion, substituted recommended buttons

Pumpkin Flower Sampler - Bent Creek

(Hmmm - my pictures are rubbish. I wonder what is going wrong - I'm using macro, and flash and yet they are still very blurry!)

This is one of the set of three samplers published by Bent Creek and I've chosen to stitch them all on the same piece of linen, although I will frame or finish them individually.

I love them - the colours work beautifully - especially on this piece and they are quick but satisfying to stitch, as there are bands of raised stitches in the alphabet.

I chose to use the DMC conversions, and didn't use the recommended buttons - they would have cost me over £5, and the ones I used were from a couple of assorted packets that cost me less than that, and I've used them for several projects! They do go well, I think - I guess that's one of the advantages of having a favourite palette of colours, most things co-ordinate!

Design Details

Fabric: 28 count linen from Silkweaver - Lichen Moss
Threads: DMC stranded cotton
Designer: Bent Creek (Marsha Worley & Elizabeth Newlin)
Chart Details: The Pumpkin Flower Sampler BC420 - Bent Creek (c) 2000
Stitch Count: 40H x 101V
Stitches Used: Cross Stitch, Rhodes Stitch, Smyrna Cross Stitch, Algerian Eyelet Stitch
Threads Used: DMC 436, 611, 3051, 434. Cross stitch in two strands.
Embellishments: Seven assorted buttons.
Modifications Made: Used DMC conversion, substituted recommended buttons