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!