My IHSW Report

My hermit plan was to stitch on my 2011 Santa and finish that last Christmas gift.  One out of two ain't so bad . . . .

I finished the ornie, never touched the Santa.

Considering that I didn't have a single stitch in the ornament until Friday evening, I think my hermitting went okay.  And here it is, a Christmas tree freebie from Aliolka:

Isn't this the cutest little tree?  It's so whimisical and fun.  It reminds me of something out of Dr. Seuss's 'The Grinch' (my favorite Christmas program).  I love the way it turned out.  It's a good thing it's going to a really good friend.  Otherwise, I might be inclined to keep it.

And I am done with my gift stitching!  WooHoo!! 

Note to self:  Don't wait until mid-November to begin Christmas gifts .... duh! obviously! never again!

*wink*

Merry Christmas!

Stitching has gone to the dogs

I haven't been doing much stitching since my last post.  The dogs have been taking up most of my time recently.  Spider has a new puppy foundation class once a week -- so that makes 3 nights a week of doggie classes.  And this past Sunday, I entered Stormy and River in a Teacup Agility Trial.  River needed 2 more Games 3 legs to finish his title and Stormy only needed 1 leg to finish his Teacup Agility Championship, aka, TACh.  River was successful and completed both of his games legs -- yay!  Stormy, however, was not.  Sigh.  Maybe next time .....

I took some time away from the dogs and Christmas stitching to complete the next part of the Heart Note Alley SAL ... plus I filled in the circles in the 3rd band from the bottom, making it more visible:

I also spent some stitchy time on the Advent Calendar SAL -- finishing 3 more parts:

And here's my whole Advent Calender sampler to date (the upper right ornie is still under construction):

It's coming along nicely --- I'm only 4.5 parts behind.

Last Saturday, my EGA chapter held our Christmas party.  I participated in the ornament exchange by stitching (what else!?) another tree -- don't you just love the little 'tree skirt'?    I think that's so funny.  What can I say, I'm a little odd.

Unfortunately (duh!) I forgot to take a picture of the ornie I received.  I will do that asap and post a pic -- it's really cute!

That's about it, except to say this weekend is a hermit kind of weekend.  The dogs, the laundry, my stitching and I will be spending some quiet, quality time together.  I'm planning on getting my 2012 Santa mostly finished and one final gift finished.  Wish me luck!

5 down . . . . 3 more to go

I worked diligently Friday through Sunday morning to finish 5 Christmas ornaments.  One of which I forgot to take a picture of before sending it off in the mail Saturday morning.  Bummer!  The other 4 are here for your enjoyment.  And all I have to say is, thank goodness for those little pre-finished pillows.  Yes, I cheated and used them to finish my ornies.

The Christmas Trees are freebies from Alexandria and the gifts are my own design, I needed a break from trees.

Thank you, dear followers, for the kind comments on the tree from my previous post.  The interior decoration is a type of embroidery called Wessex stitchery.  I bought a book (I love books) about it a couple years ago called Wessex Stitchery by Gay Eaton just out of curiosity.  It is such a fun thing (at least the way I do it) because you just kind of make things up as you go along -- no cumbersome pattern to hold while I'm stitching.  I don't do many of the more complicated designs (at least not yet) because I have so much fun with the simpler stuff.

The Embroiders' Guild has a beautiful example of this type of stitching.  Nordic Needle has a nice tutorial of a few stitches in case you just want to try it.   Notes from under the Mountain also has a lovely example of it.

I use it to make borders:

Or to add a decorative line:

And now I'm filling in objects.  It's a fun, easy technique -- I highly recommend giving it a try.

Another month gone by

It's hard to believe today is December 1.   It'll be Christmas in no time now . . . sigh . . .  and I'm not prepared at all.

Anyway, here's a brief update of my Sticklounge Advent Calendar SAL -- 3 more completed:

And here's a lousy picture of the whole thing so far:

I had such a good time decorating the little tree that I decided to stitch another one last night.  Only this time I'm stitching on 28 ct over 2 threads instead of over just one on my sampler.  Isn't it cute?  I may have to do a couple more . . . and add some beads and shiny threads.

Happy December!