Happy Hols, Molls

I did not mean to be gone for six months, but I was reading instead of stitching for a while. 

I made some cards, and I thought I'd share them tonight. 

Although my mother is at my sister's and my aunt and cousins will be joining them, we are sitting out this Christmas. We're planning on having a Feast of the Seven Fishes, just the two of us. It's not our tradition but since we're not eating with the pescaphobes this is our chance! Our fishes (seafoods, for the pedants): anchovies, lox, shrimp, mussels, scallops, codfish cakes, and squid. 

Then we'll watch the Patrick Stewart Christmas Carol while drinking hot chocolate. 

I hope your holiday is all wonderful, and if your usual traditions have been hijacked by 2020, you find a new way to celebrate. Best wishes!

Snowman Wreath

I bought all the things to make this wreath. And then it seemed like so much to do among the busy-ness of this week. For example, my sister needed me to pick my mother up at the airport and bring her to the house so that she could help with the girls. My mother told me 2:48 and then the day she flies she tells me 12:10. So I go to the airport at 12:10, which of course turns out to be the time she is taking off (to land at 2:48). This is not her first rodeo, people, so I dutifully went to the airport twice to get my mother. And then she needed to be fed. So I ended up bringing her to my sister's house in rush hour traffic. And then I got home at 7:30 and still had to feed myself and walk the dog.

And you wonder why I didn't want to make 11 pom pom snowmen. So I made the one. But it was fun and easy and I think I should make the other 10 so that I can have a fabulous new wreath.

I'd like to do this with a rainbow of scarves, like the original, but I am not buying whole skeins for two yards. So if you'd like to contribute, give me a holler!

Santa Appears

This is definitely the most cross stitch I have ever done in a Craft Month (number of projects, not necessarily number of stitches).

I give you Lizzie * Kate's Santa from the Stocking Sleds. I used most of the called for overdyed threads but I didn't have Bright Leaf (the gold around the edge).

I'm sorry that the blogging of Craft Month has been so haphazard. :(

Christmas Quilling

I did a small quilling project two years ago for the Craft Month Challenge. It helped me get over my dread of quilling that was instilled when my mother would have me make quilled snowflakes for the craft bazaar and sell them for .25/each. It was the 80s but damn, that's cheap. (I'm so traumatized I tell you this story every time I mention quilling. It might be time to put it to rest.)

I didn't use a pattern for this. It's a pretty basic project, I only used coils; no teardrops or marquis or scrolls. You just need paper strips (they sell them in the craft stores now/again), glue, and a toothpick. Seriously, you don't need more than that.

Christmas Card

I never got my Christmas cards finished last winter. I got sick (again) and was sick pretty much from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It was a laugh riot. And now every time I cough or sniffle at work people say, "Didn't you just get over being sick?" still.

So here is the card I have been hoping to complete for quite some time. Pretty much from the moment I saw the stamp set over two years ago. Warm Wishes

Unfortunately the craft room is in a state and I couldn't find the Warm Wishes stamp! Peace is an adequate substitute, but I fear there will need to be some craft room clean up!

Whimsical Christmas Tree

I made this Christmas yarn tree from A Million Little Things. Now that I am linking back to this and reading the directions and seeing Jill's tree, I've definitely made a variation. I didn't really crisscross my yarn like she did, and I used white glue not hot glue.

I chose Lion Brand Homespun in olive because I thought it looked most tree like. I also liked the texture.

I added the giant ball instead of a star at the top because I have so many giant felt balls. I bought several multipacks over the years and mostly used the middle size. That left the tiny ones for this project. And lots of those big ones. (I'm going to have to come up with a way to use those during some future craft month.)

This is such a simple craft that results in a delightfully whimsical tree.

Jingle All the Way!

I saw this made with a Stampin Up cling and a shadow box ages ago. So I finally got around to making my own! The cling was from AC Moore, and I didn't like that it had bells on the bottom, so I cut them off. This version suggested a change in colorway. I loaded up a glass cube with turquoise, silver, pink, and purple jingle bells because sometimes I like a nontraditional-color Christmas craft!

O Christmas Tree

I've definitely been collecting things to show you even if I haven't been able to post.

The weekend after we got back from DC, we went with my sister and the girls to Longwood Gardens to see their trees. Fabulous as always! (The girls are three and a half now.) We saw so many trees with unusual color combos. This one was (advertised as) "Tiffany blue" and had some copper accents. Another one was red and lemon yellow--it worked!

Then we put up our own trees. The snowman tree, last year (because we were heading to Florida) we bought a new artificial tree--black tinsel!--we got it back out this year because I was too sick to want to wander around tree lots. We didn't put it up until the Monday before Christmas when I was shamed into it at work. The dude helped so much over this period. He doesn't usually love all the Christmas brouhaha, but he really pitched in, buying presents, decorating, cooking, baking. I found a good one!

This is the handmade tree. Almost all the ornaments were stitched (or made) by me (there are a few by you too!). When we were at Winterthur, there was a tree of needlepoint ornaments that rotated. (I don't know how I managed to miss a photo of it!) The dude said we'll have to get one of those for this tree. Ha ha!

My collection of Sandy Cozzolino ornaments, growing slowly. I posted this photo on her Facebook page, and she said two in the middle, the Santa with holding the tree and the teddy bear Santa, are among the earliest ones she designed!

I did get the trees for the mugs that I set out to do over Thanksgiving break. I bought that huge gold tree at Target. (It is in there straight; I don't know what went wrong with this picture.) A fun little vignette. I shared it on Facebook and lots of people have these mugs. I think they might be looking for trees to stick inside during the sales!

For my aunt's December 27th birthday, we headed to Winterthur to see their trees. Although I should have photographed the needlepoint tree, I took this one instead. For the past 30 years, Winterthur has had a dried flower tree. All of the flowers are grown and preserved on the property and saved for this tree, which was HUGE. I think you can tell if you look at some of the flowers, like the sunflowers or the hydrangea. Pretty amazing!

I hope you were able to enjoy lots of lovely Christmas trees--if that's your thing. I do love the sparkly lights in this dark time of year.

Fill Your Hearts with Christmas Cheer!

I went to the doctor today, friends, and the news was that I don't have strep (yay?) but that I probably* have the flu (even with the shot; they guessed wrong this year). My throat feels like it is filled with knives, and I'm beyond achy. I have some meds so with luck (and science) I will be better soon.

My Santa head mugs have been arriving, and I found this glittery tree at my local A.C. Moore. I like it better than the dyed red trees featured in the magazine, although I still might try to find one of those peppermint trees. (The originals, for reference.)

Since doing anything but sitting was too strenuous, I picked up a project to stitch. Don't ask my why Merry and Bright called my name. This Hearts Content kit is fairly difficult since it is over one on 40 count fabric (natural linen). It's stitched with DMC. The frame is now complete (and matches up!) and I added several strands of gold to it. I have begun the funky tree-person. I know that "Bright" looks misaligned, and it is, but luckily it is the bottom of the B that is messed up and not everything to the right of it! You can compare the before photo here.



* Waiting for the test, which takes 24 hours, would put me outside the timeframe for taking the meds, so she just assumed I had it, which I think is a good guess.

It's a Start

Inevitably when I start making cards, I'm always missing a stamp, or a color, or some paper... But I started my Christmas cards and made a list of what I need. The Christmas crafting has begun!

Take that Black Friday.

Christian's Stocking

I noticed that Hinterland had some new episodes. (They've probably been new for ages.) So the dude and I have been spending some time watching. That and the drive to Maine gave me quite a lot of time to stitch this stocking for Jersey. If I can get it done by October, and I hope to, I can have these finished for my sister's family this Christmas.

Alas, I have found another missing color. It shows up in several of the parts I have already stitched--the hearts, the dingbats on the bottom of the stocking, Santa's cape. And somehow, I've also lost the brown of his skin. There are maybe five stitches in his face! Maybe I put it in the Mary's Stocking project bag? I shall look tonight.

This is how we left it last November.

Will continue to work on it next week. Wish me luck!

Advent Blog Hop

Welcome one and all. Special Christmas Cheer if you are visiting for the first time from Jo's Advent Blog Hop. Ten more days! Can someone invent a time machine? I need to go back--I need another month. 

Jo asks:
Do you have a favourite decoration you must have on display every year, maybe an heirloom, one the children made or something with a special story behind it?

I got kind of hung up on the heirloom part of this question when I was thinking about which ornaments, which are decidedly not on the tree, to photograph. I don't really have any Christmas heirlooms. Maggie never had a tree in my memory--or more precisely, she had a ceramic tree about 12" tall that lit up. On my father's side, my great grandmother, when she got Alzheimer's, started throwing away heirlooms--her wedding portrait, other photos, "junk no one wanted." And her daughter always did "theme" trees. The thing with most theme trees, in my experience, especially if they are changed annually, is that you don't really develop an attachment to the ornaments. Unless, of course, you make your own.

When we moved to my childhood home in 1976, my mother had a designer from Ethan Allen come decorate our formal living room. It was blue and gold with touches of pink that were in the oriental rug. So the small tree she put up in that room pulled in those colors too. And for that tree, she made these angels. When we were cleaning out her house thirty three years later, we found enough Christmas ornaments to open up a shop. Most went to the thrift store, but I couldn't let these go. So I guess these are the heirlooms from one crafty lady to her daughter.

But that's not really the question, is it? In the years we haven't decorated (usually we do, even when we are going to England on December 26) I always put out this Santa that I stitched. The pattern is by Heartstrings, and it is stitched with fluffy fibers that Silver Needle kitted up. I loved every stitch, but especially the ones done with Very Velvet!

It was finished (at an incredibly reasonable price) by the fabulous Miss Mona of Magic by Mona. 

It is also something seasonal that I've stitched. Two birds, one stone.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Over Two on 18 Count

You are all so lenient, so permissive! To allow cheating like that. 😄

Thank you for your kind words on Mary's Stocking. I can't say it was an enjoyable or quick stitch (see Just One July) but I am pleased with how it turned out. After I finished blogging about my huge accomplishment, I did have a moment to work on Christian's Stocking. And every over one on 40 count project should be followed by two projects stitched over two on 18 count! Ha ha. I last stitched this one in September.

Unfortunately, I ran out of navy blue perle. I should be able to replace it easily. If it's not already in the "I've stitched ten of these stockings" perle cotton #5 bag. It may be hiding in there.

We're almost at the end of this blogging project, and I must say it is nice not to hear me complain about the blogging challenge! I can't believe how stress free it's been.

I Cheated

 I'm not going to lie to you, dear reader, I cheated. I know I'm supposed to work on one project a day, and a new one every day during my NaBloPoMo challenge, but I came so close last night...all the way to just the little man with his moon balloon and the backstitching. So close! This morning when I got up, I just kept going. Working away on the stocking and not the new project that was prescribed. But I finished! And I'm not sorry I did it. I'd break the rules again and again!

I still have one stocking to go for this family of four, so they won't get them this year. But I might even be able to finish these myself instead of sending them off in October, so that everything else will get done. (Since I am confessing, I will share that I have made nary a Christmas card. Sigh.)

Can Stitching Cause Blindness?

If I wasn't squinting after Thursday's adventure in over one stitching, I certainly was yesterday! This is Maureen Appleton's Merry and Bright, and it is stitched over one on 40 count fabric. (See the scale, and where I was last time, here.) I have nearly finished one color of the border. And yes, it's true, I had 1 1/2" left to stitch and I couldn't make myself do it. That's sixty itsy bitsy teeny tiny stitches, and I was done.

If I decide that I need an over one project in my 2017 rotation, I think I should start with this one because...40 count. Then I can work my way to the 32, and then the 28.

Today I picked up Mary's Stocking to give my eyes a break!

To Be Jolly

There was lots of time on the train ride back to Philly to stitch. I finished the cardinal on this round. (See how he looked previously.) And started the small motifs I had looked forward to back in August. In fact, I said this about them: "Once the cardinal is done, most of what's left are smaller motifs which should give the feeling that I am zipping along toward a finish!" But...not so much. That Quaker-style snowflake on the far left took me three tries to get right!

Last Up in the August Rotation, Tis the Season

Ah, September. I look forward to your cooler temperatures. You have cooler temperatures for us, right? RIGHT?

The last project up in my rotation was Tis the Season by Blackbird Designs. You may remember that I am stitching this for my aunt (she of the "In the Pink" project) because she asked for a Christmas stitch. I am stitching this on the called-for fabric with the Belle Soie silks. I am enjoying it very much.

The last time I worked on it, it looked like this:

Once the cardinal is done, most of what's left are smaller motifs which should give the feeling that I am zipping along toward a finish! LOL We'll see about that at the end of September.

There is a needle stuck in it now, so we shouldn't have any future mishaps!

My goal last month was to stick to my "Molly Rotation."

1. Waldorff, Homespun Sampler -- yes
2. Mary's Stocking, SB --switched Mary with Wisteria, but did stitch on her
3. Wisteria Snowman, SB - yes
4. Our Souls, Midsummer Night Designs - no
5. Greenland Santa, Mill Hill - finished!
6. Cinnamon Stars, Plum Street - yes
7. Small #8 - finished!
8. Lovebird, JABC - yes
9. Ladybug, Ladybug, Rabbit Workes - I couldn't find it! Nominally, I switched it out with Deruta biscornu, but I didn't actually stitch on that either.
10. Tis the Season, Blackbird - yes

During September, I plan to stick with the rotation. After all, things are getting done!

1. Waldorff, Homespun Sampler
2. Mary's Stocking, SB
3. Wisteria Snowman, SB
4. Our Souls, Midsummer Night Designs
5. Christian's Stocking, SB
6. Cinnamon Stars, Plum Street
7. Small #9
8. Lovebird, JABC
9. I haven't decided yet what to put here. I may call audible on game day.
10. Tis the Season, Blackbird

Mary Grows

Not the best photo, but here's our friend Mary back in the rotation. I didn't get as much done these three days as I did after several hours in the car, but the top of the stocking is starting to take shape. And she has a head! If not a face--still not sure what to do about the color.

Today is the end of summer hours, my last half day Friday. Two years ago, I bemoaned the fact that I never went thrifting on my half days as I had planned. Nor cleaned the craft room. (If you click through, you will get to see tiny baby pix.) Today, recognizing that it was my last half day, I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the craft room. I'm about halfway done. The scorching temperatures forecast for the rest of the weekend suggest I will be able to perhaps finish the job. Wouldn't that be nice?

Just One July--Mary 3

I am making progress on Mary. Progress is incremental, I have to remind myself of that. If you look at Mary on July 1, I've made a lot of progress. I just get so impatient when I focus on one piece. "Isn't this thing done yet?" I ask myself over and over.

I know the world is on fire--and that's breaking my heart--but work has also been extra-stressful since there's been a major reorganization with firings and silos disappearing and demotions (well, layers being added to the org chart). My group's new admin is openly searching for jobs while she's at work in her cubicle. (I don't think our group is that bad, but whatevs.) And there's continued uncertainty because someone they clearly want to promote is out on maternity leave, so the new group she will lead hasn't been reformed. Anyway, giant shitshow. So yesterday, I came home from my half-day Friday and just stitched. Because...stitching. Today might be the same.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

The holiday weekend allowed me quite a bit of stitching time. (Though I also spent time in the garden. Remind me never to leave my garden in May again!) I keep discovering crazy color mistakes. The first one was that I stitched those vertical stripes one shade lighter than they should have been (corrected). Now I realize that arm should be outlined in ecru, not green. Sigh. Onward!