Advent Blog Hop, Day 23

Welcome to Day 23 of the annual Serendipitous Stitching Advent Blog Hop. Two more sleeps! (Actually for us it's just one more, but that's a story for another day.)

I have an annual tradition--insofar as something you have been doing for four years is a "tradition"--of making my nieces a Christmas ornament. This year it's a Lizzie*Kate Sled Dudes Snow Man for Special K and a Stocking Sleds Santa for Sugar Rea. (Santa was stitched for Craft Month.)

You can follow these links to see the other ornaments I've made for the girls:
First Christmas
Second Christmas: Santa and Snowman
Third Christmas: Santa and Snowman

Jo asked us to share our favorite Christmas Songs with you, and I went all Rob Gordon:

5. "The Christmas Waltz," She and Him
4."Fairytale of New York," The Pogues
3. "Christmas Wrapping," The Waitresses
2. "Elf's Lament", Barenaked Ladies (with Michael Bublé)
1. "Silver Bells"

 Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!

Valentine's Week

The good news is I am making crafts. The bad news is that I am not reporting on them daily.
So here goes a long, picture heavy post to catch you up!

Valentine card. This card riffs on this one. I used the Petite Petals punch from Stampin' Up with Real Red, Rose Red, Cherry Cobbler, and Pink Pirouette papers. The centers are tiny pearls. Not sure which set the sentiment comes from. I see that the original creator die cut a heart to use as a template for laying out the flowers, but I just winged it. I know what shape a heart is. ;)

 This felt heart ornament is a riff on these. If you search for heart projects you will see a lot of very cute felt heart ornaments that I can only describe as regular, definitely cute but not whimsical or irregular. Kind of the opposite of this one. I'm not sure I 100% captured my vision, but I do like it.

It seems I am featuring the hutch in this week's photos. LOL.  Here we have a heart garland I made following this tutorial. She used super cute paper. Mine are a little less bright and fancy. Still cute.

Okay, these did not come out the way I imagined at all! I started with the pictures on this tutorial, and I did the painting mostly the way she suggests. I guess the handle was not half-heart-shaped enough. Also, I think I traced the outside of the handle, but I should have traced the inside. Then the heart on the mug body would have matched the handle better. They're not awful, just not what was in my head! (Get the oil-based Sharpie! It'll stand up to washing.)

Hello! This is Shepherd's Bush Be Mine Tag. These little kits work up so fast. I think it took me about two hours to do. I did briefly think about painting the sled white--I saw that in one of the Strawberry Sampler's newsletters--but I like the dark wood contrast. And pink and brown maybe out but they are fabulous together.

I saw these wrapped hearts here, and I thought they were so cute! And it's a craft that requires shapes and yarn and that's it. No glue. No sew. Just wrap and go. (You attach the hearts to the wreath form with wooden skewers.) But something just doesn't work here. It's so Gender Reveal Party. Welcome to the baby shower. Not Valentine's Day. I don't get it because I used the same colors they did. Maybe I just didn't realize how shower-y their colors were until I had done it myself? Oh, btw, that gold one uses crochet thread. While it is possible to do this with crochet thread, I'm not going to recommend it!

And the party. The Fake Party as the dude calls it, since I put all this stuff out and then don't have anyone over to eat it. This time we're having mix-ins with our date night movie accompanying popcorn. Except we ran out of popcorn. I bought a ton of mix-ins and no popcorn. (Heavy sigh.) Pretend the red bowl is overflowing with popcorn. This time, I created printables using Microsoft Word. Insert-->shape-->the heart is under "basic shapes." Then I filled it with the pastel colors of conversation hearts--white, green, peach, yellow, lavender--and used a san serif font in pink to replicate the Necco treats. One half of the toppings are savory--cheese, pretzels, nuts, spice mixes--and the others are sweet--Mike and Ike's, mini Reeses, honeyed almonds, and the Valentine's day M&M's. (Do you know how hard it was to save those?) The dude is going for the savory, but I pretty much live for the salty-sweet-crunchy combo.

Still with me? You are a trooper! Now that I am back on track, I'm going to try to swing by every day.

Button Up Your Overcoat!

Hello, friends! Thank you for your encouraging words on my pathetic output of last year. You are a wonder.

Although the weather outside is frightful (Below zero in southeastern Pennsylvania? Crazy talk!), I haven't stitched quite as much as I might have sitting here bundled up on the couch like Bob Cratchit (stocking cap, scarf, fingerless gloves). I did continue to work on Nunavut Santa as promised. I think one more round ought to do it!

Speaking of ornaments, the tree is down and the little glitter lights that I love to watch in the afterwork hours (and dine by) have disappeared. I'll have to find another way to add some sparkle into these dark cold (cold cold cold) nights.

Stay warm; unless you're near the equator. And if you are, you might not want to mention it to people on the east coast of America right now.

Arctic Santas

After Christmas, I was able to get back to stitching partly because of the arctic cold we were having. (We accidentally went to the Franklin Institute on what must have been the coldest day of the year, to see the Terracotta Warriors, and I'm pretty sure my face froze off!) I managed a few hours on both Lapland Santa (top) and Nunavut Santa.

Here's what Lapland looked like in November.

Nunavut got a lot of action! Here's what my polar bear friend looked like the last time.

I plan to take some time tomorrow and visit all of you and leave some notes. I want, like so many others, to get back to blogging. (I only wrote 60 posts in all of 2017!) And stitching! But more on my plans tomorrow.

Happy new year, everyone!

Back to Stitching

Sunday is the traditional day of rest, and I rested the hell out of Sunday. Eventually, I also stitched. I worked on the Mill Hill Arctic Circles Santa, Nunavut Santa, the one with the polar bear. I started this for Debbie's Ultimate January Challenge back in 2015, but I made some good headway on this round. (You can see the start here.) He's almost starting to look like a bear! And I switched to color! I'll be happy to get back to this in the December rotation wherein I will try to finish ALL THE PROJECTS so that I can feel like I actually stitched this year.

Balance in All Things

Posting later than usual because I had to walk the streets after dinner. I spent all day on my ass stitching with strangers and the Strawberry Sampler crew. I think I had about 200 steps when I got home after stitching 9-5. The dude and I walked to dinner, but that was still only about 2,000. Even the dog walk--shorter than usual because Stella's still not up to par--only brought me to about 5,000.

The good news in that paragraph is that I spent the day stitching. I feel rejuvinated. I finished Tada Santa (just needed a few silvery stitches) and worked on the dude's anniversary sampler. This is Silver Creek's 47 Hearts stitched with the called-for colors on Vintage Country Mocha. You can see the before here.

And if you are wondering how I magically know the fabric name this time and not before it's because the woman sitting next to me today wanted to know, and we asked Molly because I knew she'd know. She took one look and said, "is it plain on the back? It's Vintage Country Mocha." She's a goddess.

Ta Da!

I finished something!

This is Tada Snowguy by Amy Bruecken Designs. I stitched it on a plain purple. Maybe WDW Peoria Purple? I subbed a lot of the colors for things I had.

CC Brown Sugar - DMC 830
CC Blueberry Tart - WDW Aqua
CC Blackbeard - GA Black Licorice
CC Red Ribbon - DMC 321
CC Lobster Claw -  GA Orange Marmalade
GA Porcelain - DMC white (My Porcelain was too pink.)
All the rest were the called for colors.

This is Special K's 2107 Christmas ornament.

PS: Stella looks so sad in that birthday picture because she's sick. She has an upper respiratory infection and some gut issues. She's got antibiotics and we're countering with probiotics and (her absolute favorite!) Greek yogurt. Hopefully she'll be her usual self in a short while.

2017 JCS Ornament Issue Review

I don't know if it is lack of interest in the JCS Christmas Ornament edition or if I haven't gotten around to enough blogs or whether the blogosphere is down too many stitchers, but I haven't heard that much about this new magazine. I do hope, that it doesn't mean that you don't want to hear my annoying opinions about it!

The magazine opens with "Frosty the Snowman," six ornaments featuring snowmen and one from Keslyn's that just says "Let it snow!" As you know, I am a big fan of the snowmen. Of these I really like StitchyFish's Sno-Cone (she had a companion piece featured in the preview) and SamSarah's Hats Off to the Holidays. I've never encountered StitchyFish's work before.

What I am not so much a fan of is the way the pictures are organized. The numbers are laid out a bit haphazardly. For example on this page the numbers start in the upper left-hand corner, and moving clockwise: 6, 2, 7, 5, 3, 4 with 1 in the center. After being confused, what I did realize is that the key is now alphabetical by designer. (Check to see if this is usual). It does make it harder to find your favorite designer if you start with the key rather than the photo.

The next section focuses on "The Friendly Beasts." Hands down, my favorite is Amy Bruecken's Rocking a New Holiday Hat which is a sheep! I am blind to all the other designs, but to be fair there is a series of three penguins that put together make a 3D ornament, a dragonfly (?), a cardinal, a nice Rudolph ornament with fancy antlers,  a robin and a partridge--two patterns, one designer--a red bird that I think will appeal to many, a birdhouse framed simply with sticks and a sheep surrounded by male and female shepherds, but very Jesus-y.

"Here Comes Santa Claus" is the next section and sigh, I feel like I've seen this lot before. Forced to choose favorites, I'd go with Needle Bling and Angel Stitchin's Santas. Cat fanciers will enjoy Swallick Stitchery's "Santa is Coming." But I guess there's only so many ways to design Santa's head.

"Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" section is as beige as the title seems. There is a cutesy penguin (Oh, see that's Frosted Pumpkin, cutesy.) a dragon from Dragon Dreams I didn't even realize was a dragon (and I'm not sure about "Balance" as a message for my Christmas tree), two elves which I really don't like since the Elf on the Shelf and the rise of surveillance culture, a merry go round, some mittens and a series from Always Time to Stitch. Remarkably, this is the third designer who has submitted two or more designs (in this case four!) as their ornament. Finally, there is an ornament made from Weeks wool by Fern Ridge that appears to have no cross-stitch on it whatsoever!

"Joy to the World" features ornaments that have the word joy or are kinda Jesus centered. I really like Ink Circles "Modern Nordic Ornament" not sure if is is modern or Nordic, but you can tell it's Ink Circles. I also like the Gracewood Stitches Beaded Joy, although I'd probably change the colors. There are two more joy ornaments, a peace sampler, another sampler heavy design by My Big Toe, who has the craziest name for a full-on Jesus stitcher. There is also a Believe ornament and one that is backstitched "They Followed the Star." The last one isn't quite as centered as I would like.

The next section is snowflake-backstitching-Quaker-bells if I had to put it into the fewest possible words. I guess I like Guilia Punti Antichi's "Little Purse" best out of these.

The Penultimate section has trees or the suggestion of Christmas trees. I like Gentle Pursuits's tree featuring long lost pets which may be a cat and a dog or maybe those animals found only in schoolgirl samplers from 200 years ago. I love the finishing on that one though. JBW has a tree of trees and Pickle Barrel has a seaside scene. Hardanger enthusiasts will be pleased with Lisa LeAnn's colorful Hardanger Tree.

At last that brings us to a section which seems to feature Christmas words, and honestly I like almost all of these. This section, for me, is the clear winner with designs from Cherished Stitches, Lizzie*Kate, Lucie Heaton, Praiseworthy Stitches, Samplers Not Forgotten, Turquoise Graphics, and WDC Needlework. Besides Lizzie*Kate, I don't think I've stitched anything from any of these designers, which may tell you something.

But you know, for me, the real meat of this review comes from the Recipes and Memories section. I perused it recently on a plane, and was at four pages of notes, so I think this will be a two part review! Stay tuned!

Favorites:

1. Amy Bruecken's Rocking a New Holiday Hat
2. Samplers Not Forgotten Christmas Stocking
3. Lizzie*Kate Very Merry
4. Lucie Heaton Merry & Bright
5. Turquoise Graphics Rustic Noel

What are your top five?

A Month of Blogging Finis

I wasn't sure what I was going to stitch last night that could also serve as my small for today's Small SAL report. I pawed through the stash, reviewed the three Two Hour Cross Stitch books I had, selected and discarded a few items. At last my eye alighted on the Lizzie*Kate pattern Sled Dudes. One of the women sitting next to me at the Strawberry Sampler Stitch In at the beginning of this month was stitching this very piece. She started it and then I looked over again a few minutes later and she had nearly finished it! With this memory in mind, I knew I had found the perfect piece.

I only stitched on it for an hour last night, but I was able to finish-finish it in another hour or so! Since I decided on this piece at the last minute, only two of the flosses are the called-for colors. I used WDW Grasshopper for the green and WDW Peony for the pink, as called for. But the blue is GAST Huckleberry, the white is WDW Whitewash, the black is GAST Wrought Iron and the red is DMC 321 (which is listed as an alternate to Louisiana Hot Sauce). I also used metallic gold perforated paper instead of plain brown; it was all I had. Linking up with Heather of Stitching Lotus who hosts the Smalls SAL.

This is the most fun I have ever had doing NaBloPoMo! I really went back to the roots of the blog for that one, and it worked!  I'll be back to the regular rotation tomorrow.

Wisteria Snowman
Love Bird
Christian's Stocking
Our Souls
Waldorff
Cinnamon Stars
Lapland Santa
small
Ladybug, Ladybug
Tis the Season

More Santas

This is one of the Starlight Santas by Sandra Cozzolino for Mill Hill. I have no idea when I started it; I found it in a bag of mostly finished Santas last January.

He now has the beginnings of a head. Unfortunately while I was working on his face, I seem to have lost the floss. It's got to be here someplace. I worked on it at home! (When I originally "refound" it, I had somehow lost the beads.) I think this piece doesn't want to be stitched*!

*There is also a distinct lack of that light green color which is used in most of the coat.

What Stitches We Can

I've never read Javier Marias, but I did find him absolutely fascinating last night. He talked about his books, but also about growing up in Franco's Spain. Very interesting. After the interview, we waited in line to have him sign the dude's book*. We got home with just enough time to walk the dog, stitch a handful of stitches, and go to bed. I know it only looks like one color, but there are two there. You can see proof if you click back to January 19, 2015.

*Tricia B, I saw your picture request after we were home. People were getting their photos taken but the dude was too shy to ask, and he's the fan.

Greenland Santa, Nearly There

You might have thought you'd see a photo of my progress on Our Souls which was next up in the rotation. But I didn't stitch for three days (four, really) so it didn't see the light of day this month.

And that fourth day of not stitching means that I won't finish Greenland Santa in this round. So close! Just a few more beads in his boots and the ram. I love beading these things. So much!

It is time to move on to Cinnamon Stars, which is on this list because you chose it, so I am sure you don't want me to give up stitching on that just so I can finish this ornament. (And besides if I work really hard on my August small, I might have a spare day to return to this one.)

Greenland Rotation

Slightly more sheep than there was in February, as projected.

Stella's having a bit of a time. She got her stitches out on Tuesday and has "resumed normal activities." Unfortunately, she is suffering from antibiotic belly (or that's what they're guessing). This has resulted in the dude and I being woken for bathroom breaks any time between midnight and five am. We aren't particularly good at well...much of anything when our sleep is interrupted this way. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Anyway, don't worry too much about the dog; she's getting probiotics and home-cooked food. She should be back to normal soon.

Friday Finishing: Flat Ornament with a Beaded Edge

In the October 2008 issue of Just Cross Stitch (the Halloween issue), Heather Holland-Daly from monsterbubbles contributed the cutest bat ornament with a beaded finish. The finish is so gorgeous, I've been meaning to stitch this. Then it occurred to me that I could finish a different ornament this way. And then I looked through my unfinished ornaments and I saw Joyeux Noel, a monsterbubbles design. And it clicked!

Monsterbubble's Joyeux Noel 
2007 JCO issue
Wichelt Tropical Green 
called for floss colors
Stitched June 2013

Only one problem. When I put together the flat finish, it wasn't totally flat. So I needed something to help me fudge a little. Like ribbon. I used Mona's directions for doing a beaded ribbon edging. But I used way more beads. It took forever to load up all the pins (63 of them!), but not nearly as much time to stick them into the ribbon and then into the ornament. But I love how this came out. 

Christmas Ornament for Travelers

Sorry I'm so late tonight. I had Cookbook Club. We cooked from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. I made blue cheese and black pepper gougères, which the dude and I think got better as the night wore on. One recipe we all have to make is the mushroom bourguignon; it was amazing!

This ornament is something I pinned ages ago. I thought it would be wonderful to make these for the dude--I could do one for every trip we've taken together and write the year on the back. This map was pretty dull, but it is a significant sliver of land from our trip to Nova Scotia last year. I managed to get in the national park we drove through and Ingonish. Meaningful, but not snazzy. Which is why I had to paint with glitter on the edge--same glitter on last Monday's man craft. And then I swiped some across the ornament for fun.

Finishing Friday: Ornament

Finishing Fridays, not unique to me by any means, but I had to find some way of getting back to those fifteen or so finishing techniques I didn't get to show you last March.

This finish also fulfills a request made by the dude. As many of you know, he is a man who cans. When you use canning jars, the lids can only be used once. But it seems an awful waste just to throw them away. (We do use them for refrigerator pickles, and things that don't need to be processed.)

And so, I used the lids as a form--much better than trying to cut a perfect circle! You can use directions like these at Pinwheel Ponders to create such an ornament. I put the side of the lid that was concave on the inside, which accommodated some of the bulk of the fabric. I also stuck my hanger in when I glued the two halves together. When it was all dry, I applied the ribbon.

Vonna has directions for ruched ribbon. As does Susimac. And Mona from The Silver Needle (Magic by Mona). But I do the haphazard way espoused by the Shepherd's Bush sisters.

Papercraft Star

There is nothing alliterative and crafty that goes along with Thursday. Trust me, I spent hours looking at the thesaurus. So, Papercraft Thursday will focus on non-card items made from paper.

This is a Scandinavian-style woven star ornament. I used this tutorial, which is a video. If you do better with text and photos, you can try this one. I chose this paper because it has a Scandinavian feel to it, and then for some reason, I made my twists backwards so that the snowflake print is the main focus with just little peeks of the other. But spatial relations isn't really my strong suit...

...as you can see here. I made a dog's breakfast of this one. I twisted the points in the wrong direction. {sad trombone}

These didn't take very long at all. Seriously, I felt like the trimming the strips (6" x 1/2") took longer than all the gluing together. I think I might make them to decorate the Christmas presents next year. (My sister is like Martha Stewart in the wrapping room, and she's always disappointed that I'm the kind of person that wraps something in tissue and throws it in a bag from the dollar store.) (Mind you I get some very nice gift bags at the dollar store, and at a price I'm willing to pay!)

SAL Report: Nieces' Ornaments Stitched

I had promised I'd make the "twin" to the Santa ornament from last month sometime this year, and I decided this month was as good a time as any other. This delightful snowman is from Lizzie*Kate's Tiny Tidings XIX, stitched on the called-for fabric with the called-for colors. 

He stitched up much faster than I thought he would. I stitched it while I was listening to Amy Poehler's Yes Please. (I had finished Bryan Stevenson's book, which you should all read. Yes, every one of you! Everyone in the whole world should read it. We need more stonecatchers.) Her book is enjoyable but unless you dedicate yourself to the idea that it is improvisational, it will drive you bonkers. Anyway, that's why he's smiling; he listened to the last three disks. ;)

This post is linked to Heather's Smalls SAL. You can get more information there or if you click the graphic in the sidebar. You can join at any time.

Hawaiian Santa

I finished Hawaiian Santa on Saturday morning!

 When I went to put him in the finishing pile I realized he'd have some company joining him on the tree this year. How did I lose track of these guys? They just need hangers, backing, and a couple of beards.

And when I was rooting around in the nearly-finished Santa bag, I found another one I'd started. This is Southern Cross Santa. Apparently it's very easy for me to lose track of things because I don't have the beads for this anymore either. (Don't worry, I'm sure I have something somewhere.) Not sure if I should slot him into Hawaiian Santa's spot or finish the ones I started last year first. No worries. I have two months to decide.

SAL Report: Santa Knew

My first small of the year--staying on track for 12 new ones in 2016! This is from Lizzie*Kate's Tiny Tidings XIX, stitched on the called-for fabric with the called-for colors. I did change the words from "Santa Knows" though because I've always thought of Santa as being the spirit of giving rather than someone who is all about surveillance.

This is for Sugar Rea and sometime this year, I'll be stitching the snowman from this booklet for Special K. In fact, when I chose this one, I went a little overboard and ordered Jim Shore's Snowy Owl Snowman and Best Friend Santa and Amy Bruecken's Ta-da Santa and Ta-da Snowman. I had already pulled L*K's Sled Dudes, so I have enough planned to stitch until the girls reach kindergarten. I'm not excited or anything!

This post is linked to Heather's Smalls SAL. You can get more information there or if you click the graphic in the sidebar. You can join at any time.