Anyway, this isn't a genealogy blog, on to some stitchy news! After Christmas I felt a little down-in-the-mouth, I always when do when the Christmas tree first comes down. To try and prolong the festive season I carried on with some Christmas stitching. My first finish was a freebie from The Drawn Thread. I think I may have finished this a little on the small side as the corners are not up to my usual standard, but it's cute nonetheless and will hang on my tree this year.
freebie from The Drawn Thread
My next finish is from the JCS 2010 ornament preview. It's 'Season of Love' by CCN. It stitched up fairly quickly and I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying stitching LHN and CCN at the moment. I did have a moment of weakness after Christmas and bought 'Gingerbread Cottage' by CCN along with the Crescent Colours needed to stitch it, kind of a belated Christmas present to myself.
JCS Ornament Preview Issue 2010
Inspired by all of the 'Crazy' Challenge starts I've seen on many blogs this month, I've decided that 2011 is going to be the year of larger projects for me. I will still stitch the odd Christmas ornie of course, I don't want to be 3 weeks away from Christmas without having stitched a single of the 12 ornies required for Christmas gifts (as happened last year!). So my first larger project is pictured below.
I think I've had this in my stash for nigh on 18 years. I stitched L&L 'Santa of the Forest' when I was 17 and my mam still displays it every Christmas, but I never got around to stitching this. It will be a birthday present for my Auntie Margaret, so I'll have to get it done before Oct 30th this year. October seems a very long way away but bearing in mind I'm having a baby in April, there may be a long break from stitching in the middle of the year!
The other larger project that I'd like to get my teeth into is pictured below. It's one I've only just become familiar with after finding it in a random Flickr album online. From what I can gather, it's by Country Arts and Crafts, called 'Santa's List' and very difficult to get hold of! I did manage to find a book of Country Arts & Crafts on Amazon that features the design, but after doing some further research, I found several comments despairing that the chart is in colour in the book and quite difficult to follow. Has anybody seen this design completed? I bet it's one of those designs that is a real conversation piece. If this were on somebody's wall at Christmas time you couldn't walk past it without stopping to admire it.
After deciding that that was more than enough to keep me going for the year (and then some...) I read on Valerie's blog that she'd fallen in love with a Chatelaine design called 'Evening in the Park'. I've never really fancied stitching a Chatelaine design, they always look far too complicated/fussy/expensive for my liking, but I had a look over on their website anyway, just to see what had caught Valerie's eye...WOW! I love it, have to have it! The repetitive nature worries me, but IF I buy it, I think I'd see it as a project that could span over several years! One of those WIP's that you pick up only occasionally and hey presto, 10 years later you have a finished piece! Any avid Chatelaine stitchers out there that could give some words of advice?!
Last but by no means least, I received my Winter Exchange from the Seasonal Exchange Blog. It is sent from Michelle, a fellow UK stitcher/blogger.
Isn't it just lovely? The finishing is so neat, I have finish envy! It's 'Merry Winter' from Homespun Elegance. Thank you so much Michelle, I really love it. Michelle also included a lovely little card and a WDW thread - it won't last long in this household! It's so nice to encounter a fellow UK stitcher/blogger Michelle.
Ok, I'd better leave it there. DD has been asleep for almost 2 hours now so my peace and quiet is about to come to an abrupt end!
Regards,
Christina
