This post contains a VIP... a Very Important Peek at something coming up. But first, business.
A finish for my fox Christmas tree and another installment in the Keeping Christmas Project! This is a design graciously sent to me by Bonnie in Canada. I stitched him in DMC on Fabric Flair natural w/ silver linen. Thanks again, Bonnie!
Speaking of Fabric Flair... 28 ct. Snow linen. Oh, and some new scissors. Fiskars 4" forged steel, these have a nice weight to them.
And, a Very Important (sneak) Peek at something in this year's Christmas Open House!
Hmmm... what might we be making this year? Hint: it relates directly to my Keeping Christmas Project, and it's a fusion of two things, one very functional and one very whimsical.
If you're new here and haven't investigated the labels in the right sidebar, you can click on the Christmas Open House (2014 & 2015) labels and see what this is all about. Each year I host an open house on my blog and share favorite recipes and other Christmasy stuff. The first year was all of my (to date) ornament finishes and last year was easy and inexpensive gifts for a stitcher (or yourself!). This year it's something I'm pretty sure you've never seen before... at least I haven't! Stay tuned!
Made some good progress on this ol' boy over the last few days. Trying to decide whether or not I should put him aside for a bit to focus on Christmas stitching. I probably will focus more on Christmas, but he is easy to pick up and quickly put in a big block of color, so I may not put him aside entirely. This is turning out to be a really enjoyable stitch.
Imagine my surprise when these gorgeous goodies showed up in my mailbox yesterday! Kari in Wisconsin sent these beautiful needle minders and scissor fob from Designs by Lisa. Her little package was a bright spot in a very trying day. Thank you, Kari!
I picked up a couple of new charts and some threads at my LNS last week.
And I relieved 123Stitch of some of their Fabric Flair fabric. I don't even try to make excuses for myself anymore where fabric is concerned. I love it. It's beautiful. It's useful. And I do use it (slowly). This is all 28 ct. Fabric Flair:
Twilight/Silver evenweave (hopefully you can see the little flecks of silver; very subtle)
Sunshine linen
Berkshire Hive evenweave
Bridesmaid evenweave
I'm at the point where my fabric hoard is starting to outgrow its storage space. It still mostly fits in two smallish boxes, but since I don't appear to have any intention of not buying any more, I probably need to expand its allotted space a bit. Maybe that will be one of my winter projects. Pretty much nothing better than playing in your stash on a snowy day.
When you were browsing your copy of this year's Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue, you knew which one I'd choose, right?
This is Sleeping Peace Fox from Designs by Lisa. I took my usual liberties. The original is in soft, beautiful colors, but for some reason I wanted to intensify the colors and add some sparkle. I stitched him on 32 ct. raw opalescent linen, and here are my other changes:
DMC 3371 instead of GAST Cinnamon
GAST Nutmeg instead of GAST Terra Cotta
Mill Hill beads #553 instead of GAST Sweet Petunia
Mill Hill beads #3553 instead of GAST Victorian Pink
Mill Hill beads #3045 instead of GAST Bunchberry
DMC Blanc instead of GAST Oatmeal
Classic Colorworks Weeping Willow instead of GAST Chamomile
And I had to share this picture I took of the tree in my back yard. The contrast of the yellow leaves against the blue sky was breathtaking. What a blessing it is to be able to see color.
