I think it's a Christmas year.

So when I did my stitchy planning for 2014--I always do stitchy planning for the coming year in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day--I decided to tackle my little pile of Christmas designs. I don't think of myself as particularly drawn to Christmas designs, but over the years I've accumulated a tidy little collection of them, almost all of which are ornament-size. My plan is to spend this year whittling down my pile of Christmas smalls. We'll see if I'm still feeling Christmas-y by April. 

Here's my 2013 Christmas ornament, Brooke Nolan's Ho Ho Santa from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. Yes, I'm a month late. But my neighbors still have their Christmas lights up, so there's that.

I liked this little Santa because he looks like an elf... "a right jolly old elf" (The Night Before Christmas) and most Santas don't. I hadn't worked with the DMC Memory Thread before and was a little skeptical I could reproduce the look of the model, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's easier to work with than I thought it would be. Also, if you're on pins and needles about the glue I used, it was Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue (purple label). It's great stuff. Instant stick.

Happy Stitching!

Happy Birthday, Panda!

Happy Birthday to the Stitchy Cousin!

In celebration of her dual obsession--cross stitch and pandas--here's a sweet little panda freebie. 

Cake for everyone!

Pretty Little Blue Haired Girl

And if you're going to have blue hair, it may as well be sparkly, too. I finally finished Wendy (Brooke's Books) and she took me the better part of two weeks! She has a fancy little hat that I haven't stitched yet, but I wanted to show her off without it anyway so you could see her pretty blue hair.

Here she is in all her glory.

A dainty little skate and a beaded hem and petticoats.

The pictures really don't do her justice. She's so sparkly and frosty looking. And speaking of a pretty girl whose pictures don't do her justice...

Winter Blues

"Blues" as in the color, not the mood. I love winter, love snow (in inches--not in feet), love being "stuck" at home. I don't love blue, which seems to be the go-to color for 90% of winter designs, so I'm always converting my winter designs to pale green, which I do love. But! I am   working on a winter design with lots of pretty blues--Brooke Nolan's Wendy Winter.

Why are most winter designs blue? Because this:

Look at all that blue! This is the view from my sewing room window today. It's frigid out there. Here's Tiger Lily watching the birds have their breakfast this morning.

Sweet little bird prints.

Back to Wendy... and my blanket!

Happy New Year!

My first finish of 2014. This is a freebie which can be found here. I stitched mine on 28 ct. raw opalescent linen with DMC 5200, Kreinik pearl, and Threadworx 011471 and 01087. The snowflakes are Mill Hill Treasures.

Can you tell how sparkly this is? You know we are all about sparkly on this blog.

Wishing you a Happy New Year with tons of finishes!

Happy Stitching!

Finally, a finish!

Finally! It seems like forever since I've had a finish to show off! It's Mr. Wonderful's Christmas ornament for this year, "Small Town Christmas" by Julia Lucas from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. This little thing took me waaaaay longer than I hoped it would, but it's done. Late, but done. It's stitched in DMC on 32 ct. Winter Sky. 

Merry Christmas!

First Day of Winter

"Deadline? What deadline?"

"Excuse me, I believe this is my place."

"I would really like to take a nap now, if you could just put aside your stitching, please."

"Really?" {sigh}

As you can see, we're having a little trouble agreeing on how much/when I should stitch. I'm behind on Christmas ornaments. Yes, that's a Christmas ornament. Yes, it's a week til Christmas. No, I'm not likely to finish it in time. But I'm going to try... if I'm allowed.

Those of you who stitch with the assistance of your kitties know how it is (I'm looking at you, Tora).

First Snow

We got our first snow of the season today. Is there anything prettier in the winter than cardinals in the snow? Nope. 

Well, I did think of something prettier than cardinals in the snow.

"Yes, I'm beautiful. Thank you. Yes, just one more please, then I have to take a nap."

Can you believe that little pose? Such a princess.

Snowball Wreath

A non-stitchy finish to show off. I saw a snowball wreath somewhere a while back that was made with cotton balls and thought it was pretty for winter, so when I ran across bags of sparkly (!) pom-poms in various sizes at AC Moore I decided to make one. I used a styrofoam wreath form and a glue gun and whipped it up in about 20 minutes. 

I wish we had a little sunshine today so the sparkliness would show up. This was the best I could do.

This would make a very quick, inexpensive Christmas gift that could be used all winter. Bring on the snow!

Thankful Turkey

A little Thanksgiving freebie found here. 

Stitched with DMC and Caron Wildflowers in Fiesta. I think Wildflowers is my favorite fiber now. I love that stuff. 

Back to decorating for Christmas! 

Happy Thanksgiving

Chickadees!

I love Chickadees. Small, chubby, busy, with that cheerful little buzzing chatter. Birds are usually beautiful rather than cute, but on the adorableness scale, I think Chickadees are right up there with the impossibly cute Tufted Titmouse. If you've been following my blog, you know I've slowly been stitching up all the Button Up Birdies from Victoria Sampler. There were twelve, and I was almost done with them, and then they released four more. {sigh} I've been busy with other projects, but I finally have another one to show off. Here's #13 (for me). 

If you've seen the design, you'll notice I've changed the colors (shocking for you, I know). The original has blue and red mittens, and red berries. I wanted a softer look, so I used my favorite pink (CC Cerise) and green (GAST Green Apple) for the mittens and some blue-ish beads to resemble Juniper berries.

As always, my work was closely monitored for quality.

And here's a sweet little ornament I picked up yesterday.

There were lots of different bird ornaments--including a gorgeous Red Bellied Woodpecker I was having a fit for--but I behaved myself and only bought one. 

For now.

Goodies!

We should never outgrow goodies. Today is cool and damp and grey... in other words, perfect stitchy weather. I've been playing in my sewing room and have a new sewing basket to show off. I've been wanting a new one for a long time, and stumbled upon this one at Jo-Ann Fabrics yesterday. Bonus: it was 40% off! 

Isn't this fun?

Too cute, right? Also, stash goodies for an upcoming Christmas project. It'll be a while before I have this one finished and ready to show, but even the supplies are fun! The sparklier, the better.

Gloomy outside, bright and festive inside. Just an ordinary old Saturday afternoon... the best kind.

Happy Stitching!

Happy Veterans Day

Thank you to all veterans, and especially to my favorite veteran, Mr. Wonderful.

This is Hero Quaker by San-Man Originals, a freebie which can be found here. 

Fox Finishing

Spending the week doing some major reorganization in my sewing room, getting ready for a long, cozy winter of stitching, stitching, stitching. Hopefully. Anyway, I stitched this little guy a long time ago and he's been in a small frame since then. Never have been carried away with the frame, so I decided to unframe him and finish him instead. I already had all my finishing stuff strewn all over the floor (reorganizing!) so I just whipped it out in a few minutes. I like him better now. 

Okay, back to work.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins! Stitchy and otherwise! Here's a little freebie available here. Mine is stitched with DMC and Weeks Dye Works Trick or Treat. Bonus spider.

And now for the cutest Halloween decoration idea ever. I take no credit whatsoever for the concept. I saw the idea on the cover of a magazine some time back and decided to wing it from the picture. I have no instructions or patterns for this... just collected the materials I thought would work and assembled it. Pumpkin Kittens!

A close-up of the kittens peeking out of the pumpkin. 

And finally, everyone's favorite kitty... pumpkinized!

No pattern for that one either (as you can tell! Ha!) but at least you can tell who it's supposed to be.

Hope you're ready for trick-or-treaters... Happy Haunting!

SAL Update: The Return of Spooky Pirate Ship!

Been awhile, huh? I've been plugging away... 30 minutes a day, every day. Hoping to be finished by the end of the year.

Hard work:

Halloween Ornaments, 2013

Just completed the finishing on Mr. Wonderful's spider last night. Belinda the Bat Girl is from the JCS 2013 Halloween Special Collector's Issue and Jack-A-Rachnid is from the JCS Sept/Oct 2013 issue.

So that's my complete Halloween ornament collection. On to Christmas ornaments!