Saturday, December 17, 2016

Advent Calendar Blog Hop!

Welcome to day 17 of the Advent Blog Hop hosted by the lovely Jo from Serendipitousstitching

So the lovely Jo gave everyone taking part a question to answer...

Decorations - 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?

That's an easy question.....yes I do! But not just one  favourite decoration....several! When my children were growing up we started a tradition that they could choose and buy an ornament for the tree. Every year they would get some money and we would walk into town and go to a certain shop and there they could buy any ornament that they liked. They had to go to the cash register themselves and hand over their cash (usually the  lofty sum of £1....and in those days it was a paper note!) We would then go for hot chocolate and walk  back home. I still remember their faces as their chubby little hands held onto the bag that held their treasured ornaments. Even to this day, every Christmas these decorations hold so many memories and they each discuss which one belongs to who....and why oh why do we have two of the same one? (Of course, I cannot remember the reason why!) I would never trade these cheap and tacky ornaments for anything....I LOVE them :)



  
My daughter loves the tradition even although we couldn't carry on doing it when we moved to the US. Years later, when she was traveling in Europe she brought back a hand made wooden ornament from Austria for me so that we could keep the tradition alive.....how sweet! Here's the one she picked for me...


Hopefully it's a tradition that they might carry on with their own children one day. And yes.... I admit it, I'm a sentimental old fool :)

As for Christmas stitching.....well I seem to be working on Christmas stitching all year round! As many of you know, I design cross stitch charts so that means starting thinking about Christmas designs very early in the year! So if I'm not thinking of Christmas stitching, I'm designing Christmas stitching....and by the time that's all over with, it's time to start my own Christmas stitching. Which is why I am often singing Christmas carols in the middle of summer!!!

Here's one Christmas piece that I stitched a few years ago.....




And one of my own designs that I just completed a few months ago, but still has to be finished...




Finishing is definitely not my strength, as you have probably gathered by now if you are a regular reader :)

Please pop over to Jo's blog and check out all those taking part in the blog hop. A big thank you, of course, for Jo for organizing this.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas/Yule/winter season....whatever you celebrate.

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona


Monday, December 12, 2016

Darjeeling!

So the little yellow Darjeeling tea block is now completed......


....and looking good! (Even if I say so myself!!!)


The next block has been started....but.... a couple of problems already...


Problem number one.....I have run out of the dark brown colour of the tea :(  Don't you just hate when that happens?  So, the kit gives you DMC equivalents of the threads.....but.....the colour isn't the same as the thread in the kit....so, do I email the company and wait for some replacement threads or do I unpick the dark brown and re-stitch it with the thread in my stash....mmmm, can't decide what to do.

Problem number two.....the dark purple seems to be just a bit too dark for my liking. So, do I do some more unpicking and swap a lighter shade in or do I just trust that it will look ok once the back stitching is completed? Mmmmm, what to do? 

On to some good news....I finally got round to making a card with the little birdie stitching.......remember the aperture had been cut upside down......


Ta-da....finished!

This little cutie will be winging it's way over to my son in California! Don't think this little fella will be needing his scarf over there :) Wish I could hand deliver it.


So, I have some decisions to make  with the tea sampler....lets hope I decide wisely, and don't regret my decisions! If you hear any muttering and moaning, it's likely to be me complaining about all the unpicking!


Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona



Monday, December 5, 2016

Almost a finished block!

Well I didn't manage to complete a tea block this week. I guess it was bound to happen.....I think I probably exhausted that turbo charged needle of mine!


The block is almost completed....


...another couple of evenings and the back stitching will be finished. 

And I realized that I haven't posted a picture of how the whole sampler look so far.....so here it is....


 ...of course, it's a bit wrinkled as I am one of those people who takes their stitching off the frame to do the back stitch and I have to crumple the fabric to be able to hold it.....it kind of un-does all the good work of having it on a fame while stitching! Rest assured it will be washed and ironed once it's all finished.

I also managed to (finally!) make some cards with some old stitching.....


....nothing too fancy but cute and perfect for some last minute birthday cards for a set of twins. Now that the paper crafting stuff is out I guess I should make an effort to get some more cards made....I do have *one or two* pieces of stitching waiting to be finished. 


Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona