My computer is back!   It's been at the shop since mid-last week.  She's home!

Gwen: January 2018

I'm continuing with the 12-Days by Hands on Design with the hopes of having them all stitched this year. While I wasn't able to this month, I would also like to do a few carols from the other theme. I've picked out a few to stitch, just need to kit up the threads.

Hands on Design

12 Days

Swans

January - Deck the Halls

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la"

♫ ♪ ♫ ♫ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬

free by Luli

Tamra's January 2018 Christmas Ornament

Hello All,

I have decided to go with the Christmas Carols theme this year.  For Deck the Halls I stitched up this cute Santa from Prairie Schooler Book 58.  His name is Holly Santa.  Isn't his stripped mittens cute?

Have a great stitchy month!

Tamra

December The Three Kings/Wise Men

Hello again!

This is my December ornament.

And here is the whole project.

I have made my start on January's ornament so I will be back again soon with it and maybe even by the end of the month!  Maybe not though too :)

Happy Stitching!

Khristine

Faith's January Ornament

Hi everyone!

For 2018 I decided to stitch Lizzie*Kate's Christmas Rules as a banner. Since there are twelve sections my "plan" is to stitch and post a different rule each month.

For January I have stitched the banner header (offered free on the LK website) and the first rule.

Christmas Rules

Rule One

Designer - Lizzie*Kate

The snowflakes were supposed to be white but they did not stand out on this fabric. I picked the blue since it was the color they used as the snow in the header.

January 2018

Thank you for your nice words in December!

My jarabica and pear tree:

I wish you joy from xxxxxxxxxxx!
Daniela

Rita's January Ornament and 2017 Catch-up

Happy New Year to all!

I did a whirlwind of travel from Sept.-Nov. 2017 and realize that I neglected to post my last 4 ornaments from 2017.  So...here they are:

I loved the 12 Days theme and almost chose it again this year...but thought I'd try to be a little different this year so I'm doing the carols (if I can think of an ornament for all of them.)

For my January's Deck the Halls, I chose to stitch LK's Fa La La La La from Tiny Tidings XII.  I have to order or find some music note charms...or not.  I sing (even have sung the past 2 years with a group that goes caroling at local nursing homes and assisted living facilities) so I thought this one especially appropriate.

I'm hoping I can keep up this year.  We've already made a trip to HI this month, I always find a way when DD asks if I can fly to her house to help with our granddaughter, and my siblings and I are taking turns visiting our elderly parents so there will most likely be more travel ahead.

Serendipitous Jo's January Partridge in a Pear Tree

Once again I did the 12 Days of Stitchmas at the end of 2017.  This is where you chose a design and stitch part of Block 1 on the 1st Day.  On Day 2 you stitch on Block 2 and Block 1.  On Day 3 you stitch on Blocks 3, 2 and 1.  And so on until on Day 12 you stitch on all 12 Blocks!

This year I chose Just Nan's 12 Days of Christmas and here are the photos from each day:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

And the completed Block 1:

January finish - Deck the Halls

Hi everyone,

I am so excited to join you for this SAL.  I have completed January's by choosing Deck the Halls by Little House Needlework.  It has been fun going through my patterns to see what I can come up with for each month.

I had every color except for the red so I chose 3777.  I really love it. Thanks for looking.

Thanks,
Mary

Cheryl Decks the Halls for January

This year I am stitching a small Christmas Sampler which includes many of the themes for the year.  So I am "Decking the Halls" with some peace and ornaments, and by the end of the year - I will be decking the halls with a lovely holiday sampler.

The chart is from Cross Stitcher Magazine (Nov 2017). 
Happy January!  

Deck the Halls with...Boughs of Holly!

Thanks to the very excellent post earlier this month giving us inspiration and ideas and even the history of "Deck the Halls," I remembered I had "Boughs of Holly" from Victoria Sampler's Learning Collection in my stash! I got it right out and really enjoyed this quick stitch! I have no idea how to finish it because I have MANY of this series and I'd like to do them all the same way. I will have to make some more before I decide what I want to do with them. I always had envisioned some kind of quilt wall hanging but that will be many years down the road, especially since I'd have to stitch up all the kits, and then learn how to quilt, which I have never done before!

The point of the Learning Collection is to get comfortable with the specialty stitches Victoria Sampler uses in their larger charts. It's a neat idea! This kit was to teach French Knots. Not all of mine are perfect here but I actually think sometimes that is part of the charm. :)

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Late November Ornament

Hello friends!

I got a little behind on my ornaments.  I started a new job and the holiday season was a little wild.  But it is all back to normal now so I am hoping to get caught back up.

Here is "Evergreen".

I hope you all had lovely holidays and now I am off to get caught up on my blog reading and to see what everyone has been up to.

Happy Stitching!

Khristine

I did it!!!

I managed to finish this wonderful design on 28 December 2017! Phew! Just made it... the last 3 blocks were finished on 16th, 26th and 28th December!  Marathon stitching effort over the Christmas break :o)

For 2018 I have a plan to stitch on 2 pieces - one small one and one rather large one... and the odd extra one if I feel like it!  More info to come at the end of January when I do my update post!

Til then... I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and all the best for 2018!

Hugs xx

A Christmas Freebie....

Thanks to the lovely Mel from Epic Stitching for posting about this sweet Christmas freebie from Whispered by the Wind.

Just click on the pic to get to the chart.

I am sure that we could all find a way to shoehorn this pretty design into our Christmas ornie stitching this year.

hugs, Kaye

Faith's December Ornament

Finally, the 12th Day of Christmas!

I didn't quite make it in before the end of the year but I did manage to finish it on the 2nd of January.

12 Days of Christmas

Day 12

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Designer - Margaret Sherry

He looks like a good old rock and roller

so I do hope Santa likes that kind of music!

Thanks for looking and for all the comments

left on my previous posts through the year!

For 2018 I plan on stitching Lizzie*Kate's Christmas Rules. The sections really don't fit in with either theme so I probably won't be posting my progress but I do plan on dropping by to check on everyone's progress through the year!

If you would like to keep updated on my progress please feel free to follow my blog Faithfully Stitching!

January - Deck the Halls Inspiration

Thanks to the inspiration from Mary, we have various Christmas songs for the themes to our stitching this year.  I thought this was a wonderful idea and I was pleased to see Kaye managed to add a video of the song and the lyrics too in her last post of 2017.

I thought I'd do a little research and share the results with you.  Deck the Halls is based on a Welsh song called Nos Galan dating back to the 16th Century.   The Welsh version was a New Year song which makes it particularly appropriate for January's theme.  The English words were written by a Scottish musician in 1862. 

This clip includes both English and Welsh versions

Here's a more modern version by SHeDaisy which some of you may recognise from a certain Disney movie:

And just for fun, here are some animals joining in with the song:

On to stitching.  This song provides so many ideas for our stitching.  You could chose the words Deck the Halls or Fa, La, La for a typographic design such as this one:

Drawn Thread - Deck the Halls

or this one:

Little House Needleworks - Fa La La

There are any number of designs with holly on them, with or without words.  This one is from Victoria Sampler:

Victoria Sampler - Boughs of Holly

And for a freebie there is this design from Gazette94 which I stitched in 2012.  She designed it as a New Year chart which fits rather nicely with the Welsh version of the song:

Gazette 94 - Bonne Annee

The final design I will show for inspiration is a large sampler I stitched back in 1995 from a chart in Cross Stitch Collection magazine: