Kaye: February 2023 post

  Hello Lovely Christmas Elves, 

Well, I am happy to report that I had great success with all four themes this month - Woo Hoo! 🎉

So, without anymore ado, here we go....

THEME ONE: 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: TWO TURTLE DOVES

This is my ongoing piece designed by Keen Stitch: (sorry about the lack of ironing)

THEME TWO: CHRISTMAS CAROLS/SONGS: SLEIGH RIDE

This design is by Lila's Studio and is from one of her Spirit of Christmas Ornament series. I bought it online from her Etsy shop.

THEME THREE: JUST CROSS STITCH CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT MAGAZINES: 2020

This is Frosty Christmas Tree by Luhu's Stitches, you can find it on page 78 of the JCS 2020 Christmas Ornie Mag. I personalised it by adding more pink colour variation and beading. I am quite pleased with how I FFOed it (not really my forte, but I try!).

I am rather in love with this backing fabric, too.

THEME FOUR: A CHRISTMAS CAROL: CHRISTMAS CAROLERS

Now, this is a finish that I am really proud of as I amalgamated a couple of designs and changed other things around (the singer, the wording, the beading on the lamp post and I played with colour with the blue dress). 

So, I amalgamated these two designs:

They are both from the 2015 JCS Christmas Ornie Mag, #1 is Dear Santa by The Little Stitcher and #7 is Christmas Carols by Mani di Donna.

I stitched the lamp post and little dog from #7, adding a sprinkling of snow and a vine made of beads and added more musical notes all in black.  From #1 I used the top border, changed the wording to Deck the Halls and using the girl mailing a letter as the basis for the carol singer. I felt quite inventive! Thanks to the two designers for the inspiration.

I then framed it in a find from my local TK MAXX (only AUD$10) - a bargain.

Best of luck with all of your Christmas stitching this year.

hugs, 

Kaye: January Post

 Hello Lovely Christmas Elves, 

Well, I attempted to finish something for all four themes this month but only had success with two of them. 😢

For Theme One, I found this great design on Etsy by Keenstitch, which you can find here.  It has been a lot of stitching of red happening (hence my only finishing two themes in January) but the next eleven months will be a breeze!

My other finish is for Theme Three: Just CrossStitch Christmas Ornament Magazine for 2018.  The design which I chose was "Noel" by JBW Designs on p.22 of the magazine. I used my own choice of floss and added some beading to the wreath.  The ribbon that I used to trim it is actually metallic, so the finished piece has quite a nice shine to it.

I did begin my stitching for Theme Four: "A Christmas Carol" - Tiny Tim.  I found this gorgeous design on Etsy by Prim Stitcher Shoppe, which you can find here.

This is how much I have stitched of the design so far: 

And this is what the finished design will eventually look like:

Finally, for Theme Two: "Christmas Songs" - The Little Drummer Boy, I have kitted up (I had to wait for the pattern to arrive from the U.S.) another JBW Design: Sing a Song of Christmas XI: Little Drummer Boy.

So, hopefully both of these will make a late appearance sometime this year - 🤣🤣🤣

Best of luck with all of your Christmas stitching this year.

hugs, 

Kaye: January 2022 update: Not quite there yet.

 Hello my lovely Elves, 

I know as the host the past few years, I have been quite an absent one but this year, I am hoping to be around far more often!  🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞It is so lovely to see what people have been stitching so far this year (please do check out the other posts for this month - all fabulous stitching. 

Unfortunately, for me, despite stitching like mad all month I didn't quite finish my choices for two of the themes: One (12 Days) and Four (Nutcracker) although I have made a lot of progress on my Nutcracker Village for Theme Four.  

But firstly, here is my 12 Days design - by Jim Shore - this is a picture of what it will look like when finished....

.... and here is my rather pathetic progress on it!

But I am pleased to say that my first section of Nutcracker Village by Country Cottage Needlework is coming along very well (although not finished).  It is stitched on the called for sparkly fabric but I couldn't seem to get the sparkles to show up but I must say I think it is one of the prettiest Christmas designs I have ever stitched and I am sorry to say that the photos do not really do it justice.

... and for those who are still looking for ideas for the Nutcracker Theme, you might like to check out this design on Etsy (click on the pic to go to the page).

Well, that is all for me for my January report - I hope to have lots more progress next month.

hugs, 

Kaye's January Ornaments 2021_Part One_UPDATED!

 Hello lovely Elves, 

As always, I am going great guns over January with my stitching - this is because we are not going away on holidays because of:

 1. building the second new house (only a few months from completion now) and

2. There is nowhere safe to go - COVID!!!!!!

So, the upside is that I can stay home and stitch!

For January, I am attempting ALL FOUR OF THE THEMES! I know, crazy, hey?  But what the heck, I have the time at the moment and I am not promising that all of this productive stitching will keep going all year but for now... all good!

So, Theme One: The 12 Days of Christmas - my progress on this will be shown in Part Two of my January Ornaments, most likely at the end of the month.

Theme Two: Christmas Movies_For January the theme was the movie "Elf"

And, on Pinterest, I found this very cute little Elf and finished him with a cute Christmas tree button and a tartan bow.

Theme Three: Just CrossStitch Christmas Ornament Magazines_For January, you had to choose from the 2009 magazine.

I chose this rather sweet design by Nikki Leeman from Country Cottage Needleworks (CCN) called "Visions of Sugar Plums".  The first pic is the image from the magazine but you can see that I changed it a little as I placed the phrase "Sugar Plums" above the "lacework".  The reason for this is quite simple - I am an idiot!  I made a fundamental mistake from stitch one by not centreing my stitching correctly - Aaagghh!  However, I think that I have overcome the error and with the help of one of my favourite ribbons (pink with red dots) and a gorgeous backing fabric, I have produced a pretty ornament.  Oh, and I also changed the pink in the rug and the wording for a deeper pink.

Theme Four: A selection of Christmas Ideas_For January the prompt was "Barns".

I think that I found this very simple design on Pinterest but for the life of me I cannot find the link - my apologies. I made a simple change of adding a gold bead on the wreath and at the top of the tree and then finished it with four buttons.  UPDATE: (thank you to our lovely Elf, Suzanne Harkison for the reminder). 

"Your barn is from Pinker n Punkin Quilting.

She is always offering freebies and has a whole farm series"

Lastly, for those of you looking for a new 12 Days of Christmas series to stitch, you may be happy with this news....

Gazette 94 is back with some gorgeous new designs, including The 12 Days of Christmas, of course!

Click on the this link to go to her webpage and then scroll down.

Well, that is is it for my January Part One post, I hope to see some fun Christmas stitching soon, 

hugs, 

Feeling up to date and super organised!

Wow! I have actually caught up and I have chosen May's design already and plan to start it tomorrow (New Start Sunday) - I am so chuffed!

Here we are:

January:  Fa La La by Little House Needleworks. I did change the right hand carol singer's dress to blue as I thought it would be prettier (and somehow their dresses got longer to hide their boots - but we won't talk about that - lol!)

March: 2015 2018 Years ago by WDC Needlework (from Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments 2015).  I made quite a few alterations to the original design but I am thrilled with how this turned out.

April: Frosty Friends by Blue Ribbon Designs from Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments 2017.

These finishes are all the by-product of being stuck home for five days with Gastric Flu (no fun at all!) so I suppose it just goes to show that there is always a silver lining!

hugs, 

A little bit of Rudolph ....

Well, I am still stitching my January Ornie - Fa La La by LHN -  but I did a bit of a shoehorn and turned one of the reindeers on 'Twas the night before Christmas by PS into Rudolph by adding a red bead to his nose! 

A bit of a cheat, I know but I do love a good shoehorn.

I am very close to a finish on this piece, so I am getting very excited.  Here is my latest progress pic.

Hopefully, I will finish my Jan ornie soon, too.

 hugs, 

P.S. Sorry that my pics are a bit wonky - not sure what happened!