Gwen:June 2021

 This month I stitched the last 2 Starry Night ornaments.

Starry Night

The Prairie Schooler

Next up some 12 Days and name ornaments.

April Ornament

Starry Night

Prairie Schooler

I have another finish to share. I'm still working my way through Starry Night, Prairie Schooler, 

 

March Ornament

 I seem to be theme challenged this year. I am working on the 12 Berries of Christmas by Erica Michaels. I am also working on Starry Night, Prairie Schooler. I haven't finished the 4 Calling Birds Berry, and I'm not sure I'll be done by Wednesday. I did mange to stitch number 3 from Starry Night. I guess this could be a candidate for theme 4, lighting.

Starry Night

Prairie Schooler

Gwen: July

My project in July is truly not ornament size. I wasn't familiar with the song, In the Bleak of Midwinter. When I looked up the lyrics I decided to stitch an angel. I've had the Prairie Schooler Christmas Trees II book for sometime. I made my project the angel from this book. My plan is to try my hand at a new (to me) finishing, and ornament tree. I have a dowel but will need something for the base. 

PS Christmas Trees II

Angel stitched with 

Anchor 341, DMC 3895 and 223 for skin

April:Angel

My ornament for this month is Christmas Song Theme. My angel is by is from a Prairie Schooler small card.

Gwen

Tamra's February Ornament

This month I stitched Christmas Eve Deer by The Prairie Schooler from The Gift of Stitching November 2009.  32 count raw linen.

A Prairie Schooler Partridge from Mary

Hello! This is my Very First Post with you all! And here is my Partridge in a Pear Tree from Prairie Schooler, found in 2005 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments. It is also my first Prairie Schooler design! I can see why everybody loves this designer-it is a very nice design I think. I used the recommended colors, stitching on 32 Lakeside Vintage Examplar 2 over 2. It's finished with some calico I had that was just perfect, and my 1st (successful) cord made with my new Kreinik cord maker I got for Christmas. (Does anyone else have one of these? Do you find the 3:1 ratio is accurate? I needed more like 4.5:1 to get the amount of cord I wanted.) However,  I love being able to match trim so perfectly and make the cord so quickly and easily! I think I'll use it a lot.

Here's what I have coming up for February! Cottage Garden's Turtle Doves! I like how it is so frosty-wintry. I am doing it on 40 to keep it small as an ornament. Wish me luck!

My First FFO Just In Time!

I managed to finish my ornament just in time. It's my first real FFO! The design is Santa's 12 Days of Christmas by Prairie Schooler. Here's the back:

I made a few mistakes and will be doing some things differently next time. But, all in all, I'm pleased with my first finishing efforts.

Happy Stitching!

Kate

August Christmas ornament finished!

Hello fellow SALers!

I finished the stitching part of my Christmas ornament for August a few days ago. The chart I used was The night before Christmas by The Prairie Schooler. I enjoyed stitching it immensely:) The original chart had 'Merry Christmas' stitched at the top, but since I am Swedish I decided to stitch the Swedish equivalent, GOD JUL:) I also had some decisions to make about the snowflakes in the design. My original plan was to use beads, but I didn't have any matching white ones. Then I tried to use white DMC Pearlescent...

...but I didn't think the snowflakes stood out enough. In the end I chose DMC Satin thread and then it looked like this when I had finished the stitching part of the ornament.

 I have had a bit of anxiety about the FINISHING part of the process, but in the end I decided to use my sewing machine and a bit of white lace. This is the end result:

It is not perfect; the lace is stretched a bit too tight in the corners. The back is very boring and not so pretty but here it is...

 

Here's picture in another light where you can make out the snowflakes better:)

 

Still, maybe I'll try to use glue for the finishing details on the next ornament, since I'm not all together happy about the way this ornament turned out.

Speaking of the next ornament, I have not decided what I am going to stitch yet. I guess I'll have to browse through my stash again..:)

Finally, since we all love Christmas here, I'll share this festive photo of two of my furbabies with you! Enjoy!

Annie

 

Having fun with my PS Santa!

Hello Xmas SALers!

 

Today I received the threads I was waiting for, and I couldn't wait to continue stitching my PS Santa!

 

This is how far I got today! I had so much fun stitching the red Santa Suit and I am really pleased with how it is coming along:) Although it doesn't look like it in this picture, the white threads are actually much more visible now against the grey aida. But then the grey aida is actually much darker than what it looks like in this picture... Next time I'll try to take a picture of my stitching that actually looks like my stitching...ha ha ha!

Have fun stitching all your gorgeous Santas!

Annie

My bumpy start...

Hello Xmas SALers,

 

Today I made a start on The Prairie Schooler ornament for August.

To remind you, this is what it will - hopefully - look like...

 

 

...when it it is finished.

 

The start could have been a little smoother, I must admit! Firstly I realised that most of my coloured aida wasn't 14-count, but 11-count! Big setback, which meant that I had to settle for either marbled light blue or light grey aida. In the end I chose the light grey. Secondly, I realised that when I ordered new threads last time, I forgot to order the missing threads for this project. So annoying! Still, I had five colours to start with so far, so this is where I got to today: 

 

I'm not entirely happy with today's progress... The white seems to fade a bit into the grey fabric, but I hope that when I can add the other colours (after I have found more money to order more threads) it will look better. Also I am thinking of using either white beads or metallics for the snowflakes which should make the white of the design stand out a bit more, don't you think??

But despite the hiccups of today, it was great fun to begin this Xmas project and I am soo much looking forward to doing this SAL with all of you!

Ho ho ho!

Annie

My Pick for August

Oh, I'm so excited to do this SAL! I participate in quite a few (too many, sometimes I think!), but I especially love to stitch Christmas designs. So this is perfect for me!

My lovely friend, Linda, gifted me the Santa's 12 Days of Christmas charts by Prairie Schooler. I've started the first 8 (I'm a serial starter), but have made real progress on number 1. This'll be my ornament finish for August.

Here's where I am now:

Mostly just a lot of little fiddly bits left to stitch. I only work on this on Sundays, but I'm sure I can finish the stitching by the end of August. My real goal is to do the finishing, too; I haven't tried that yet but have seen many good tutorial videos.

Happy Stitching!

Kate

I have picked my Santa...but not the colour!

Hi Xmas Ornie SALers!

A few weeks ago I bought a back issue of Cross Stitch Collection magazine. It was a Xmas issue (234) and it had these rather wonderful Christmas designs...

...by The Prairie Schooler. I have never stitched any of their designs before, and before I started reading other cross stitch blogs I had never heard of them either. It is not a well-known name in Sweden.
However, I LOVED these Christmas designs in all their traditional red and white and green colours, and when I joined this SAL and saw the theme of August, it was pretty clear to me that I would stitch the Santa ornament!

I have ordered the few additional threads I need, but I am going to use some of the aida I have in my stash. The only problem is that I don't have the fabric colour they have used, but instead I have to choose between light green, dark blue, light blue or grey.

So, what do you think???
Which colour should I choose???

Xmas Hugs,

Annie