Pine Cone Santa

Did I ever tell you that I received this in the mail? Hmmmm. I started him on Christmas Day and have made steady progress on him.

I see his nose needs a little adjusting and is not as round as Janet Zickler Casey's Santa.She has quite the collection of Santas on her  website.
Yes, I have quite a few. If I can, I hope to order the Nutcracker Santa and hopefully next year SNS will offer the new one she is teaching at ANG called Uncle Sam Santa. Her Liberty Train looks awesome too!
I have one sick child at my house with the flu. Yuck! The college boys came home and shared something nasty. Most of us are up and doing, but it has gone through the house twice! I think I will be getting the bleach water out and cleaning today!
Anyway, Happy New Year blogger friends! I hope to post my stitching plans for 2018 tomorrow.

Finish!

He is beaded and ready to add to the rest of the nativity. I still have two more Magi to go before I can call this set done.I am seriously thinking of trying to get them done in January/February so I can work on another project with a clear conscience. I do need to start on Tall-Year Squared for my local EGA. And Drawn Thread Sampler is "due" in March.....
I am going to link this to Heather's blog at Stitching Lotus 
This is for the 2017 Small SAL.
She is holding another Small SAL for 2018 that you can join HERE 

Merry Christmas!

May you have a blessed Christmas celebrating the birth of the King of kings.

A Gift from a Friend

I have caught the cold the boys brought back from college and I don't feel like stitching. But a wonderful friend sent me this lovely ornament.

It is smocked and I don't do smocking so I especially love it. Thank you friend!

Another Magi

Well, I was still beading Melchoir and I wanted to start the new Janet Zickler Casey Santa that the Shining Needle Society has as an online class. (If you don't know about the Shining Needle Society, add a comment and I will do a blog post on them. Also, I am not sure the link will work. Let me know please!)
Anyway, Janet is in Houston and her home was flooded. Threads were back-ordered and my Santa has not arrived. I am not complaining! I totally understand and am just glad she is ok and feel sorry that she has to be dealing with the aftermaths of a hurricane. I almost went to the basement and started a different Santa, but refrained. I decided I am close to finishing the series and need to get myself in gear so I can hang these next Christmas!

Now, if you made it to the bottom of this post, I have an announcement! I am close to making 1000 posts on my blog. That is mind boggling! And it has been 10 years since I started blogging! Wow! So I am going to host a give-a-way. I am gathering some of my favorite things and I will be sharing them with you.  I will make an announcement as I get closer to the give-a-way date.Stay tuned!
 

To the Roof Line!

First, thank you for your kind words. Once I FIND the Christmas Tree Santa, I will ttry to get him finished to show you.

I made a mistake on the roof of the stable of my stocking and thought about leaving it, but realized it would be hard to work around so Thursday evening was spent removing stitching. Here is what it looked like before I removed it:

 I normally work around my mistakes, but I knew this one would be a headache quickly.
I was able to do a lot of stitching Friday and Saturday night. One side of the sky done! Well, except for some stars.

I am thinking about doing a rotation of projects this year. I have a few big projects that I need to power through. What are you doing for  2018?

Don't Judge My Finishing Techniques

First, I want to say, I am not a finisher. I really don't like to do it. I love the process of stitching, but finishing a project into something has never interested me. I like the feel of fibers in my fingers. I like watching patterns develop. I like how it calms me when I stitch and allows me to relax. Finishing makes me tense and want to throw everything against the wall.

So why did I finish these myself? One reason is that it is almost Christmas. If I want these to decorate my house this year, I needed to finish them myself. The other is cost. My finisher is worth every penny she charges, but I just don't want to pay to have something finished that I can do an ok job on.

So without further ado:
Candy Swirl Santa

 Christmas Light Santa

 And  two photos of the hat rack where they all hang.

I have a missing stitched Santa in my house-Christmas Tree Santa- and one coming in the mail soon- Pine cone Santa. There are several Santas that I haven't even started yet in my basement! I need to find another way to display them-SOON!

This One May Get Done

These little ornaments are taking forever!
This is from the end of November:

 And here it is now!

I don't work on it every night, but I try to spend a few minutes on it every week. I may just pull it out of the bedroom, where I stitch on it, and work on it during the day.

Outlined A Few Motifs

I know that this is a huge task, so I always try to outline as I go.
This photo was taken towards the end of November

 I am almost to the stable!

I have no urge to pull out Gay Ann's Drawn Thread Sampler. I need to. I ought to. But I think I will wait until January and see how much progress I can make on my Christmas stitching.

What I Stitched This Weekend

Not much, to be honest. I spent more time making candy than stitching. But I am almost done with my candy making so I can concentrate on stitching! That is until those college boys come home and want to be fed!

 First, this is the cording I used for the Santa hat. It is round and about as thick as my thumb. Hope that helps!

 This is where I am on Gaspar. He won't be done for Christmas, but I am making progress.

Santa I Stitched!

Well, it took me longer to decide to stitch this than to actually stitch it!

It was hard to stitch the ribbon on the padding. Hopefully I can get it finished next week so I can hang it on my tree.

Because I Have Nothing Better To Do

 The urge to do a Santa was overwhelming, so I pulled this one out:

 It is Candy Swirl Santa by Janet Zickler Casey. My son started it, probably around 2006/7. He did great on the face and the beard, but the hat was too much for him. He was around 11 at the time. I have been wanting to stitch it and get it on my Santa tree, but I didn't know what to do about my son's stitching on the hat. So I asked on Needlepoint Nation on Facebook!

 They thought I should leave it, so I did.  It is a pain to get smooth, but I am loving it. Will I get it done before the next Janet Zickler Casey Santa arrives?

A Finish!

I finished this Thursday, but am finally posting. I need to get it packaged with some candy to send to my mom.
Can I put it in Gifted Gorgeousness too?

Linda, it is actually fairly easy to stitch and lots of fun.

My Basement

I decided I needed to work on my Christmas stocking. The rest of my family has stitched stockings, but I do not. I will not again this year, but I am stitching on it a bit.
Here is where I left off:

 And here is the very little I have stitched:

And here is my view:

Do you think if I cleaned my mess, I would get more stitching done?

On to the Beads

I have been working on this forever! But I ran across the rest of the pieces while looking for something else in my basement. I want to get these done and hanging for Christmas!
Here is where I was about a week ago:

 And now he has beads! Or at least a few beads...

These are a series of Wise Men from Mill Hill. I have done the main characters of the nativity, but need to get the Wise Men done!

Almost Done!

I was blessed to go visit a friend today and managed to get a bit of stitching done. It is nice to have someone to talk with about stitching and life. She is also a great stitcher so I am always getting help from her, even if she doesn't realize it.

I am close to finishing this. A few more eyelets and a little more hemstitch. Then I can mail it to my mom for her birthday!

Stitching Area

Christine and Gary over at Fiber Talk have often discussed their stitching areas. So I was thinking about where I stitch and took a picture EARLY this morning. We are talking 5:00 am people! I did not clean up or straighten up. Yes, that is a cup of tea by my spot.

 The frame was made by my son after I kept complaining that the one I had kept dropping my stitching pieces. No, he does not sell them. He is too busy with engineering right now. (0r that is what he tells me!)

 This is my K's Creation Frame. I have had it for years and I love it. I keep thinking about putting a Santa or a heart on stretcher bars and ignoring the fact that I have company on Thanksgiving!

So where do you stitch? I may even take a photo of my basement next to show your where my stitching lives....

More Whitework

I have been stitching on this in the evenings for at least 30 minutes. I know my tension is bad and my back is a mess, but I don't care. It is fun and I am enjoying it. But will I want to stitch on Drawn Thread Sampler when this is done?

I will again tell you to take a class from Terri Bay if you have a chance. Excellent teacher.

A Day Behind

Yesterday was Gifted Gorgeousness hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching
She has been finishing a lot of things and is inspiring me. I am almost thinking about stitching just one piece at a time. NOT!

But the only piece that I am currently working on that is a gift is Grace by Terri Bay.

I have finished the eyelets around the edges and now need to put some in the satin stitches and the centers of motifs,etc. I like this piece because once you start doing a section of it, it becomes fairly mindless. The big question is whether it will get done for Christmas.

Stitched A Bit

I finally just forced myself to sit down and stitch. I wanted to pull something new from the basement, but refrained.
Here is the piece from the last time I showed it to you:

 And here it is today!

I didn't do all of that in one fell swoop. I am a slow stitcher. But it was nice to stitch for several hours and see progress made.

I spent time this morning cleaning my basement. I emptied some boxes and threw some stuff away. I still have lots to do as I still can't find the bed. But I wanted to post this and I had some other computer work to do. I will do a little more housework and then back to the basement! I would much rather finger through my stash the clean the bathroom!

Life is Crazy

And when it is this crazy, I don't stitch. Or at least not much. Here is the last photo I have of Melchior from August:

 And here he is now!

Nope. Not getting done before Christmas. And yesterday I realized I have a Christmas stocking that I was stitching for myself lurking in the basement. Next week I am giving myself permission to do some serious stitching!

Cloudy Day Photo

Just so you know that I am doing a little stitching between getting my talk ready for my quilt guild. I just keep hoping they don't fall asleep!

 The above is the last photo I showed you.

I have finished the satin stitch around the squares and have been doing cables. I like doing one item and completing it.
FYI: Terri Bay is going to be teaching at San Bernardino Chapter of ANG . They are allowing ghosts!

I Finished A Heart!

I should be working on my crazy quilt class, but stitched this instead.

I tried to post this last Wednesday, but Blogger would not allow it. So sad.
Today is the last day of Gay Ann Roger's E-Week sale. There isn't much left. I wish I had purchased her Echoes II piece but I refrained. Did you get anything? I know some are unhappy with her as she does not ship overseas and will not send threads, etc after a certain amount of time. But as I have kitted a few things for my guild and had to ship a few things, I understand where she is coming from.
Gay Ann Roger's Home Page

Framed!

I just picked these up from the framer. I was so happy to get them back before Halloween.

 The Kitty is for my daughter.

 Ghost is for a friend who did some weeding for me.

Too cute!

WIP Catherine's Heart

I thought you would like to see my progress on this piece:

I should be working on a crazy quilt square, but this is what calls to me now.

Fabric Fun

 I needed to show you all the fun fabrics I dyed at the library last week.  The above photo is a piece tablecloth I cut up and dyed. Below is a photo of all the different colors did of the same cloth. My excuse is that I am going to show it to the quilt guild and eventually make it into a crazy quilt.

 The following 3 photos are of linen I over-dyed.

 They were originally for my local guild but came out too blotchy. I will find use for them eventually. The yellow with black would be fabulous for Halloween/fall motifs!  And the bottom green/blue one is lovely.
The last two pieces are silk from the same botched project for my guild. I hope to cut the pieces up and use them in a quilt. Although, it is silk dupioni  so I should be able to stitch on them too.

I really want to add more to the silk and tablecloth fabrics. Paint and stencils come to mind. Not today though. I need to go back to my crazy quilt research.....