Christmas Ornaments – Page 7 – Feather Stitching

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Works in Progress

Ornie finish … and WIP

6 June, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Here’s my latest ‘small finish’ that I put the final stitches into yesterday (this was my holiday stitching piece that had an attack of the frogs the first night):

Twisted Oaks-Christmas Tree
“Christmas Tree” by Twisted Oaks Designs
from 2005 JCS Christmas Ornie magazine
Stitched on 28ct opalescent white Cashel linen
Some substituted threads – instead of NN Lemon Delight I used
Carrie’s Creation Gold Glow, and instead of DMC 349 for
the hearts I used Carrie’s Creation Scarlet

Also my progress from yesterday after finishing the ornament … I chose something already kitted up and ready to be picked up at a moment’s notice … this is the stitching of part 2 of the Stitching Leporello by Chatelaine … perhaps I will finish it today? Or perhaps not … 🙂 (sorry for the bad photo but I took it after midnight last night and can’t be bothered taking another one)

Stitching Leporello WIP 05Jun08

Christmas Ornaments, Finishes

May’s Christmas Ornie

29 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Yesterday I started and finished my Christmas ornament for the monthly challenge on XSers Yahoo group. Unfortunately I chose to stitch on 32ct instead of 28ct, which means my teeny buttons look overpowering on it, so I’m not bothering to put them on … I may still add larger red ones to the corners when it’s eventually made up into an ornie though – in fact, I think I’m due to have a large ornie-finishing session soon! 🙂

“Spool Ornament” by Sue Hillis Design
from 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine
Stitched on 32ct white Belfast linen with DMC

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Stitch-alongs

Bleary-eyed finish

1 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I’ve been stitching madly over the last two nights trying to meet the deadline for the monthly ornie challenge on XSers Yahoo Group – unfortunately I missed the deadline by 1 hour, but it still felt good to get another ornie finished. I’ve been stitching until 12.30pm and 1.00am respectively the last two nights – the amount of stitching in those one was quite deceiving, especially all the backstitching!

“Checking It Twice” by Dragon Dreams, Inc
from 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine
stitched on 28ct hand-dyed Dried Thyme Jobelan
using DMC only (substituted RG Fuzzy Stuff with white DMC)
(sorry for the poor photo, but it was taken at 1.00am – the
colours look so much richer in real life!)

Next month I think I’ll start my ornie stitching much earlier to save the sleepless nights! My May ornie choice is Spool Ornament by Sue Hillis Designs.

Christmas Ornaments, Finishes, Stitch-alongs

Small ornie finish

19 March, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Still feeling like cr*p, so I took another day off work today to blob out … and managed to start and finish this ornie for this month’s SAL challenge on the XSers Yahoo group.

Poinsettia by Brittercup Designs
from 2007 JCS Christmas Ornament magazine
Stitched on 28ct mystery linen
Substituted threads with those in my stash – used GAST Gold Leaf, Crescent Colours Cupid and Weeping Willow

The Nurofen I’ve been chewing every day has been doing wonders for my foot, if nothing else! Probably helped by the fact I’ve been sat on my fat backside all day on my bed … 😉

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes

A small happy dance

27 January, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Yesterday’s plan of taking the day/afternoon off was a perfect one! I did a lot of tidying up in my bedroom late at night, then today I’ve pulled out all stops and almost finished off the kitchen by packing away all the Tupperware and baking trays etc (believe me, the Tupperware in itself is a massive feat haha). I also rearranged the lounge furniture today, and ironed the duvet and pillowcases to make Lisa’s bed up for her arriving tonight. She won’t be arriving until about 8pm, after spending the entire day driving from Melbourne on her own, so at least she doesn’t have to worry about where she’s going to sleep when she arrives. I’m also going to cook a roast chicken and baked potatoes with a salad ready for her arriving – and the wine has been chilling ever since the first day the fridge was switched on 😉

Anyway, following is the sum of my stitching efforts yesterday – it was a bit hampered by the fact my threads were all over the place, so I had to ‘un-kit’ a project to find the DMC 814. The only GAST threads I had were Flax and Raspberry Parfait, everything else was substituted with a DMC equivalent. It’s stitched on 28ct mystery Cashel linen (in a light taupe colour) from my stash – which means I’m now up-t0-date with the Christmas Ornie SAL on the XSers Yahoo group – yay 😀

“Fill With Love”
Designs by Cathy Jean
2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue

I’m unsure what the next project will be … I should probably finish the Sweetheart Tree needleroll I started last week, then I think a wee LHN or CCN project might be in order before I start committing myself to my CA Wells class pieces – now I (will soon) have my own stitching space again, I guess it’s time to start tackling those class pieces when I can concentrate on them properly 🙂

Hopefully next week I’ll also have time to start sitting down and catching up on everyone’s blogs again! 🙂

Christmas Ornaments, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

A bit of Christmas stitching

26 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day – here in Sydney I spent a lovely day with Brenda & Nigel, and Brenda’s sisters, nieces and cousin. As always Nigel did an awesome job with the food, and we all ate like Kings. The rest of the day was spent, in my case, stitching in front of the TV while we watched Scrooged and the final episodes of the Vicar of Dibley. I’m glad I went prepared and took a wee LHN design to start – it gave me something to do while everyone else was snoozing at odd times during the afternoon. And if I’d got all the DMC threads to hand, I would have almost finished it!! My needles were definitely smoking yesterday (and until 3am when I got back ‘home’ as I still couldn’t put it down). Here’s my progress so far – I just need to buy some more DMC (3371, 739 and 3011) then I can get it finished. Unfortunately I took a drive out to the shops today, forgetting that everything is still closed for Boxing Day, so it will be sitting unfinished for a wee while now as I’m back to work tomorrow.

Necessities Sampler by Little House Needleworks

Seeing as I can’t finish my LHN piece, I have no choice but to start one of my CA Wells pieces … which means I have to start concentrating on my stitching again yikes!!

On Christmas Eve I managed to finally put the finishing touches to a couple of ornies that were stitched during the first part of last year. I really really need to get back into my stitching routine so I can stitch a few more for next year! Anyway, here are the latest ornies in their finished state (I forgot to take a photo of one, which I gave to Kerrie at the weekend).

And here are two that Mum stitched for me, that I’ve also finally finished into ornies:

I’ll finish this post with photos of my friendly flatmates right now – they’re both so incredibly friendly and cuddly … the photos were taken from their visit onto my bed this morning 🙂

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishing, Works in Progress

Oh heck – I made a big boo-boo!!!

10 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Note to self – don’t post your new address on the blog until you’re 100% concentrating and awake!!! My address is NOT PO Box 1306, but rather PO Box 688!!! Sorry ’bout that – a seriously major blonde moment!! Now you know why I don’t blog at the moment – I’m usually too shattered to think about it … and that’s the result!! Doh!!!

Anyway, just a really quick post again, to post some stitching piccies while I get the chance – I finally managed to put the finishing touches to these FUFO’s a week ago:

That may end up being the only ornie finished by me this year … such is life I guess …

Also, here’s the latest two finished blocks of Snapperville, plus the teensy start on block #5 – you’d never believe it’s taken two weeks to stitch just this part, would you? Yep, smokin’ needles is definitely a thing of the past for me for the timebeing – the only stitching I’ve been getting is about 2 hours on Sunday night ho-hum 😦

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Stitching Smalls

Two more small “finishes”

30 August, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I managed to get a couple more small finishes done last night – as well as taking a better photo of my finished needleroll today (so I’ll replace the photo in yesterday’s post). I’m finally trying to make up a close pal’s gift that is months overdue, so I did this as a trial run first – definitely not my finest finishing ever done, but it’ll do …

Then I sat and finished off my Pansy Magnet Pillow into a finished pillow. I just adore this piece – it’s a shame to see it go into storage now it’s finished, as I just want to sit and admire it … I just love looking and playing with all the beads in the fringe! 🙂

Lucky last, I used the sewing machine to stitch the binding on my oldest quilting UFO, and it’s all pinned ready to do the hand-stitching on the back of the binding – I’m coming up to almost 4 weeks of late shifts, so I thought it could be the perfect project for the office on the overnight shift. Mind you, one week will be spent training a new person on the Hotline, so I might not get quite as much done as expected hmmm. No piccies yet until the whole thing is finished anyway … I have no idea what I’ll do with it when it’s finished!

Rightio, back to packing up … so far I’ve cleaned out my car boot ready for loading everything into it again – done the laundry washing for the week, all apart from my bedding which I’ll probably do next week in Seaford, and most of my stitching is put away again. My sewing machine will be packed away tonight, in readiness to going back into storage again either tomorrow or Saturday before work. Only two more sleeps left before I head back to Seaford again for another week, then off to Edithvale for 3 weeks.

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Needlerolls

A tiny spot of finishing

29 August, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Today I started putting together a needleroll tutorial for use later next year on the Focus on Finishing blog – and managed to get the following needleroll completely finished (excuse the very poor photo, it was getting dark and I couldn’t get a decent shot without flooding the whole stitching with the flash), plus one more to the stage where I just need to add the ribbon and stuff it (this was actually my subject for the photos, but I realised when I got to the ribbon stage that all my ribbons are in the storage unit, except for the one I kept out for the Planted Hearts one ho-hum). Anyway, it means this one is finally completed and can be sent on its way to a new home somewhere 😀

While I was at it, I also decided to keep going with the hemstitching, and finally put together my Thistle Bag that Tobie kindly sent me the kit for ages ago. It’s about time I pulled my finger out and got this bag made up – and once I put my mind to it, it didn’t take too long whatsoever! 😀

That means I can finally say I’ve contributed to the monthly Finish-a-Long on the Focus on Finishing blog, instead of just being on the sidelines cheering everyone else along 😀

I may try and squeak in one more quick ‘finish’ tonight … something that will be super quick to finish off and won’t take up much room in storage (that’s something I started taking into consideration today – I was going to make a tie-on pillow using KarenV’s tutorial, but I decided I’m probably better off leaving everything ‘flat’ rather than stuffed, as I just don’t have space for it at the moment).

Lastly here is my latest stitching finish – I completed this yesterday afternoon … and I just love the colours and shimmering gold metallic thread – the photo doesn’t do it justice whatsoever. The red is deeper and richer, and the metallic just glistens and twinkles 🙂

Christmas Heart by Birds of a Feather
Stitched on 32ct white Lugana
with WDW and RG gold Petite Treasure Braid
(instead of Kreinik #4 gold braid)

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Small finish and lovely visit

27 August, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Just a really quick post to show my latest small finish – I’m thinking of picking up a bigger project next, so it may be a while before there’s another finish … as well as the fact that I’ll be losing my internet connection again in a few days time. I’ve just spent a couple of hours uploading piccies for the next couple of months for the Photo Hunts, for that exact reason – I’m not sure when I’ll be up and running for the internet again, and uploading and downloading is a tad harder at an internet cafe than it is at home … anyway, if you don’t see me online for a while soon, you’ll at least see one post a week, as I’ve uploaded posts for the Photo Hunt right up until 3 November – I know I’ve said it before, but I seriously LOVE that functionality of WordPress!!

Anyway, onto the piccie – here is my latest finish:

Miniature Bellpull Ornament by The Drawn Thread
from 1999 JCS Christmas ornie magazine or 10th Anniversary issue (which is where I got mine from – the 1999 JCS ornie mag is the only one I don’t own … {pout})
Stitched on 36ct summer khaki Edinborough linen
using DMC and Needle Necessities threads as recommended

In other news – my foot is perfectly fine … I had a lot of stiffness and pain in it on Saturday, and went to see a GP as I felt quite worried about it – but she said I hadn’t done any major damage and I still had relatively good mobility, so just to keep applying the ice packs. Well, you’d never believe it, I woke up on Sunday and hardly had a twinge!! It feels fantastic! 😀

The other great news from Sunday is that I caught up with Tannia and had a lovely relaxing stitching day (hence the reason my Drawn Thread ornie got finished – I just did a couple more hours when I got home and finished it up). As always, Tannia is wonderful company, and it was great to just kick back and relax with needle in hand, and old movies on TV, without a care in the world. There’s also a treat in store for you, Mum, next time you come over – Tannia has very kindly given me some Christmas ornie magazines for you 😀

Not much else to report apart from that … I’m now off to the lounge room to watch a couple more episodes of series 3 of Moonlighting while I put a few more stitches into another ornie, then tomorrow is “clean up” day when I start packing my things away again in preparation of moving out. I have another week out in Seaford, then I’m looking after a place in Edithvale for 3 weeks with an elderly (and apparently well behaved – that’ll be a nice change) kitty.

Rightio, time to get cracking again …

(Updated to add:) Forgot to say, I finished reading Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows yesterday morning – couldn’t put it down in the end! Even though I haven’t read any of the others yet, I have no regrets whatsoever for reading it. It’s unlikely I’ll sit down and read the other books yet, and I wanted to read it before I knew what the ending was. I’ve seen all the movies to date, so at least I knew all the characters and the terminology … although after seeing the movies, I have to say all the characters in the book were now ingrained in my head as the actors who played them … much less imagination needed haha. Anyway, I have to say I loved it! 😀