Finish & Christmas Decor

Hi all! I managed to do some stitching while also putting up some Christmas decorations. Since we were out of town for half of November we didn't get started as early as usual and because of that I only put up like half of our stuff. We have a Christmas village set that isn't going to make it out this year. It takes an entire day to put it up and I just don't have the time this year. It seems like an every other year type of thing!

Here are some decor pictures:

My mother in law gave us these adorable mini wooden Christmas ornaments. I had to go buy a little tree for them. My husband was trying to convince me that this tree should be just for cross stitched ornaments, but, I don't have enough for it's own tree yet and I think this tree is too little. :D

I managed to get my Fleur de Lys Tree by Scissor Tail Designs finished! I really want to get a frame for it,. Some things just scream frame me, and I think this is one of them. I think it'll fit in a 5x7 frame so I'm going to try to get out to a TJ Maxx. I'm thinking an antique white frame? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Fleur de Lys Tree - Scissortail Designs

Fleur de Lys Tree - Scissortail Designs

Fleur de Lys Tree - Scissortail Designs

I really want to get more ornaments completed next year, so I started a blog page just for that. The goal is 12 (one a month) but I listed out a ton so there would be options for me to choose from. You check it out over here!

I would also like to get some other projects finished (like both of my Glendon Place patterns (Plum Pudding & Tiramisu), my Chatelaine (Mini Mandala VI), and my Halloween Black cat). Does anyone else think I'm a crazy person? I bet if I tried I could finish it all, but I get distracted easily by new patterns... Oh and I have a collection of mugs that I want to stitch up. So many patterns so little stitchy time!

Quick reminder about the Glendon Place SAL! You don't have to start stitching, but you will need a post about what you're going to work on the week of January 15th. You have until then to decide! Let all your friends know! The more participation the more exciting it will be! 

How is everyone else enjoying December? Have you tried to make stitchy goals for 2015?

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MMMM 2.1 & a SAL

While Pull the Other Thread's MMMM might be over, the lovely Justine over at Justine's Cross Stitches decided to host in November. You have until November 5th (today!) to sign up! This one only requires 4 posts since the sign up deadline is a week into November already. I'm breaking away from the roman numerals and starting to number these posts instead.

I'm really hoping I'll manage to get 4 posts in this month, but honestly, I'm going on vacation for 2.5 weeks later this month and it might be a struggle. I do have a post or two lined up already, I'll just have to add some mini information and status updates to them! There will be a few train rides, so I'm thinking some stitching might be accomplished then.

My husband and I are going back to Japan and this time I'm looking up cross stitch stores. I don't know if anyone out there reading this knows of any stores, but if you do please feel free to let me know in the comments! I think I might have found one in Kobe, but I am not totally sure of their hours. Google translate can only help so much. I am for sure going to the fabric district of Tokyo, so I might find some cool stuff there.

I have finally started my holiday stitching! I'm 79% sure that none of my friends read my blog, so I am not really worried about posting pictures. :)

I started this little guy on Friday and he's been such a quick stitch! He's called "Festive Ted" and he's from the November 2013 Cross Stitch Collection magazine. It's amazing the difference back stitching makes!

The lack of light this time of year is really effecting my pictures unfortunately. My husband did buy me a light box, so I'm going to bust that out soon. The background is actually a lovely pale blue Monika linen I had in my stash. The bear's colors are from Victorian Motto. I think they were... shades of pumpkin maybe and a mix of DMC. I love love love Nacy's threads. They are really a pleasure to work with and I find that they don't tangle as much. Maybe because I don't keep them on bobbins, but in Floss A-Way bags instead.

He's got 3 buddies (Presents, Stars, & Mistletoe) but I think candy cane was the best. He is meant to go in a card, but I thought he would be just as cute as an ornament. I wish all of my projects where this quick!!! I think I'm going to make a buddy of his too since he turned out so well.I still have to add the year and my friends' baby's name, but it's done for now! 

I'm also getting around to stitching my swap gift up with the beads. I really don't think I'll ever do this again, my needle isn't small enough and picking up each silly beads is super annoying. I need one of those tacky bobs or something:

I have three more patterns picked out for some other people. I am hoping to start working on one of those tonight! I'm hoping to get these four finished by December so I can concentrate on one for my parents and then have a finishing day and crank them all out at once. Fingers crossed! At least I have already finished 7 of them this year so no one will be missing out on a present or anything. :D

Speaking of quick projects, or in this case, not quick for me projects, Neilteil (Stitched Up!) and I are going to jointly host a Glendon Place Amazing Desserts Stitch Along for 2015. You can find all of Glendon Place's "Amazing Desserts" Series here (scroll to the bottom). If you are interested, check out my link in the sidebar: Glendon Place SAL for more details and to sign up! There will be a fabulous prize at the end! The sign up deadline is January 1st. With your first post due by January 15th (but you don't even have to start stitching until April!) Hopefully there will be enough interest in this. If not, Neilteil and I will be doing our own!

I already have the Plum Pudding pattern so I'm asking for the floss, fabric, and beads for Christmas! I've clearly already started the Tiramisu pattern, but I think that would be an unfair advantage, so only new starts are allowed for the SAL (to be eligible for prizes).

Update: Nacy is having a 25 Days of Christmas giveaway, go and enter here! Her fabrics & threads are AMAZING. :)

Who else has signed up for another Mega Mini Madness Month? Who is interested in the Glendon Place SAL?

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MMMM III

Mega Mini Month Madness post 3! Mmmm makes it sound like I'm hungry or something! As a reminder this is hosted by Pull the Other Thread check out all the other cool participants too (there's 22 of us total)!

I have two finishes! I'm sure you all are just as excited about this as I am. :D I finished all the stitching on these two pumpkin designs. I think I'm about done with Halloween/Autumn stitching for now. I really need to get caught up of my swap ornament and then ornaments for family/friends for Christmas presents.

Here's the first that I showed progress on last week:

 

Heart in Hand - Pumpkins

The bottom pumpkin looks crooked, but he's really not! When I iron him again I'll stretch him right out.

Heart in Hand - Pumpkins

I mailed this little cute patterns out to a fellow Instagram follower who really liked it. I'm looking forward to seeing her stitch it up! It was a quick little pattern. My favorite kind!! And the little Just Another Button Company raven is an adorable touch!

I also started and finished a little Lizzie Kate design:

Lizzie Kate - Tingles F-143 - Jack O Lantern

Per usual I changed the colors to match what I had on hand.

Lizzie Kate - Tingles F-143 - Jack O Lantern

After taking these pictures, I realized I forgot to add the green button that the pattern came with! Off to do that and hopefully finish these into tiny wall hangings tonight! 

What is everyone else up too? Starting on Christmas yet?

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Haul and Finishes

I just got a bunch of things in the mail! Happy mail dance time!

First off is my bingo winnings from Debby (from a cross stitch website I belong too), I've actually met Debby in real life when my husband & I were on vacation in Colorado. That made it even better.

This awesome owl card (I LOVE owls):

This cute booklet of snowmen designs:

Mill Hill - Frosty Friends

This awesome piece of crystal lugana (which is super difficult to photograph), I can already see some of those snowmen designs on it:

Light Blue Crystal Lugana

And my favorite, Fleur de Lys Christmas tree chart which I WILL be stitching this year. Debby said it was a pretty quick stitch and I think I already have some variegated floss for it.

Scissor Tail Designs - Fleyr de Lys Tree

I love love LOVE everything she sent over. I knew we had similar tastes!

I also received come charts from etsy that I purchased, each were $3 or less:

Lizzie Kate Winter Sampler, Winter Wishes, December Flip-it, Autumn Sampler, Spring Sampler and January Flip-it

anddddd the Leisure Arts Back-stitch alphabet (I had found #705 (More Backstitch Alphabets which I showed you in this post) at my mom's house, so I clearly needed the first set too):

Leisure Arts Leaflet 407 - 20 Backstitch Alphabets

I also got a piece of Crafty Kitten fabric in, but it's also a crystal and realllly hard to photograph. I plan to use it to make the Frosted Pumpkin Halloween Sampler at some point. I have the cosmo thread for it, which I am really excited to use! I'll try to do a floss toss in the sunlight this week.

Clearly I was busy online.... I should have my wallet taken away from me I think! The Lizzie Kates all came to $15 with shipping and the LA leaftlet was $6 with shipping, the others were gifts so I don't think I did too poorly.

While I was busy online I was also busy finishing ornaments!!!  I got my sewing machine back on Tuesday and whipped these up in the days since then.

Fronts:

Top left clockwise: Little House Needleworks (LHN) freebie Seven Pines, LHN Gingerbread Cookie, LHN Snow in Love, LHN Hot Cocoa, Freebie found online, LHN Season of Love)

And the backs:

Ornament backs (fabric from my mom's stash)

It was my first time finishing them into pillows! I had done some quilting when I was a kid, but I hadn't done anything in a long time. I'm pretty proud of them. Are they all completely square? No. But that's ok! :) Some of them are to be gifts even though I find it quite hard to part with them. I also finished another one, but it was for my swap, so once it's safely in their hands I'll post pictures!

I'm planning some finishing ideas for my Halloween projects too. I need to get some orange thread first for the Lizzie Kate one for sure. I'm still trying to come up with something for the Jolly Jack pattern. I'm open for suggestions, leave your suggestions below! :)

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