Finishes, finishes

Happy 2016 to you all.  

I hope that it is a fabulous year.

Vixen - Nora Corbett
Fabric - Icicle (Crafty Kitten)

I managed to finish Vixen yesterday as the treasures arrived from Sewandso.  However, I managed to send one of the treasures flying across the room and can't find it.  I will order another packet when I 'need' to order something else too.

Whilst I have been waiting for the treasures, I pulled out Mabel Figworthy's Song of the Weather.  I had stitch the kloster blocks for April but that was about it. Today, I have finished off the block.  I had to learn how to do bullion knots, Portuguese ladder stitch and Greek crosses to do it.  My Portuguese ladder stitches aren't brilliant and I keep thinking about ripping them out and doing them again.  I suspect by the time I reach December, I will have done so!

Mabel Figworthy's Fancies - Song of the Weather (2013 SAL)

I really liked the Greek crosses once I understood what on earth it was I had to do with them.  I am sure that mine will improve with practice but I am happy with them for this 'learner's piece'.

I have signed up for the 2016 SAL which is called Round in Circles. I am thinking that I will do it with the same threads and then both of them could hang in the hall next to each other.  The first design was released today and is a nice easy one to start off with.

Birthday stash and giveaway stash too

First up is all the lovely stash that I received for my birthday. There is a chartby The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and another by Papillon Creations, 2 Just Nans, a Lizzie Kate Santa, one of the Snow Belles, a JBW Christmas Tree one and some fabric - Icicle by Crafty Kitten which is big enough to stitch the other 8 Nora Corbett reindeer on.

I also received my threads that I ordered with my gift certificate from Linda.  Thank you Linda.  They are shown with the chart and fabric which I already had and I can now get cracking on this...soon :)

Vixen (or the chopped in half reindeer)

Just in case you were still having visions of poor Vixen having been chopped in half with blood spurting out, here is an updated progress photo.  (No animals were harmed in the making of this piece...lol.)

I'm amazed at how quickly I am making progress on this one and also how small it is.  I didn't realise they are so tiny as most Mirabilia's/Nora Corbett's are fairly big.  I am stitching it on Crafty Kitten 16ct 'Icicle' aida which is proving to be a lovely fabric to stitch on.

Christmas Stash

I was SO lucky with the wonderful Christmas presents I received this year.  As well as some stamps, perfume, CD's and chocolate I got some great stash - and not all of it was bought by me to put away!

First off some lovely fabrics I picked up at Harrogate a few weeks ago.  Pumpkin Patch is for doing the Halloween countdown calendar which will be a Crazy January Challenge piece this year.  The others all have plans too but I can't remember which design off the top of my head and the list is upstairs.

Then there are some lovely Crafty Kitten fabrics too.  All of those have plans except for the linen which I just wanted to see what it is like as I'm not good with linen!

Another piece of Sparklies which was missed out in the first photo.  IT IS GORGEOUS!

The Nutmeg Company and Mill Hill kits were picked up by me in Harrogate.  The reindeer were a total surprise and I was thrilled to receive them.  They are something that I have wanted for a long time but apparently they were only on my abcstitch.com wishlist and not my sewandso.co.uk wishlist. I was showing Colin a photo of them on facebook the other day so he picked 2 of them up for me.

2 lovely pieces of backing fabric from Sparklies too - even if it is upside down!

Another kit for my Crazy January Challenge starts.  I saw this in person at Harrogate and it is SO pretty. The chart looks horrendously complicated but Vickie has already taught me how to do the knots to make the flowers and said if I need help to email/message her.  She may regret that...

I also received another Cut Thru to add to my collection.  This one is North Pole House and is so cute.  This may well be the one I start when I finish my stable!

I know it looks like there is a huge amount of things here but with our families living so far away, they send money and we pick up what we would like labelling it from them.  

Finally, when Annette sent me all the bits for making my Gingerbread Cupcake, she also sent me a package to put under the tree.  I was really good and only opened it on Christmas Day.  Inside were a load of gorgeous goodies.  Look at this lot!  2 really pretty backing fabrics, a piece of stripy evenweave and some pretty threads.  I had to add the gift tag which was made by Annette too and is lovely!  Thank you Annette for such a lovely and generous package of goodies.

We had a lovely Christmas Day.  Both children and Colin were thrilled with their gifts but the highlight of the day was Colin's Christmas dinner.  He was adamant it wouldn't be huge...hahahaha.  

So this our Christmas table all set ready, with Luke looking like an alcoholic with his wine glass.  Rachael declined having orange squash in a wine glass.

Colin's dinner - no he didn't finish it all.

Luke's dinner - somehow he did finish it all, and was the first to finish too.  He loves his veg so had plenty of it!

Rachael's dinner - she managed all of hers too.  Heavens knows where she put it all!

My dinner - no chance!  You could probably have fed someone else with what I left!

Not sure as to why I was looking so miserable here.  Obviously just an unlucky moment with the camera!  Dinner this year was particularly delicious, even with there being way to much.  I'm so lucky that Colin is such a good cook!!

I hope you had an amazing Christmas too.