15! FIF...TEEN!!!!

15?  15 what I hear you ask. See if you can guess before you read any further.

15 little itty bitty Christmas finishes that need FFOing.  Well! Luke is away on a college residential to the Lake Distric next week so I could get the sewing machine out and leave it on the kitchen table all week!! So, watch this space!

I got my Around the World in 80 Stitches out during the week as it fitted most of the Stitch Maynia Olympic challenges.  I didn't do much - it was the last week of term which is always hectic as we have to fit EVERYTHING in that doesn't want carrying forward to next term into it.

To add to the Christmas shame...I finished another design yesterday.  In my defence, it is almost FFOed.  All it needs is some felt on the back to cover up the stitching mess that is there. Snowflake Tree by Mill Hill stitched on perforated paper.  It was my first time using the stuff and I am still undecided whether I like it or not.  It is a really cute design and will be lovely on my little ornie tree this year.  This was one of the projects on my focus list for the year which means I have now finished 3 projects off that.

Mill Hill - Snowflake Tree

In other news, Luke brought home a trip letter from college this week.  I think I prefer the good old primary school days when a trip letter meant finding a tenner to pay for it.  This one is a 'psychology' trip to New York for 5 days.  A mere £1000!!!  Sorry, I shouldn't exaggerate, I do get £15 change from my £1000.  Still they are packing in absolutely tons of activities in the short time they are there so it will be well worth it - especially since it will be the first time he has ever left the country!  I wonder if I could get him to go cross stitch shopping for me???  Hmmmm...

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.

Tiny Treasured Diamond

I've just realised that in my last post I didn't add a photo of the Christmas present Rachael sent me.  It's really cute.  Obviously she has very good taste in stitching stash!!

Tiny Treasured Diamond
Mill Hill

Tiny Treasured Diamond
Mill Hill

 I have just finished the bottom middle page of the Cut Thru Garden Shed.  As the last 2 pages are both half pages, I am going to work on both of them at once.  I have a bit of the backstitching done but will save the rest until I have finished the stitching now.

Having joined WIPocalypse, I am now going through all the blogs and have discovered some lovely new ones that I've never found before.  So not only will I get all my WIPs finished this year (yeah right!) but will also have new blogs to read too.  

Happy stitching!

Still not much stitching news

I can show 2 things I have stitched recently. One is an exchange for Lori through Cross Stitch Floss Swap. Her info said she liked red and dragons so I combined the 2 to make an ornament for her.




The second one is of a Mill Hill Tiny Treasured Diamonds which I made for my mum. She sent me a text today to say it arrived and she was absolutely thrilled.

On Monday I was part of a group of teachers and teaching assistants who took about 60 children to MEN arena for the Young Voices choir which is where around 8000 children and young people come together for a concert. We have been practising all the songs since September. It was long night in the end. We left school around 1 ish and arrived back at just gone 10pm. It was really fabulous though and the children were all brilliant.

And........another Christmas ornament

This is the one that Colin chose which took a couple of days to stitch up. It looks much better in real life. For some reason I couldn't get the camera to really make the beads pop. Now to decide if I carry on with some more or go back to something else, like the Snappers!

These are quite addictive!

Another little Christmas finish!

Well after doing Luke's tree ornament, I had to do Rachael's too. Hers was a really quick stitch as it was all beading apart from the metallic threads. She was really pleased with it this morning when she came down.

Colin has chosen one for himself now so that means I am doing another one. Rachael went through the rest and decided that she wants another too. Well never mind perhaps I can get them all done and have them on our tree this year.

I love these Mill Hill designs. I think I will have to have a look and see which ones I don't have yet!

A little Christmas finish

A while ago I bought a load of Tiny Treasure Diamonds by Mill Hill off a seller on ebay. Both the children chose one that they liked and I said I would stitch them for their Christmas trees this year. I had the one that Luke chose in my handbag but it wasn't a very good choice really as you can't bead on the move! When I cleared out my old bag last week when I bought a new one, I decided to get it finished at home. After 2 days stitching and beading, here it is..........

Luke was a little superstar and helped with beading the final piece of fringe, only dropping 2 beads! Not bad for a 7 year old who is clumsy at the best of times. Then he helped me to shred the filling and to stuff the ornament. Well done Luke!