Happy Holidays!

(vintage ornament from Lizzie*Kate)

To all my friends:

Here's hoping you have the happiest holiday season ever!

Zombies in December!

Hey Blog Buddies,

Several days ago I was looking at my Victoria Sampler Tudor Tassel ornament chart--just the cutest thing--thinking I should start it, but when I started looking at the finishing instructions, it gave me a headache.  I realized what I needed to do at that point was some nice, mindless block stitching, so out came Crabby.  Of course, I'm a couple of months behind (October was up next) but who cares if Halloween was six weeks ago!  It finished up fast, so here is October from Crabby All Year:

I'm pretty sure those green things

are zombie hands coming up out of the ground

beside the headstone.

Again, I just placed the buttons on top of the piece.

I'm going to have a lot of buttons to sew on

once all the stitching is done!

The other thing I wanted to share with you

is a gift I received yesterday from my friend Anne.

Isn't this just the cutest thing!

It's about 3 inches long, and it's already on my tree.

Knitting a mitten is something I wouldn't do,

but I do love my newest ornie.

The colors are just perfect!

Well, that's it for this time.

I think I'm going to do something more seasonal

for IHSW this weekend.

Don't know what IHSW is?

Head on over to Joyce's blog

to find out about this fun monthly SAL and join us.

Until then,

thanks for visiting!

Ornament Exchange

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's a lovely, if somewhat brisk, day here in Northern Illinois.  Our embroidery guild hosted its annual Christmas party last night, and everyone had a grand time.  One of the things we do each year is an ornament exchange.  Those who want to participate bring a wrapped ornament that they made and get to pick another ornament sight unseen.  Here is the beautiful ornament that I unwittingly chose:

This was made by my friend averyclaire,

it's a Little House Needleworks design

and I absolutely love it!

You should check out her blog--

she is not only an embroiderer but she also does

beautiful hand quilting, too.

Here is what I made for the exchange...

This is from the 2011 JCS Christmas Ornament issue

and the designer is Casey Buonaugurio.

I liked the design so much I made one for myself.

The first one I did is on the left.

While sewing it together,

I forgot the cording for the hanger,

so I just used a piece of #16 Kreinik.

I also sewed it really close to the embroidered design

which made the finished product even tinier.

I learned from my mistakes on the second one,

which is the one that I brought for the exchange.

But I'm quite happy with the somewhat flawed one that I kept--

it has character.  heheh

The tree trunks are pieces of one of "Molly's sticks"

from our backyard.

The weird thing is that averyclaire chose my ornament!

This was just a happy coincidence, not planned.

That's it for now.

Hope you are having a wonderful December day.

Thanks for visiting!

It's a Wonder I Ever Finish Anything...

Hey Blog Buddies,

I seem to be on a roll with Christmas ornaments lately.  My latest project was an ornament from the JCS 2008 Christmas Ornament issue.  The designer is Erica Michaels.

At this point, I had finished everything

except the beads between the letters.

But I wasn't really happy with it.  I took it over to DH and asked him:  "If you were to pick out a letter that didn't belong, which would it be: the N, O, E or L?  You could also choose 'They all belong.'"  He quickly chose "They all belong."  Then I pressed him:  "But if you had to pick a letter that didn't belong, which would you choose?"  He reluctantly chose the O.  Aha!  My sentiments exactly!  Then he said he thought the background color of the O was different (darker) than the E.  In reply, I told him it was the same color and  launched into an explanation of variegated floss, and how I had crossed each stitch as I went doing the background of the O.  When I finished that section, I thought the background looked really muddy.  So when I stitched the background for the E, I did half crosses all the way across the row in one direction, and crossed them on the way back in the other direction.  This evened out the lights and the darks in the floss color (the look I was going for--and made the background of the O look even worse, in my opinion).

Did you ever try to explain something technical about stitching to your DH?  Does he get that wild look that says, "When can I leave the room?  I wonder if she'll be really ticked at me if I do."  That's what happens to me, but I do it anyway.

I really didn't want to do it, but I frogged out the background of the O.  Actually, it wasn't frogging so much as cutting (carefully) and pulling.  It was very nerve-wracking.

I know it doesn't show up really well in these photos, but it looks a lot better to me now.  I do love how the designer chose spring colors for this Christmas ornie.  In the magazine, it was finished as a pinkeep, but I think I'm going to have K (my finisher) do something a little different.

I hope that you're not having to frog anything out.  Thanks for visiting!