Final post (I think) for 2016.....

The reason I say I think it is my final post for 2016 is that I am still going to continue to stitch until it is time to ring in the New Year.  But I can leave you with at least one more JN Whimzi post and my final ORT jar picture since I forgot to take it the other day for my TUSAL report.

I stitched up HO HO HO from the JN 3 Santa's chart.  I just LOVE this chart and they do stitch up very quickly.

The solid whimzi frames tend to show a reflection in them.  I tried my best to get a good picture of this little one that I am about to go hang on my little Whimzi tree.  I'm trying to fill it up and I have several more gold and silver frames.  It's the "time" that I need to find some days.

Here is my ORT jar.  All filled to the top.

My "Finished Projects List" shows me at a total of 70 projects this year!!!  WOOHOO  I love it!!  I always try to compete against my previous year's total so I really have set the bar high for me next year.  WOW!!  I amazed myself as I just write them down as I finish them and I guess I just haven't paid attention to the total until just yesterday.....which is what made me want to stitch just 1 more quick small project!!!

Now I need to go and write up my 2017 Birthday Gift List and 2017 Ornament To Give list so I know exactly when I have completed everyone's birthday and Christmas ornament for the year!

I'm off to stitch the night away!

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE EVERYONE!

Last TUSAL report for 2016

Ok.  So I am a day late.  Here is where I am at for the last of the ORT monthly picture.  I will post a final on tomorrow for the ORT jar.  (Guess I should have waited til then to post but I may forget!)

I did quite a bit of stitching in December trying to get the last of the Smalls stitched up.  Most of my gifts were done already but there were a couple that I still needed to stitch up at the last minute.

Now off to stitch the day away as I do laundry.  Why not do something FUN like stitching while doing a chore that is not quite as fun as STITCHING!  LOL

Happy Stitching everyone!

Last Smalls Post for 2016.....

Wow!  What a year this has been especially for getting me motivated for stitching my smalls each month!  Thank you Heather!!!  And Heather is taking signups for the 2017 Smalls SAL!!  You can find it here at her blog Stitching Lotus.

I can now show some of the ornaments I gave as gifts this Christmas.

These are from Prairie Schooler.

This one is from My Big Toe.

This one is from iStitch designs.

After Christmas, I decided to stitch up another JN Whimzi for my small whimzi tree.  So I pulled threads and fabric and quickly stitched this up.  It is from the 3 Santa's whimzi chart and he is called Bunny Santa on the chart.  I did change his mittens to black as well as the year.  I didn't particularly like the blue that it was stitched in.

Since that Santa whimzi stitched up so quickly, I decided to stitch up another as I found the  Mitten Men whimzi frame when I was pulling out the gold whimzi for the Santa.  Oh darn.  I needed to stitch another whimzi for my tree!

That's all I have to share for now.  I hope you join us in for the Smalls SAL 2017!

Happy Stitching!

Gifts from my children....

I want to share my 2 Christmas gifts from my children.  Being a seamstress, a cross stitcher and general everything crafter, when my kids give me handmade gifts are EXTRA SPECIAL in my book.  Especially when my daughter calls me long distance to ask a question about how to go about sewing something.

DD is relatively new to sewing for about 5 years now.  She doesn't get to sew every day, but when she got into going to the Comi Cons, she wanted to make her own costumes to wear to them.  So I started teaching her to sew about 5 years ago.  She's come a long way since her first costume to where she is now and feels comfortable sewing on her own.  This was especially helpful for her Costume and Design class for her a Theater class elective this past fall.  She had to research a period in history, cut out an outfit and sew it up.  They had sewing machines available to the students who didn't have one at home and being far from me, she had to use their machines.  THANK GOODNESS she had an idea of what to do for cutting out and sewing the costume.

Here is what the design she made for her final and yes....she got an "A" on the dress!!!!  This made her mama SOOOOO PROUD!!!  She gave this to me as my Christmas present!!!  All the hours I had spent teaching her how to sew has come back to me ten fold by seeing what an excellent job she did making this dress....with a little bit of help and guidance from her teacher.

I just realized I had not taken a picture of the backside.

DS has always liked working with clay and making different projects for himself or for me as a gift. When he is working with clay, sometimes, I will be at the kitchen table as well making homemake clay buttons for different cross stitch projects.  He once created a Pansy flower for a Mother's Day present for me.

This time he was working with clay in his high school ceramics class, and they had to come up with a design to sculpt out of clay.  DS chose a Pokemon character called Dragonair.  I would see him bring it home to work on it some and then take it back to school the next day.  For his final, the project had to be completed so it could be fired (cooked), and they were to only paint it on final exam day.  I asked him about it, and he said he got an "A" on the final!  WOOHOO   I was SOOOO PROUD of him as I know he and his sister are very meticulous about the things they make.  Hmmmmm......wonder where they get that from???  Me?  Yes I am proud to say!!!

Here is what he created for his final exam and gave it to me as my Christmas present.  He snuck it back into the house so I wouldn't see it and be able to open it on Christmas day.

I just had to share what my kids gave me for Christmas.  DH got me a beautiful jewelry set of matching necklace, earrings and ring.  But.....he made me hunt around the house to find it as he hid it from me!  I did find it after a few clues from him!  It is gorgeous!!!  But I haven't taken pictures of it yet.

Now.....back to my stitching.

Happy Stitching everyone!!!

Merry Christmas....

I just wanted to wish all my family and friends a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  May you know that Jesus is the reason for the season and that you will be blessed now and every day!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 24....

YEAH!!!  We made it all the way through the SAL, and now I have a finished "stitched" project.  No...I haven't done the finishing on it as I am seriously thinking of making it into a pillow to display along with my other stitched Christmas pillows.

Here is mine all finished for today.  I put the last row of stitching on the village right before going to our Christmas Eve Chapel service tonight.  That way all I had to do was to post on my blog and Facebook when I got home tonight.

Happy Stitching everyone!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 23.....and JN Whimzi tree

Ohhhh we are ALMOST finished with our little SAL!!!  I managed to get mine finished just now before dinner, and I was able to get the 2nd trees snow also stitched in as well.

Now I am trying to figure out HOW I want to finish it.  I might even make it as a pillow finish as I have many that I have stitched before and set up to display at Christmas time.

I had mentioned previously that I was stitching another JN Whimzi to put on my small JN Whimzi tree I decorate at Christmas time.  Well....DS sets up my tree, and he is actually the one who decorates it for me with my guidance a little bit.  But DS loves to put all the JN 12 Days of Christmas in order from top to bottom in the very front.  I am not sure if you can really see it in the picture.  I would LOVE to fill it with all my JN Whimzi's but DS is adament about only putting the Christmas and winter looking whimzi's on the small tree.

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 22.....

WOOHOO!!!  DS finished his final exam today, and he is soooo excited to out of school until Jan along with his sister when they both go back to school.  I ran a couple of errands earlier today, wrapped all the presents, made dinner. and FINALLY got to sit and stitch on my daily Advent SAL piece.  It is coming together sooooo nicely!  I can hardly believe Christmas will be here in 3 more days!  Where in the world has 2016 gone to this year?

Well here is my SAL for today's daily stitch.

I would like to show you also the Charlie Brown Christmas tree that DH brought home one night to me.  He knows how much I LOVE the Charlie Brown cartoon series and especially the Charlie Brown Christmas special.  Yes.....I do have the entire series on DVD!  I've been meaning to take a picture of this little tree to show my blog readers but I kept forgetting!  I have it here in my LR so I can see it every day!

Now I'm off to stitch the night away if I can stay awake.  We don't have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning.  WOOHOO!!!  So hopefully I can stitch me another ornament for my JN Whimzi tree to hang on it on Christmas Day!  That would be a Christmas present to myself!

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 21.....

Yeah!!!  I finally got to stitch on our SAL tonight!  We went to see the new Star Wars Rogue One movie today and then DH and I had several errands to run after dropping the kids back at home since they didn't want to tag along.

Here is where I am at today!!!  I am staying on track and as you can see, I have finished the entire border.

Now I think I might go stitch some on perhaps a new JN Christmas Whimzi for my little JN Whimzi tree.  It needs a new one on the backside where there are no whimzi's hanging next the wall.

Until tomorrow's post.....Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent Day 20 SAL.....

Well, after a full day of running errands and having fun shopping with DD, I came home to get my DS registered for his ACT exam next April.  I was finally able to stitch on today's SAL after dinner was over.  It wasn't too much stitching as Carol had said so I was very thankful for that as I really don't like to blog too late at night for everyone to have to read the next morning.

Here is where I am at tonight.  I am so thankful to have been able to keep up with this SAL.

In as way, I wished I had been able to stitch this on a 40ct raw linen but I didn't get it ordered in time and I definitely didn't want to get behind in all the daily stitching.  So that's why I just went ahead and went with the 32ct Raw Belfast.  It still looks nice but on the 40ct, I could have made it into a cube for display.  I guess I could but it would probably look more like a huge box!!!  I'll figure out something on how to finish it.  Framing it always works.  If you have a better finishing idea, please leave a comment as I would love to hear it.

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent Day 19.....

Wow!!!  I can't believe we are already on Day 19!!!  Our little SAL is coming along very nicely!!!  I have not added the snow on the tree on the right but will do so when it is fully stitched.  All my snowflakes are being stitched in a Kreinik 3231 #4 braid.  I think it really added to the piece with the sparkles from the braid.

Here is today's section.

Now I'm off to fix dinner and then I hope to do the finishing work on one last ornament that will HOPEFULLY be mailed out tomorrow.

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 18.....

Oh what wonderful project to stitch on this afternoon.  After church this morning, it was snowing more on our way to lunch.  However, it was not sticking to the roads as I think there was enough salt on the roads to keep it from laying on the streets.  But it was soooo beautiful to watch.....just soooo cold especially when I was wearing a dress, pantyhose and heels.  NOT SNOW DRESS ATTIRE.  I did not know it was going to snow today or I would have worn something different to church this morning.

Here is where I am at for Day 18.  I did go in and add the snow on the left tree.  I am not sure if you can really see it in  my picture, but it definitely adds to the tree once it's stitched in.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day today.  I get to start wrapping presents tomorrow and see if there is anything else I need to buy.....like stocking stuffers.  I think I have enough but I start Christmas shopping in Aug and Sept so I need to make sure I have everything all together.  I'm sure I do.

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 17....

Wow!!!  I am actually getting to post this EARLY today!!!  Yep....couldn't sleep in of all days.  REALLY???  Well I did sleep in until 7a.m. which we usually get up at 5:30a.m.  So I guess that's somewhat sleeping in although I really would have liked to sleep in til at least 8a.m.

This just gave me more time to answer a few emails, read a couple of blog posts that I haven't been able to do this December with just being so busy every day.  Plus, I was able to get my Advent daily chart printed off and get started stitching early!!!

I was able to stitch in some more of the lower border after I finished today's portion of the SAL.  I have other things that I need to do this morning so I wasn't able to complete the entire border.  Maybe this afternoon.

I hope you are enjoying my daily posts of this SAL.  I look forward to stitching Carol's Advent SAL every year.

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 16....

Ooooohhhh it is turning out soooo nice!!!  I am loving this more and more each day.  Now I just need to get more of the border stitched in a little more each day so it's not all left to do at the end.

I am now off to stitch some tonight.  I have had another very busy day.  I have been thinking today about this upcoming year and I have already began organizing ..... mentally ..... of what needs to be done.  I will take the time in the next few days to write down these ideas, projects and make my 2017 TO DO LIST.  Do you make a list?  I am an organizer, list maker, planner for a lot of things but especially for my stitching projects for the upcoming year.  Now my mind is whirring for this new year and thinking of all the things I want to get stitched for gifts!!!

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 15.....

Whew!  And to think I thought I was going to be posting this at 9p.m. tonight.  We have had a full day of activity and I just finished stitching my homework.  LOL  I just love the fact that I am forcing myself to make sure to get each part done daily so I can stay on top of this SAL.  So far so good.

Here is where I am at today.

Until tomorrow....Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent Day 14......

Yeah me!!!  I actually got this stitched earlier today, but I just did not have time to post it on my blog.  Oh well.  I get to post it now!

Just another busy day here today but I am ready to really settle in for some stitching tonight as we just got a phone call saying DS school was on a 2hr delay tomorrow morning.  WOOHOOO  we get to sleep in!!!

I'm off to stitch while I can.

Happy Stitching everyone!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 13 and first snow this winter....

Yep....I would have been done sooner than now but as you read in the subject line....WE GOT SNOW!!!!  WOOHOO!!!  LOL  Some people dread it.  I look for it!  It was soooo pretty this morning as it was falling outside and the longer the day went on, we got more and MORE!!!

First things first.....the iStitch Advent SAL for today's posting!  As I said, I would have been done sooner today but it just didn't happen.

Here is where I am at.  I had some white silk left on my needle so I went ahead and have finished across the top of the border.  YEAH!!!  Now to get more down the side and the bottom.

This is going to just be beautiful piece when we all complete our daily Advent SAL!!  I will have to frame mine as my fabric is 32ct and not the 36ct or 40ct that I had hoped to be stitching on.  I could have ordered more fabric, but then I would be LATE in the daily stitching, and I just didn't want to do that.

Now for some SNOW pictures to share with you.  Silly me should have went out FIRST to take all the pictures before shoveling the snow like I usually do.  Oh well.  Life goes on.  I'm sure we'll have MORE snow days as the weathermen say we are to have a very bad winter this year.  I hope not so my heating bill won't be astronomically high.  I don't mind shoveling snow.  That way DH can't complain I am not getting any exercise......like doing laundry is not doing exercise.  In my book....it is!  LOL

Just to show you how deep it is on my van hood.  I usually have my van in the garage but we have company this week.  So instead of me asking them to constantly to move their car, I thought it would be easier to just leave mine outside.  They said they would help me keep it cleaned off if it snowed.  And they did!

Measuring how deep it is on the van hood which is sloped anyway.

Measuring the snow on the van roof!  WOW!  5" of snow!

Ok.  That's all I have to share today!  Now.....back to some down time and more stitching tonight!

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 12.....

Well at least it's not midnight when I'm posting my picture tonight.  LOL   I am enjoying this SAL so much, but I do have other commitments during the day that keep me from stitching as early on it as I would like.  But at least I am keeping up with it.

Here is where I am tonight.  Evidentally I forgot to do part of the church last night.  UGH.  I really must have been tired.  I made up for it tonight and stitched the little bit from last night and then all of today's portion.  I am like Carol.  I am waiting til it's all stitched to stitch in the snow part on the trees.

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 11.....

YEAH!!!  It's NOT 9pm when I am posting this.  However....yes I have had a very busy day.  Sunday's are always busy for me as we go to Sunday School and church service, hurry home to eat lunch and then I take DS to his tennis match.  Once I got home from the tennis match, I realized I needed to do some laundry as well and then to fix dinner.  I'm sure some of you can relate to these kind of days.

Here is where I am at on Day 11.  I am still ENJOYING this SAL.

Now off to stitch on 2 last ornaments that I hope to get completely finished stitching by tomorrow.   Then I can mail them out to their recipients!!

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 10.....

Yeah!  I'm still on track.  I only had a few stitches left to complete for today but didn't get them done earlier before going to a movie with the family.   So now I've finished it and ready to post about it.

I will hopefully get my SAL finished earlier tomorrow after church service and DS tennis match.

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Days 7-9

Good evening everyone!  Yes....as you may have noticed I have been absent from posting my iStitch Advent SAL pics.  I went to go get DD from college after her finals and have now returned.  I only had my smart phone but had difficulty posting the pics to my blog and Facebook from the phone.  Plus I get a better picture with my actual camera.

So here are the past 3 days worth of the Advent SAL.

That's all I have for now to share until I get tomorrow's SAL.  I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am.

Thank you Carol for doing this again for us!!

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 6....

Well I would have posted this earlier but I had to go run an errand with DS and DH.  So while we were out, we decided to have dinner too.  WOOHOO....I didn't have to cook!  LOL

Here is where I am at for today.  I hope to get more of the border stitched in tonight but I'm not guaranteeing anything.

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 5.....

WOOHOOO!!!  I am posting today's Advent SAL part before 9pm tonight!  LOL  I have been full of energy today getting the house ready for company coming, and trying to decorate for Christmas.  But I just LOVE decorating for Christmas!!!

Here is my part for the iStitch Advent SAL.  You can still join by clicking HERE.

Now I need to go sew up an ornament from my "stitched ornament box" to give as a quick present.  Just like last year, I needed a "last minute" gift to give and thankfully I had another one in my stitched box!  I will share the finish here soon!

Happy Stitching everyone!

iStitch Advent Day 4.......

I am going to post Carol's link for our Advent SAL here if you still want to sign up.  iStitch  It is not too late to still join in our SAL.

Today, I printed off the chart this morning before going to church as DS was taking the computer to a friends house.  I have had a very busy Sunday, but I did manage to do my SAL this afternoon after the laundry was finished and the cake baked for our church Christmas fellowship tonight.

I did use the Kreinik braid again for today's small snowflake, and instead of just stitching in a small "x" for Rudolph's nose, I did a small French knot.  I have never mastered doing the Colonial knots but my French knots come out just as nice.  I hope you can see it.

Off to stitch on another Christmas ornament.  I thought I was done but after looking at my list......I am not.

Happy Stitching,
Brenda

iStitch Advent SAL Day 3

Yeah.....once again I am here blogging about my finish late tonight.  And to think I thought I would have gotten all day to cross stitch!  I should NEVER post or say anything like that because every time I do, I NEVER get to as something always comes up.  I forgot that I had a dinner to attend tonight with DH, but thankfully I was reminded by looking on the kitchen calendar to see what was scheduled for today.

So here is my Day 3 of the Advent SAL.  I know you can't tell it in the picture too well, but I did use Kreinik 3231 #4 Braid for today's snowflakes!  I love how it makes it look sparkly on the fabric.  Tomorrow I am going to go back and take out the red stitches on my holly and replace them with tiny red beads that I am praying are in my bead stash.  If not, then I guess they get added to the shopping cart to be ordered.  

You will also notice that I pulled out my winter ORT catcher as well!  I just love that snowman fabric!!!  ⛄

Now back to my stitching as I haven't gotten as much stitching in as I had hoped.

Happy Stitching everyone!!!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 2

Yep....once again I am stitching the Advent SAL at night.  But none the less....I managed to get it stitched and more of the border!  I have only 2 errands to go do tomorrow so I HOPEFULLY....can get a lot of stitching done!

Here is where I have done!

And it's still not too late to join in our SAL!  Yes Carol had given us the entire border (which I hope to get stitched in tomorrow) but for now I am stitching it as I go along.  You can sign up her on her blog at iStitch.  Just email her and she will send you a Paypal invoice to get signed up.  It's that easy!!!

Happy Stitching!

iStitch Advent SAL Day 1.....

Yeah!!!  I was able to sit down and stitch up Day 1 of my iStitch Advent SAL tonight!  I had to change fabrics at the last minute as the 2 that I had ordered were too light for the white NPI silk to show up.  So I am stitching this on 32ct Raw Belfast linen with 2 strands of NPI silk over 2 threads.  Not my better choice but at least I'm not going to fall behind on the daily posting of the charts by ordering MORE fabric and waiting for it to arrive.

If you would like to join the iStitch Designs Advent SAL, you can go to Carol's blog iStitch.  She explains how to sign up and join our annual SAL!!!  It is a lot of fun and you don't want to miss out!!!

Happy Stitching!