Filler Stitching and Socks

I had been waiting for my Jazzercise teacher to have her baby so that I could start stitching her an announcement design I had picked out. I'm superstitious so I would never start the stitching before the baby was born. In the interim, I picked out a couple of designs from the same book with the ice skaters (previous post) that were in a section with all pink X-mas designs. These two seem perfect for girlie birthday cards and I'll just hold onto them til the right birthday comes along. The designs are by Jane Henderson.




The baby arrived on Christmas Eve so I'm merrily stitching the announcement now.

On another note, I received the coolest pair of socks as a gift. They come from Vermont and are made under the trademark name, "Solmate Socks" that are "mismatched with care in Vermont". Their motto is "Life's too short for matching socks."
Check out their website.

Victorian Skaters...

I love finding something good by serendipity alone. My library set up a table of Christmas craft books a few weeks ago, and as I passed by I saw that one of the books was a new acquisition, never before checked out. It's Cross Stitcher's Countdown to Christmas, and it has some lovely little designs. I was totally intrigued by the row of Victorian skaters designed by Maria Diaz. I decided they would make a nice trim on a little box, so it was off to search for a box of the appropriate size. I went up and down the grocery aisles looking for just the right thing, Tuna fish can? No, too short. Cream cheese tub? No, sloping sides. Finally I found just the right thing in a can of Blue Diamond Almonds. The cans shown on the Blue Diamond site look a bit taller than the one I found actually. The almonds were delicious too! I added a little snowflake design on top. That one is a freebie from the Better Homes and Gardens Australia site.

Here are multiple views:











Happy Holidays to all!

My Bag...

And the final luggage tag of 2008 is now complete. I got really tired of making these and I kind of shortchanged the workmanship on this one. This is a design I adapted from a back issue of the Cross Stitcher UK magazine. It's done on pale pink 18 count Aida. I used pink X & O eyelets. Couldn't find the satin cord I like in pink so I chose a pink velvet ribbon for the hanger. The intended recipient loves pink.



The backing fabric is a nice girly print. Thanks to Sandra for sending me this. It worked perfectly for this tag.



And thanks to Claire for letting me know that she is the designer of the Home Sweet Home tag in my previous post. I'm not sure how I found that design since she hasn't blogged about it yet, although it is in her on-line album. Maybe I was googling images.

Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate!

Home sweet home...

It's that time of year when lots of people are returning home for the holidays. So here's my next to the last luggage tag of 2008 which will be a gift for one of those travelers. It's done on 14 ct blue Monaco. The backing is a green cotton fabric. The design is a freebie I had in my stash, but I didn't note the origin. So thank you to the designer, whoever you may be. Perhaps someone will recognize it and let me know.

Peace Stocking II

OK, one more ornament. Brooke Nolan offered this freebie to her members and I just couldn't resist. Such pretty colors. I didn't use as much beading as the design called for, but I did add the beaded pins to the edge. It's stitched on 14 count tea Monaco. And that is my last holiday ornament for the year (I think).

All choked up....

You may remember that I ran a Halloween Trick or Treat Tag Giveaway where one of the winners, Cynthia (Beestitcher), teaches a cross-stitch class to girls who are victims of child abuse. Today I received a package of the sweetest thank you notes and trinkets from the girls. I was just overwhelmed. How sweet is this!



Hope Cynthia and the girls have a wonderful holiday season!

Winter Exchange

If you are a regular reader of Mylene's blog, you will have already seen these photos, but for the record, I'm posting them here. Mylene and I did a personal exchange with a winter theme. We've both received each other's stitching.

I decided to make a lined zippered pouch. I used 2 designs from the 2008 JCS ornie issue. I can't believe how much I've stitched from that issue given that I didn't think it was so great when I first bought it. The first side is "Let it Snow" by Country Cottage Needleworks. Did you notice how almost all the designers had 'Let it snow' lettering for their snowmen? I don't really like snow in real life, so I don't choose to stitch that command. I changed it to 'Snow Days':



Side 2 is a Primrose Needleworks design. I changed the wording on that also to be more wintery and less x-masy:



I'm not sure what the fabric is. It was a gift. I don't know whether that is an evenweave like Lugana or something else. I don't use many evenweave fabrics so I'm not familiar with the different types.

As usual, the zipper gave me a lot of grief. I try a different technique every time I insert one and I'm still looking for a foolproof method.

Mylene stitched a beautiful ornament for me from the same issue. I actually was considering stitching that one for her. That would have been quite a co-inky-dink. It's hanging from a knob on a cabinet right now where I can look at it often. I love it!

Peace in the World

"Peace in the World" by Charlotte's Web Needlework in the 2005 JCS ornament issue had been on my list to stitch for a while. I finally completed it this year and sent it to my floss daughter Miek. I changed the dove to blue so it would show up better since I don't like stitching with metallic floss. And I wanted to feature Dutch and Swedish as two of the languages so I had to eliminate a couple of languages from the original design.




Just about the time she received it, I received a gift package from Miek with this dear little ornament that she stitched for me and some more of her lovely hand dyed fabric pieces.

Snowmen luggage tag

Always nice to hear that what you have mailed has been received. My friend Jenny just let me know that the mailman brought her this luggage tag that I made for her. It's a San-Man Originals design stitched on 18 count Aida in the yummiest purple called 'Clematis' by Sassy's Fabbys. I had been waiting for a reason to use those snowflake eyelets. Hope Jenny is planning a nice winter getaway so she can use it.

Not a creature was stirring...

And now I've finished the second of Casey Buonaugurio's designs from the latest JCS issue. This one is shown in the mag on a dusty green linen. I chose a light blue Monaco and I think it shows up better actually. I left off the year and added the two little motifs at the top, the wrapped gift and the tree light.

I think that's it for ornament stitching this year. Some in the mail are left to show. I will stitch a few more gifts, but not ornament-related.

Polar bear on skis

Casey Buonaugurio has two cute ornament designs in the current JCS issue. I finished up this polar bear on skis and I'm in the middle of stitching the other one. They are very quick to stitch.



But my bears never like it when I stitch polar bears. They are insanely jealous. Just look at these expressions:



They'll get over it.