A slightly different finish

 inspired by a little book I came across as the colour went with the smock on this little cover kit.

I recalled the small purple flower ribbon and thought perfect, however it was too short to go all around. I was re thinking it and having a hunt for something else when I came across the big flowers and bingo!

I am pleased with how the four combined, book,cross stitch, little and big flowers.

They look like they were always meant to be together.

I am rather enjoying embellishing books with stitching as a finishing method.

"update" The book has become a farewell gift to a senior Missionary Sister in June 2024. She oft commented on our garden and given the work she did here I thought it appropriate to add a little verse inside the front cover alongside a teeny line drawing of our Church.

The poem goes:

Kind hearts are the Gardens

Kind thoughts the Roots

Kind words are the Flowers

Kind deeds the Fruits

She was very happy with the book, she did not undo the ribbon and look inside so she did not read/ see the added poem or the inscription. I wonder when she will. 

Sunday Stitching, Christmas Eve

 Given the date you will not be too surprised that the service at Church today was full of Christmas Carols and Christmas related scriptures and stories.

This is my progress for today.

An addition of a darker blue, all of the full stitches in this shade have been completed. It is however one of the shades that will make a second appearance in the half stitch section..

I hope that any blog visitors have had the chance to join in the Advent hop, and that you have a safe, warm and happy Christmas, or seasonal holiday as per your own inclination.

Sunday Stitching and gifted gorgeousness link up..

 

Todays progress, on the kit my BFF gifted to me, two shades of brown and one of blue.

Don't forget to pop on over to Jo at Serendipitous stitching to see the other GG posts.

CLICK HERE

Advent Calendar 2023 Blog hop day 17

 and it is my turn to provide a picture for today, if you came her from  Serendipitous Stitching then you will know what the advent hop is all about, if not CLICK HERE  for a proper introduction but basically  we share a Christmas make and answer a question Jo sets for us.

I was a bit behind on my Christmas Stitching, but here is my advent stitch.

I am quite please with how my interpretation of Durene Jones redwork heart turned out.

And he question this year was about our Santa related traditions. For the first six years of my life  we lived in a house with a coal fire. Letters to Santa were burnt in the fire and the smoke took your wish list off to the North Pole.  Christmas eve the fire was not banked it was left to go out and the little door left open. Then we moved, no fire, central heating and how were we to get out wish list to Santa? Well my grandparents still had a fire at first and the letters were sent from there. Then their home was modernised and no fire there either. But by then without me recalling just how the lac had stopped bothering me.

I hope you all have a happy Christmas and enjoy the rest of the hop.

Click HERE to link back to the host site and for more advent.

Or follow the link to the added later Forestella Song (linked to the image and not to the season) Forestella 포레스텔라 - Lay Silk On My Heart 내 마음에 주단을 깔고 [Color_Coded_Han|Rom|Eng] (youtube.com)

A Seasonal burn

 I bought some little blanks in the shape of Christmas Trees.

They were a nice little project to try out more of  the tips on my new tool.

They will be going into Christmas Cards and  hopefully onto peoples trees. The first one has done just that.

That tree makes it look rather splendid.

BFF SAL Variations on a theme 1: Christmas

 I remarked to my friend that there was a Disney theme for me this week, without actually doing anything Disney!

Why?

Well since last week I have finished the Reindeer, the main design part that is but not the sewing up. So he is still feeling a little flat at the moment.

And the pause is because I am looking for a Bell (or Belle?) yes the former but a bit of word play makes us laugh. I am sure I have a small sleigh bell somewhere, not sure where just at the moment.

And this week..well do you want to build a snowman?

who could tell from this !

You may have noticed that we stayed on the Christmas stitch this week, pop over to my BFF's blog to see why and for her update.

Click Here

BFF SAL Variations on a theme 1 : Christmas

 A change for me and a bit of a visit to the past.

So firstly this is the project and progress for the evening.

with a bonus link to My BFF's 1st week progress on the same pattern in 2022 Click here

You may wonder why I am working on this now when I didn't in 2022? Well because I did not have the kit in 2022 having stopped my subscription to the magazine.

Well I sent in a letter with the four 3D Christmas stitches I have completed so far and it was printed. My BFF spotted it, in WOCS 340. Which just happened to have another 3D kit as the cover kit.

So off to E-bay to find a copy, two bidding attempts failed but on the third success and not just the 340 plus kit but also the kit from 2022 as well.

So for tonight's Christmas Stitch just had to make a start on the oldest of the two kits. We did have a bit of a smile as I have started from the corner and am so far enjoying the stitch, looking back my BFF started in the middle, once more a different approach.

Here is a picture of my letter appearing in the mag, with the original stitches posing alongside the ones to be added although perhaps not this year.

And a back view just for fun.

to see what my BFF got up to tonight Click Here