Flat Santa cone'd

Another kit from Cross stitch Crazy (211)and a new medium for me, vinyl aida.  The kit contained patterns and makings for a Santa and a Fairy.

I have made the Santa, he starts out flat and looking a little odd.

Flat Santa

Cone  Santa Ornament 

Then turned into a cone he looks a bit more the thing.

Now I won't be turning my back on normal aida but this stuff is quite fun to use.

Santa's back

Oh and that is not quite the end of this post, the kit also provided a needle, now either I don't know my own strength or this is the softest needle I have ever used.  Never before have I had a needle bend like this. Madly it became an obsession to finish the project with the same needle I started with no matter how much it began to bend. Threading it was the hard part as the bend also became a twist.

Bent needle from side

Bent needle from above.

As with the penguins in my earlier post, the Santa Cone went into work to participate in the Christmas Charity day.  However, I did not find quite as sparkly a resting place.  Instead he sat atop of a jug of roses that sits on my desk (there are many many of these jugs of roses through the office courtesy of a senior manager) 

Penguins.

An addition to the Christmas stitching courtesy of Cross Stitch Crazy Issue 210's gift, including the red hoop mount.  Stitching it up went smoothly however, getting it into the hoop was another matter and tightening the screw required pliers.

Pengins

I took it to work and added it to the team's Christmas decorations for our Christmas charity day.

Sparkling Penguin wreath

I rather liked the sparkly surround, and will be keeping my eye open for one of these hanging wreaths for my home. 

Sunday Stitchings into December

First Sunday in December and here is my progress today, still with the same shade of grey.

Decembers Sunday stitchings

2015 Online Christmas Advent, day three

So the Advent Blog hop question posed by Jo over at serendipitous stitching for this year is around Christmas Eve traditions.  

So we normally wait until Christmas Eve to put up the decorations (unless it falls on a Sunday then they go up the Saturday before). However, there are some exceptions, In the last two years an Advent calendar has made an appearance on the 1st of December.

Cross stitch advent

You can see more about that in my posts back in 2013 from first day of December to all empty so (just click on the links)

It has joined my Christmas embroideries which also go up at the beginning of the month. In their case because I took me so long to make them I feel they need maximum display time

Their story can be found under the heading Christmas card inspiration this is the first of the three finished embroideries, I might get the fourth started this year.

For unto us a child is born a Nativity

I have not thus far been a prolific Christmas cross stitcher however I am slowly adding to the collection, and my choice for a this blog, something small that symbolises where I like to spend Christmas.

Yes you got it. 

Home with my family. 

Little Christmas House

I hope you enjoyed day three of the advent hop and will be viewing day four and onwards via serendipitous stitching and if I don't see you hear again before then, I wish you a safe, warm, happy, family Christmas.

Sunday stitchings..the grey goes on

A little here a little there and so it grows, one of the subjects covered in today's talks at Church was the same concept towards making the world a better place.

We may not be able to change the world all in one go, but we can start small with ourselves and little by little...things can change, just as stitch by stitch a cross stitch grows (although the speaker did not make the sewing connection!

Sunday stitchings on 29th

Sunday stitching progress

More grey filling in amongst the black.

Sunday atitching

Sunday stitching going grey

At first I felt a little uncomfortable still posting after the shocking events in Paris, then I mulled it over and decided that acting as normal (on a certain level) is the best way to thwart the intent of those who committed the atrocity. 

So here it is.

King Arthur and Guinevere

My brother did not provide me with any lead in time to his wedding.  So no wedding sampler however I did want to make them something.

There is always the scary moment of choice, what to do, will they both like it. So do I ask what they would like and end up stitching something I dislike or something that will take forever while they wait and wonder?

One day when they visited I just happened to have a cross stitch catalogue out on show, introduced it as a topic of conversation, persuaded them to flick through and took note of the designs they paused at or commented positively on.

Later I reflected on their choices and from them made mine..

Arthur and Guinevere

        

   I was in a hurry to get it finished for Christmas and the metallic elements had taken longer than I had anticipated.

The intention was to have it framed professionally but professional framers get quite testy if there is not a good few inches of material around the design and I miscounted and ended up with a very scant amount on one edge.  So I had to frame it myself.

I traced round the edge of the design on some greaseproof paper to work out were I had to add curves to get it to fit.

In retrospect I think that this counting error was serendipitous as the adjustment resulted in a more interesting framing solution than would have been the case had I got it properly centered.

I rather enjoyed stitching this , metallics and all, occasionally I think I may do it again. 

More grey this Sunday

A touch more grey.

Sunday Stitching into the grey

Second session into the grey, today at Church was a memorable day.