Gifted Gorgeousness January 2021 January Link-up Post

this is the first link up of the year with basically anything connected to the word "gift" is allowed, whether it was a gift TO you or is a gift FROM you.

please use the link at the end of this post to visit Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching for links to the other participants.

So Christmas gifts starts previously shared are now gifts given I can share a finish from one of those teasing starts.

Well guessed Jo it was indeed a bear...for a birth sampler.

This is not the Alphabet I had intended to use, I had one in mind but the T on that alphabet did not look quite right and I could not get the T modified to work.  I joked to my BFF that is always appears that way that it is the least clear letter in any chosen alphabet that is the one you need.

I further mused that perhaps if I called the parents and asked nicely they might see their way to changing the baby's name  to something that started with a friendlier letter from my chosen alphabet.  Not much to ask? Well perhaps not, the mother had already had some raised eyebrows at her choice of name (not from me I hasten to add) so I thought perhaps not and just designed my ownT and an alphabet to go with it.

Then I moved on to the date and struggled with getting the N for November to look right, as I moaned about that to my friend I wondered if perhaps in this instance I could persuade the government to change the name of the month to Ovember  as I thought I could manage a reasonable capital o.

As that also seamed unlikely to succeed  I struggled on and got it finished.  I quite like doing this patchwork edge it is colourful, feels reflective of me and my interests as well as being good to use up bits of thread.

I have obscured some of the lettering for the privacy of the child concerned.

I did , for Christmas get a crafting themed gift.  A book, Meg Evans Hand-Stitched Boxes.

Who knows maybe some day I will do something from it. I am fond of boxes.

click HERE for the link to Jo 

A new Year..2021

Looking back at my post this time last year, well 2020 certainly was not what any of us expected was it.  As for the projects I expected to be focused on and was hoping for lots of progress..well

If you have been visiting then you will know that the project with two angels..Teresa Wentzler's Millennium did not progress to the over one sections, I am currently stuck up Mount Everest!

So the hopes for this year..to get out of the mountains and onto the angels hands (yes the night sky is more tempting with colour which is not shades of beige however I feel that the hands and the faces too might be a better starting point. I may change my mind, there is time to change your mind about things when you are wondering in the mountains.

Ah yes and the project with the three angels?

I must admit I am just sharing little snaps shots of that as I go, I have not done an "as it is being sewn" for one of the embroideries before and they feel more personal than the cross stitches and indeed as I make choices about how to stitch each section, what colours to use and fret about if something is working or not , well I would rather wait I guess till a section is all done.

So I will note that the wings are completed, the instruments are mostly done (strings and straps will have to wait until robes are completed). Hands and forearms are done and I am busy with sleeves. 

There was a bit of a sleeve in the last update.  I am hoping to get the sleeves done in my current pick up of this project (I only have one set left to go but the bigger more flowing of them) and there is a chance that may happen as whilst my BFF is using out weekly craft sessions to  work on her time bound project rather than our joint one, I am using the same time for my Three Angels.

So here is a little snap shot of wing feathers and sleeve.

Now I had originally thought to use more of the DMC light effects than I have and I had intended to limit myself to Anchor thread. I have a random collection of it from years of  buying it here and there from market stalls and charity shops.  However, as the sleeves came along I felt that was maybe going to be a bit too limiting. 

My BFF gave me the thread left from her rare favour sewing of Madonna and Child which was a kit and the threads were Anchor. She gave me the whole kit, I had not used any of it when a post on Facebook in December 2020 caught my eye, someone was looking for just that pattern. I offered to post the pattern out, then realised the kit had no key, just the symbols next to the thread on the pre wound thread card.  Ah well, I had not taken the thread off yet and as it had cost me nothing and given the time of year and the subject matter passing on the whole thing felt right, and the added bonus well although the Facebook sight the post was on was a national one the lady wanting the pattern lived in the next town to me and worked in a village even closer so change of plan from posting to a meeting.

We met at the gates of the Catholic Church in my town (it is quite large and a good landmark for making meet arrangements) mask on I waited, my friends who do am dram were walking Dolly the dog and stood chatting with me whilst I waited.  Up pulled a car, a quick wave a socially distanced pass over of a plastic bag and the kit was on its way (to be sewn as a gift), my friends said it looked amusingly suspicious.

So I do hope we have a better year ahead than the one behind, in general and in the completion of projects.

Gifted gorgeousness December 2020

So on the 15th of each month (or thereabouts for some of us that are a bit forgetful Jo over at serendipitous stitching hosts a day for sharing gifts either those received or those being made with a crafting or sewing theme or connection.

This is the second month in a row I have managed to post.

There are two gift starts to share here, both have been finished but not as yet reached their intended recipients so I won't be sharing the finished items till they have.

And like last months these starts are not particularly representative of how the finished items look.

and

I think the second one is easier to see than the first, but then I know what they look like when they are finished. (this link will now take you to the finished item for the second one CLICK HERE FOR LINK)

And this link will take you to the finished item for the first one CLICK HERE

Please pop over to Jo (link at the top) to see the other participants (and Jo's) gifts.

2020 on line Advent Calendar

Whilst it may feel like it was March just last week here we are in December and counting down the days to Christmas with Jo over at serendipitousstitching  this Advent has become part of my Christmas and I hope it will become part of yours.

Jo asks that we share a Christmas stitch and answer a Christmas themed question which she sets.

So first, my Christmas themed stitch (which will link to my answer, just a little bit)

The two Robins by Margaret Sherry  from issue 301 The World of Cross Stitch, but with my colour choices as when designs are as small as this, with a few colours I like to dip into my box of random threads and bits and bobs.

Now to the question. "Tell us what your favourite book at this time of year is" Those of you who have followed the Advent in years gone past and seen my choices for favourite Christmas music or my choice for favourite Christmas  film might have tried a guess as to my answer.

But no its not that one, my answer is literally (pun intended) a particular book, this particular book.

The Children's Treasure book (Winter) from 1947.

This is a book of memories for my family, it was a Christmas gift to my mother from her father in 1947.

The stories were a mixture from famous authors we still recognise today and some less well known, they delighted her and she held onto the book and then they delighted first my brother then me.

One of the stories I liked best to hear and then to read was titled Robin, about the poor Robin that lost Father Christmas's note book and the little boy that found and returned it (thank goodness).

I have added that ring around the relevant entry in the contents digitally,  its not on the actual book.

As you can see having thought about the book it had to come out and be looked at and talked about, with my mother remembering her Christmases as a child. With my best friend ,who recalled a rather grim poem from later book in the same series which had belonged to her mother, and  we laughed at both her recollections and then the fact we still have that book and I could read her the poem over Skype and refresh her memories. 

Since I pulled the book out from its place on the shelf, in a little bit of role reversal I am reading the stories to my mother.  The book is a bit heavy for her to hold these days.

So Jo thanks for the question it brought back at least three sets of Christmas childhood memories, and that's a gift right there.

Now if you came here from Jo's blog that's great and you know what to do tomorrow.  If you are a new visitor and would like to keep following the advent just click on the link at the top of this post it will take you to Jo and all the doors to all the days of the advent.

If you would like to say something about your favourite book at Christmas in the comments that would be nice too.  Wishing you all a Christmas with wonderful recollections and the chance to make beautiful new ones to add to your store.

The no stitch stich along

well no stitching on the joint project that is.  My BFF needed some extra time on a to be gifted project so we paused the bluebell woods.

I had intended to start a similarly themed project also intended as a gift but my head was not in starting from scratch.

So I worked on something that has had little teaser updates here and there in other posts.

Still just a little look at last nights addition.

Things went quite quickly with the project when I first started then things slowed as the world changed and as the light in the dinning room got gradually dimmer. Which I did not fully realise till the dark night were well in.

I really enjoyed working on this last night it has been awhile since I was doing something other than cross stitch or quilting when working with thread.

Here is The Link over to my BFF's blog.

The time paradox

 the closer the finish of a pattern the slower the stitching begins to feel.

You have the same amount of time doing the sewing as normal, in this case two hours, give or take the chatting that happens.

And indeed many a stitch goes in, you hold it up and keep seeing not what has been done, as in earlier stages, but now it becomes more a thought of  look how much is left to go.

I know I do it, I know it is all in my head but that is how it feels.

So a tiny bit of big tree, I will get them done eventually.

It was two different variegated threads from those used previously.

Link to BFF's update

November Gifted Gorgeousness link up

 So on the 15th of each month Jo has instigated a sharing of pictures of gifts, either given or to be gifted.

I don't often manage to link up, I tend to be a bit forgetful.

Anyway this month I have recalled and this item falls into both categories.

I was given it some time ago and it resurfaced today when I was searching for a pattern for a birth sampler.

Not what I was looking for nether the less now felt like the time to make a start. It should be interesting as the kit has become separated from the pattern and I am working it out from the picture.

Now as it is intended for a gift this will be the only share of it until it is finished and gifted.

At the moment it most closely resembles the "no more Mr Nice Baby" from a certain washing up liquid's advert. 

update on the above Click Here

so if you did not visit me from Jo's blog then pop on over to see her and all her delightfully gifty stitches and links to the other participants.

click here for the link

A small session

 on the tall trees.

So we missed last week, that one was on me, there was a birthday for my mother with an 0 on the end, that came after some health issues earlier in the week.

This week whilst we did manage to get together is was for a much shorter period of time than normal , my BFF's turn to need the adjustment after a very busy day with a lot of zooming in one way or another. She may tell you more or she may not.

So here is the progress.

Here is the link to my friends blog the link

The ninth cat

that is the title of my brothers most recent album of music.  Now that is not a mainstream thing, no big record label and if you were to hear ir on the radio we would all be well beyond shocked.

He does the recording and the vast majority of the music himself, and the vocals and the writing. He even does video which he has his wife and passing friends participate in as they can.

So I find out about his most recent album, as titled above from face book which has a close up of the new cover, I click on the link and see a bit more of it before I realised it was familiar for a reason.

He has used a close up of the cat I stitched for him and his wife.

So the original   Rainbow Cat

Which they christened the psychedelic cat 

And the cover 

and the link to his music, for which I get no commission and which I take no responsibility at all, his musical influences are eclectic and so is his music..mind this is maybe a bit 60's and why they picked the psychedelic cat.

LINK for music  which has a free track preview option should you be curious keeping in mind what curiosity did to the cat! LOL.

Trick or Treat ? Halloween blog hop 2020

 here we are in this most strange of years doing familiar things which give us a certain comfort.

In  this instance the Halloween hop as arranged by Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching. Click here for link. Now if you have not arrived here having hopped your way from Jo's blog you might like to go there to get the starting point for the blog and your letter collecting.

This year I completed a small stich from a free pattern which oddly enough was gridded fifteen by fifteen stitches not the normal ten by ten! Which I did not notice till I started, it was quite odd.

I also changed the spiders silk which on the original was in full stitches to the single strand, and a bit of a change to its legs for the same reason.

I stitched it on white, but played around with the filter option on the edit to give it a little bit more spook for the occasion.

Now had I not already sewn it ready I might have tried to complete Durene Jones free Halloween Sal when it came out. You may recall I used one of her designs for last years hop.  Maybe another year I will give that a go. This year it would have been a little too much for me to have felt confident I would get it finished in time unless I worked my fingers..

to the bone, as the saying goes. The above is a little peek at an ongoing project of mine.

Here is my letter and punctuation mark (note that latter is important) punctuation is always important.

 

I hope you can see the letter and punctuation mark this tiny backstitch black cat and its ball of wool represent ...but just in case (as it was quite typically one of the less clear letters in the cat alphabet) here it is again in a more legible if less fun format E,

Now you have your letter head off to the next stop in the hop theflashingscissors to collect further parts of the target word or maybe it is a phrase this year and enter it at Jo's blog.

Good luck....