Wrapping up another stitching year

I squeezed in another Christmas finish the other day, although not in time for Christmas '05. It is a Bent Creek Zipper called 'Santa's Reindeer' and is stitched with perle #5 on 18 ct. linen. That is a little different, and seems gigantic after working with 32 ct. LOL I'm still pondering how it will be finished, and one idea that I had was to sew it into the front of a totebag.
And this is a square I stitched for Cole's Quilts stitched on 14 ct. white aida. The picture below is the pattern I used to stitch this square. I kind of cut it in half and stacked the 2 halves on top of each other and then added some bubbles here and there to fill in. BTW, this is from the Just Cross Stitch August 2003 issue.


Below is 'Summer Jubilee' by Blackbird Designs. It's close to halfway finished now, but put away in a drawer for the time being.


My 'finished in 2005' list is up to 44 finishes for the year, and that's probably what I'll end the year with. You can see pictures of my '05 finishes here . I've begun writing some things down that I would like to stitch in 2006 and this weekend, I plan to narrow it down to a do-able list. If nothing from the list gets stitched, that's o.k. too, just as long as I stitch! In looking back at my list from this time last year, I see that I managed to finish 2 things, and cross out 2 things as 'not ever gonna stitch'. It looks like what I did stitch are mostly new things added to the stash during '05. In light of that, I hope all of the new things from market are ugly. Yeah Right!
Thank you Everybody who has left comments for me here~You've all made this blogging so much more fun and interesting with your encouragement and inspiration!!

In Progress

For some strange reason, I'm not seeing the taskbar where I can click to add a link or picture, HMMMM. I was going to upload a picture of my WIP. 'Summer Jubilee' by Blackbird Designs is about halfway (give or take a little) finished. Christmas day, I started my new Bent Creek zipper kit 'Santa's Reindeer'. It was so beautiful and sunny here on the 25th, AND the wind wasn't blowing much (the wind always blows here, I swear) so I sat outside and stitched for quite a while Christmas. I would have stitched longer, but after eating turkey for lunch, I was feeling sleepy. Our oldest son left to go back home in the late afternoon, and it felt a little sad here after that. Too short of a visit. Well, maybe the next time I try to upload my picture, things will be working again....

Holiday Cheer

This is 'Withering Tulips' by Barrick Samplers (now Carriage House Samplings), finished 12-9. I used DMC on 40 ct. R&R 'antique cotton'. I was a bit unsure of the colors when I started, as they looked really different from the model picture, but I like how it turned out a lot!!

Above is Bent Creek's zipper kit called 'Holiday Cheer'. I finished stitching this a couple of nights ago. These sheep are growing on me and I have another kit waiting to be stitched, it's 'Free Betsy'. I want the turkey one now too. They are stitched on 25 count linen, using 3 strands of floss. I doubt very seriously that it will be framed or finished into anything in time for this Christmas, but it was fun to stitch her at Christmastime at least.


And this is an ornament from The Trilogy's 'Ornamentology' leaflet, finished last night while watching lots of Veggie Tales videos. The border has been omitted, as there isn't enough linen. OOPS, I stitched it on a scrap of linen banding and just barely have enough room to finish it off now. It is stitched with GAST, plus some Glissen Gloss blending filament in the reds to give it sparkle. The pattern didn't call for blending filament, I just thought it would be fun for an ornament and Tess helped me find a great color!
I have been under the weather for what seems like forever. It's definitely been the better part of Dec. so far that I've either taken care of sick children or been sick myself. Thankfully I'm on the mend now and catching up!
It's that time of year to make lists, lists, lists, one of which is 'what to stitch in the upcoming year'. I make the list every year, and yet rarely ever follow it, as new stuff distracts me. LOL I'm still thinking about the list right now.....
Merry Christmas Everybody!

Ornament Exchange

Above is the ornament I received in the exchange, from Janet. It is stitched and finished so nicely and the backing is a beautiful soft dark green fabric to match the green border. I think the gold cording sets it al off so well, 'rich' is how I would describe it. :-) The camera flash washed it out, so it's prettier in person. (as usual) Yep, we believe in Santa. Isn't this a cute design?


And this one is the ornament I stitched for the exchange. It's the 2001 Prairie Schooler Santa stitched over-one.
My hat is off to those of you who participate in several exchanges like this. I absolutely love seeing all of the pictures from exchanges and what everybody decides to stitch and how they finish. However, I only sign up for an exchange once a year, or once in 2 years. Too many irons in the fire!