Sugar Plums from Amy

Just received this really cute ornament from Amy for the HoE Stitcher's Choice Christmas Ornament Exchange. I really love it. Her fabric trim finishing is just the cutest! Thank you again, Amy!

Snow Garden

Despite having And They Sinned as a major project to work on this year, I have decided that BBD's Anniversaries of the Heart has become a must stitch right now.

I spent the last couple of days starting it off, and tonight I finished the first block, Snow Garden, while DH watched Ender's Game.  It is so delicate!  I am using Lakeside Linens 40 ct Pearled Barley, which is much browner than the same linen was when I stitched Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.  No problem, like this shift in color.

Since I am from a very small family that is also fractured and made even smaller, I will need to really think about each block and how to dedicate it.  This first block has my sister's "pertinents and such" on it, as she has a winter birthday in January.  She has the same initials as the model on the cover of the chart ;-)  She is single with no children, so I added our parents' first initials within the design for her.

I am sure many of my friends, including stitching friends, will soon make their way onto other blocks in this sampler.  Sometimes we have to make our own families.

Now, if I could just find my GAST Picnic Basket I would be all set to do the second block....

So snowy here in NH.... really hope you have better weather than we do.  More on the way for us.  Enough already. 

Winter is Here... And It is Hanging On

Winter is here and letting us know it... two straight days of snow, and certainly not the first storm of the year. We are doing our hearty New England "thing" and doing our level best to just accept it. But since my back porch is looking like this this morning, I was reminded that I had yet to share this... a small ornament I stitched up weeks ago, popped into one of my ornament baskets and forgot about....

Winter Jumble Ornament (select motifs chosen from larger sampler chart) The Drawn Thread 40 ct Dirty Newcastle Linen, Crescent Colours Floss

A Year of Celebrations

I decided to start something fun that will carry me though much of the year...  Hands On Design has a project entitled A Year of Celebrations currently running in Cross Stitch & Needlework.  As each square is only 50x50, I figured I could easily pop this into my life and do this.  I decided to use 40 ct Vintage Country Mocha linen and am stitching it 3x4 on a fat eighth.  She started with the Dec/Jan charts first, so I have December put aside and will have to wait until I at least have September in place before I can place it properly on the linen.  Lots of colors in this one...  WDW, GAST and CC floss.  Three squares done and so far only CC Snowball and WDW Pumpkin have been used in more than one block, so I am wondering how many flosses I will end up needing to get this done.  Unfortunately, this is clearly designed for the Northern Hemisphere, and we will see if July is Independence Day and November is Thanksgiving... which would make this exclusively US oriented...  think international stitchers would have enjoyed this as well.  I love how each block has a little word to describe the month. 

OK, I hesitated but will share this bit of info... I chose this because the colors remind me of this incredibly colorful set of coffee mugs I recently bought for the kitchen.  I am making this small as I just miiiiiight choose to hang it near the mugs.... so, I have heard of buying an outfit to match a new pair of shoes, but a needlework project to match a new set of mugs?  That is how I roll...