Another One For The Tree

I am so excited; I just received the most beautiful ornament from Hazel H.  who stitched for me in the HOE Stitcher’s Choice Ornament Exchange. 

HOE Stitcher's Choice Ornament Exchange

Design from: JCS Ornament Issue

Stitched by: Hazel H.

I love everything about this ornament: the design, the perfect stitching and the fabulous ruched trim.  I love ruched trim but find it extremely time consuming and appreciate the extra time and effort on this one.  Many thanks Hazel for adding to my growing collection of holiday ornaments, it looks wonderful on my tree!

Want to know more about ruching? Here is a link that you might find helpful.

This year I have two Christmas trees, the first is in our family room and it is where Santa will leave the family gifts.

The second is my latest purchase and it sits in the kitchen, where it will remain throughout the year.  This tree has a more rustic look and is perfect for displaying my needlework ornament.

After the holiday I will decorate the tree based on the yearly holiday or season.  I need to spend some time in 2012 stitching up seasonal designs for the tree; my favorite by far will be when I decorate it for Halloween.

This past summer I found a wonderful Needlework store in southern VT called In Stitches Fine Needlepoint.  Although it is a Needlepoint store vs. Cross Stitch Shop I entered hoping they may also carry cross stitch but she did not.  Instead I found an array of gorgeous fibers bursting with color and many beautiful hand painted needlepoint canvases, including Prairie Schooler. I instantly fell in love with the shop and I found the owner (Maria) to be beyond friendly and extremely helpful.  I entered hoping to walk out with some cross stitch but departed with some great Needlepoint projects.  Needlepoint is not new to me, I had done it many years ago and, although I did not want to add yet another “hobby” to my list I could not resist. After a quick refresher from Maria I managed to complete these two projects:

Mini Needlepoint Stocking

Lehigh University

Mini Needlepoint Stocking

Villanova University

The minute I saw the “University” themed stockings I immediately knew that I needed to order the designs and stitch them for my two sons.

My latest needlepoint project is The Wizard of Oz characters, they are adorable. I will share pictures of that in a later post.

Well, I keep saying that I will do some finishing work on a number of ornaments but I have yet to find my way up to my sewing room…maybe today and then again maybe not!

As always thank you for stopping by.

Until next time...

Tis The Season

The December rush is upon us and like so many others I have been busy preparing for the holiday season. At our house part of the holiday season includes my birthday, which is celebrated just days after Christmas.  Last week a package arrived from my dear friend Vonna and when I opened it I found a beautiful Birthday surprise...

A wonderful Yankee Candle Tart Warmer.  This is so pretty and the Holiday Pine scented tart serves to put Christmas in the air; the scent is perfect and oh so nice.  

I also found a very special item tucked inside, this handmade birds nest...

I saw Vonna's post on these cleverly crafted little birds nest ornaments and loved them.  I especially loved the German Legend behind the nest:

An Old German Legend tells of the magic of all the world's birds bursting into song, as if with one voice, the night the Christ child was born. If a family's Christmas tree contained a birds nest, they would be granted the gift of health, wealth and happiness throughout the year. It is our hope that this little nest adorns your tree and the legend may come true for you.

Vonna's gift arrived the very day that I was planning to decorate the tree so it became the 1st one placed onto our tree. My hope is that the German Legend holds true and we are granted the gift of health, wealth, and happiness in 2012; I am a believer.

Thank you dear Vonna for the birthday gifts and for always being such a shining light in my world! 

Have you seen the fabulous pincushions on Cathy's Blog? Oh my word, I just love these and I let her know it.  I immediately emailed to order one and was lucky enough to receive this beauty...

Cathy's Mom does the gorgeous tatting and Cathy constructs the pincushion, what a talented team! I am such a huge fan of "Mom's" tatting and am so excited to have yet another piece of her handwork. Thanks Cathy/Mom for filling my order and selecting a beautiful Pincushion for me, I love it.

The HOE blog had a Christmas Box Exchange that I signed up for.  I was a bit reluctant to sign up given the mail date was December 1st, oh such a busy time of the year!  Well, I bit the bullet and committed (not too difficult to talk myself into an exchange on the HOE blog, I love them) then I set out to complete this exchange in a timely fashion.  Here is what I sent to Lucy:

HOE Christmas Box Exchange

Designer: Plum Street Sampler

Design: Yuletide

Design From: 2011 JCS Ornament Issue

Stitched For: Lucy H.

Here is a picture of the inside:

I received my Christmas Box Exchange from Jayne P...

HOE Christmas Box Exchange

From: Jayne P.

Thank you Jayne, I appreciate it.

Head over to Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe and sign up for her fabulous Floss Give-Away.  Nancy's floss is truly eye candy!

The day has passed all to quickly as I spent much of it uploading pictures and updating my blog so I shall end now and get some "gift" stitching done.  Why do I always manage to spend December rushing to complete these stitching gifts??? Yes, yes I shall try harder next year to get a jump start on my holiday stitching.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday.

Until next time...