A New Stitching Year Is About To Begin

The old year will soon make way for the new. Not quite sure where the last year has gone as it hardly seems like 5 minutes since last New Year's Eve!

Anyway I have achieved lots of finishes this last year ( I don't expect to have as many in 2013), had a few abandoned pieces and renewed my love for HAEDs. I've stitched at least 12 Christmas ornaments thanks to Lainey's Christmas All Year Round SAL which I think I'm going to take part in again in 2013. It has been great fun and really makes you want to get on and stitch. I have also made new stitchy friends through blogging and Facebook, made a firm friend through craft club and we intend to get together regularly outside of the club for stitchy afternoons in 2013. 

I'm not going to make any particular plans for stitching in 2013 other than ornaments, the new Little House Needleworks Little Sheep Virtues and hopefully make plenty of progress on my HAEDs. I intend to stitch from my stash as much as possible but obviously I will be buying the sheep :) I'm going to go on auto for them probably with Patchwork Rabbit as Karla is brilliant to deal with. I am hoping just to buy fabric and threads through the year if I need them. I did get fabric for Christmas so have plenty to keep me going on my HAEDs and other things. At the rate I'm going with new HAED starts I probably won't have much time to stitch on much else! I also got one of the Lizzie*Kate Inspiration Boxers. I really want to collect these as they are just lovely. I was surprised to see that they are presented in a CD case. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was quiet but enjoyable. We played games on the Wii, watched DVDs, ate too much, drank a bit and just generally chilled. We had a trip to the sales in Hull on Friday. I don't believe in the sales starting on Boxing Day so won't venture out then. I wish they'd go back to New Year sales like years ago. I'm afraid all this is killing family times and family values but that's just my opinion. At the sales I picked up a half price Charles Dickens book which has his Christmas stories in including A Christmas Carol. Jess set me off my buying me two Dickens books for Christmas then she said she should have got me a special version of A Christmas Carol so when I saw the book at half price I had to buy it!

My dear stitching friends were very kind to me at Christmas and I received some gifts. I feel so bad as I didn't send to anyone other than Lisa and Michelle ( I let Michelle open hers early) but I just can't do it. Anyway I feel very blessed and will let the pictures do the talking. Thank you so much my dear friends xx

 From Michelle

From Lisa

From Christine

From Karan

From Mouse

From Elaine

I pondered over what I could do for Lisa and finally decided on this ornament which she loves.

Shepherd's Bush Do You Hear

Unknown fabric

DMC

Started 20th November 2012

Finished 3rd December 2012

Christmas Gift for Lisa

I finally got my last three ornaments made up to hang. I need to be a bit more creative in 2013 with my finishes I think!

And my last ornament of the year was finished yesterday but not made up yet!

Amy Brueken Designs I Believe

28 count Natural Pearl Linen

DMC

Started 23rd December 2012

Finished 30th December 2012

I had a new start on Boxing Day. This is HAED Mini The Forgotten. Not a lot done but loving it so far.

I also made progress on HAED Guardian and HAED QS Holly Fairy. I finished page 10 on Guardian and managed 560 stitches on page 11.

Finally my progress on Country Cottage Needleworks Gingerbread Cottage. Photo is awful I'm afraid. Chris  has finished hers and is wondering how to finish it.

So that's my final stitchy update for 2012. No more finishes in the pipeline now until 2013. I have been stitching away on a gift but I don't think that will be finished until next year now unless I get lots of stitching in today!

Thank you to you all for your friendship in 2012 and long may it continue. I love seeing what you are all doing even though I may not always keep up with commenting especially at this time of year. 

So that is it from me for 2012! Wishing you all good health, happiness and lots of stitchy goodness in 2013. 

With much love

Sally

xxxx

Christmas All Year Round Finish

I can't believe that I have actually managed to finish my November ornament for the Christmas All Year Round SAL in decent time. OK so it isn't made up yet but it's finished. I seriously need to get my finger out as I have three ornaments to make up before the tree goes up and I need to get them done this week because next week I'll be too busy!

So here's my ornament.

Daffycat Designs Stocking Reindeer

32 count Permin Amber linen

DMC

Started 12th November 2012

Finished 20th November 2012

I also finished this one.

Little House Needleworks Snow in Love

32 count Gander Rose linen

DMC

Started 15th October 2012

Finished 12th November 2012

I stitched Abi a wee gift for her 18th birthday.

Shepherd's Bush Happy Birthday

28 count unknown fabric

DMC

Started 25th October 2012

Finished 6th November 2012

I have had two other finishes and a start but can't show those as they are gifts.

Progress now on my HAEDs. Guardian did not get much done on it as we were out for Abi's 18th on Friday evening and I was shattered when we got back in. Saturday we went to the pub for a quick drink although Abi doesn't drink alcohol :).

HAED QS Holly Fairy is coming along nicely. I have almost finished page 1 and just love how she is looking.  I am hoping to get this page finished soon. Abi wants it finished for Christmas. Yup I'm Super Mum!!!

Final stitchy photo is my progress on LHN Home of a Needleworker ( Too!). All the chatting in the parlour over at Needlecraft Haven means it's slow going but I am enjoying this :)

I  am adding a couple of BBD books to my for sale page as well as LHN Snow in Love chart so please take a look if you think you might be interested.

Next year I am planning on trying to stitch from my stash as much as possible again with just the odd treat. Obviously if I need fabric or threads I will have to buy them as I can't stitch without them! Things are getting tighter as I'm sure you will all know as the economic climate is not improving, prices of everything are on the up but wages are not going the same way! Another thing is I won't be able to stitch and send as many birthday gifts next year. I did cut down a little this year but next year I am going to have to cut down more. I hate doing it as I do enjoy giving. I will still be doing it for a few of my friends though. 

Thank you for all your lovely birthday wishes for Abi on my last post. She says thank you very much and send you all hugs. Here are just a few photos. She insisted that I buy a dress to go out in but I am terrible when it comes to buying clothes. I hate the way I look and just feel that I look old and terrible. However the red number I bought made me feel really good! Not keen on the photos of me though! Abi had a tattoo done on her birthday and I must get a photo of it to show you. I have one on my phone but not got it uploaded onto the PC.

That is all from me for now. I am way behind on blogs and may have to mark them all as read just this time but will see how I get on.

Take care everyone.

With much love

Sally

xxxxx

The Stocking is Hung.....

Do you think Father Christmas will fill it for me??? Lol!

I had a spurt on with the stocking and as I was so close to getting it finished I stitched on it last night instead of picking L*K 6 FM Snow Friends up. I shall go back to that tonight:) So here it is...... my stocking. I changed the colour of the flowers and the letters where the name is ( they should have been white)

The Primitive Hare Christmas Carol Sock

35 count tea dyed linen

DMC and GAST

Started 3rd October 2011

Finished 21st December 2011

SAL with Barb.

Thank you so much Barb for SAL-ing with me. I look forward to us getting back to our SB stitching in 2012:)

Last time I promised to show you my TSG finish another SAL with Barb:)

The Sampler Girl Good Tidings with Jane Austen

28 count count fabric a greeny colour

DMC

Started 8th November 2011

Finished 16th December 2011

SAL with Barb.

I have finished this the same way I finished my other Jane sampler pieces and it is now hung up the stairs with those:)

A very simple, last minute finish now of Daffycat Designs Peace ornament. I really wanted to get Sharon's cute reindeers stitched too but it didn't happen so I'll try and do one a month next year :)

I did have my new start at craft club on Tuesday of Shepherd's Bush Merry Be but I forgot to take a photo so will save that for another time. We all had a lovely time at the craft club Christmas "do" after our crafting session. The room looked lovely with tinsel and lights up and candles and there was lots of food and drink. 

Here's Father Christmas doing his duty of showing my advent gifts from Lisa from the last few days. There is a Galaxy square, some silk thread, the L*K Snowman 2010 chart and a pin wheel:) Thank you so much Lisa. Just two more days now. I have loved my advent so much and I can't thank you enough for doing this for me {{{{hugs}}}}

It'll soon be 2012 and I'll be starting stitching from my chart stash for the first 6 months of the year. It's going to be hard but I have to admit that I am rather looking forward to getting to grips with my charts and stitching some that I've had for a while. Now I have thought about doing a page on my blog to list all my charts/ kits and cross them off as I do them. What do you think? Would be interested in seeing what I have and what I, hopefully, achieve and if I do well I might even consider doing it for longer! Dare I list what I have!!!!

I am looking forward to my SAL with Michelle of Plum Street Samplers Christmas Tea over Christmas. Michelle very thoughtfully sent me some fruity tea bags and some ginger to make some Cranberry Tea so I shall be doing that to drink while I'm stitching :) Thank you so much Michelle {{{hugs}}}

I am also thinking of no new starts until I've finished everything I have started ( BBD Aoth and HAED Guardian are the exceptions to this!) other than any gifts I might want to stitch. Or maybe no new starts unless I finish something! Lisa and I are having our new start on New Years Day as we did last year but we have picked something that we start and maybe finish on the day.

I think this will probably be my last post before Christmas unless I can squeeze one more in so I would like to thank you all for visiting me and also for all your support through the difficult times when I was so low. I'm not out of the woods yet but I certainly don't feel as bad as I did at the beginning of this year. It goes without saying that I treasure each and everyone of your friendships and you are all the best. Merry Christmas to you all and here's to a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous, Stitched Filled 2012.

With much love

Sally

xxxxx

iStitch Mystery SAL

Last night I finished off the iStitch Mystery SAL. It has been great fun stitching this SAL over the past few months and I just want to say a huge thank you to Carol for designing and organising it. Anyway here's my finish. I'm going to mount it in the top of my DMC box soon.

iStitch Mystery SAL

25 count lugana

Victorian Motto Thread

Started 13th August 2011

Finished 11th November 2011

Another little finish is this sweet freebie from Sharon at It's Daffycat. Thank you Sharon for this sweet freebie. If any of you haven't seen it yet pop on over to Sharon's blog where you can find her email to request a copy:) I loved stitching this up as it didn't take very long and it's a cute design. I'm thinking of frogging the footprints and stitching some snow then restitching the prints. What do you think? I never thought about stitching it on white fabby!

Daffycat Designs Snow Hop Freebie

32 count Permin Amber Linen

DMC

Started and Finished 10th November.

Last photo is from my Wednesday SAL with my surrogate sister Lisa. I ran out of B5200 for the snow so moved onto the rabbit! I can't wait to pick it up again as I just love stitching these fun little snowmen.

So what else have I been stitching. Well I have almost finished a little gift for someone and tonight I'm hoping to finish the stitching on LHN Travelling Stitcher Needle Case. Only got the border to do. I've been sorted things that I would really like to get stitched before Christmas ( some LHN ornaments, CCN Snowflake Serenade, amongst others!)  plus Chris and I are doing our usual Christmas ornament exchange which I really look forward to. Not long now to our December SAL either.

Best dash and get on with the needle case :) but before I go one very important message to us all. 

Lots of love and hugs

Sally

xxxx