Come visit with me as I stitch and craft my way from one Christmas to the next - I like to have Christmas projects close by me all year. I have a particular fondness for Santas and Angels. If you have the time, leave a comment so I know you've visited.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

My Angel is growing

I've reached the middle of the chart - but just on one side, unfortunately. Still a-ways to go till I can claim to be half-way there. She's really taking longer to stitch than I imagined.

I am pleased with the effect of the beads I'm substituting for the gold stitches at the edge of the hem, and the floral trim on the ruffle at the base of the skirt. I've only done a tiny bit of each, but I think it will work out well. I haven't yet stitched the bead trim on her hair ribbon or on the musical instrument she's holding. I'll leave that to last.

Monday, August 24, 2009

More progress ...

The Angel now has two completed wings. I feel quite excited that she is finally growing again. I'm 2 months behind schedule now, but hope to make good time from now. I'd still like to have her at the framer by early October.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Some progress ...


I've started working on my Angel again - at last. Only about 100 stitches so far, but I am so pleased to be stitching on her again. I'm still working on her second wing. Soon I hope to be back with a pic of the completed wing.


The pic is a batch of pincushions I finished earlier in the week - 5 little shoes and 5 small teacups. I found the shoes at a local garage sale a week ago, and couldn't resist turning them into pincushions. I always enjoy making little shoe and teacup pincushions - though at times I have to remind myself of that when I'm struggling to make them behave - they're so fiddly to finish up. Just to make life that little bit harder my hot glue gun packed it in before I started. That's the third glue gun I've killed this year. I'm going looking for a more resilient model, because I want to make some decorated wreaths soon, and I definitely need a hot glue gun for that.
Can't stay and chat - my Angel is waiting for attention! I can only sit at the frame for half an hour at a time every few hours, so I can't afford to waste an Angel stitching opportunity.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

A little bit of this and that ...


Regretfully, there's been no stitching happening on either of my WIPs, but I have finished and framed a little bead decorated Christmas tree. I stitched the tree on black fabric to suit the pre-loved green and black leather frame I found at a local garage sale last year. I hardly ever use black fabric, and it's not something I enjoy stitching on, but I love the way the finished piece looks.
I'm stitching a couple of fabric pieces to use in teacup pincushions. I'm making four, and I'm really hopeful that by the time the teacup pincushions are finished I'll be able to stitch on my floor-frame again, and make some progress with my Angel.
I've also started a batch of dolly peg Santas - so far I have only sealed the pegs. I'm going to paint 12 Santa pegs, and also 2 toothpick-holder Santas. This will be my first painting project in several years.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

This is what I have been making in the past few days - little Christmas gift cards. Progress has been slow, but I now have 50 finished, and that's all I needed, so I'll be packing away my card-making supplies tomorrow. I'm not sure what my next project will be. I'll give stitching on my Angel a try and see how that goes.

Monday, August 3, 2009


I've not picked up a needle at all since I finished my last batch of fridge magnets. I'm having trouble with all my limbs at the moment - none of them is at all cooperative, so I've had to give up the idea of stitching till they get their act together. I'm not able to hold a needle yet. But I have kept busy decorating some tiny wreaths - 14 of them. And I'm making some little Christmas gift cards as well.
I still hope to be making August an Angel month - I really do want to finish my Angel in good time to have her framed for Christmas.