Ornaments and a Couple of Surprises...

Tonight I finished my December ornament for the Bride's Tree Ornament SAL that I have been in since January. The ornament for December is to have a Santa, which represents Giving and Sharing. I stitched the Santa from Prairie Schooler's "A Prairie Year".




With this ornament, my Bride's Tree ornament set is complete, even finished! Here is a picture of all 12 ornaments. They are in order of the months they represent.


Thanks to Jennifer for organizing this SAL. It is a great way to get a set of ornaments done by Christmas. I had alot of fun with it.

My set will be going to my friend's daughter as a wedding gift.

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The other day I received a pattern in the mail that I won. Karen was doing a giveaway and I won Lizzie Kate's "Snowflake Express Stocking". Unfortunately I have misplaced the name of Karen's blog. I apologize to Karen for this.


I don't think I can do this for this Christmas. I will have to stitch it next year. Thank you Karen!

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Yesterday, I received a Christmas surprise from Staci. She sent me a scissors with a tag on it that has my initial. I remember seeing these on her blog sometime ago and thought how cute they were.


Staci was my partner for Fair and Square Round 5, which was my 2nd round on that exchange. Since then, our paths have crossed several times. Thank you so much Staci. I love it!

Well I think that is all I have for now!

November Bride's Tree Ornament

Here is my Bride's Tree ornament for November. We were to stitch an angel or a church to represent God's Guidance. I chose the 1987 Christmas Angel by Told In A Garden.

Fruits of My Stitching Retreat

I was finally able to take pictures of what I accomplished during my annual stitching retreat last week.

First, I finished the stitching and did the finishing on this biscornu. I wanted to make a sunflower biscornu and found this free pattern called Manuela's Sunflower. I used DMC Variations instead of floss.





Then, I started and finished October, from "A Year In Stitches" by Shepherds Bush, which came out about 5 years ago. I completed the first 9 months so I thought I should finish these up. It just needs the mummy button added after it gets mounted on foam core.



I then decided to work on My Favorite Things Basket. This is a project that a group of us is stitching together. I am sorry to report that I have been lacking and that is why I brought it to Retreat. Here is a picture of the pattern.



This piece that I worked on is the 6 pockets that go inside the basket. I had the first one on the left done. I started and finished the other 4 at retreat. There are some specialty stitches on these so they are a littly putzy, especially the one with the house. I hope my friend, Chris, is proud of me. I only have the 1 pocket and the piece that goes around the inside top left to stitch. Whoo-whoo! We are hoping to put these together as soon as camping season is over?



Lastly, I stitched the front of my Bride's Tree Ornament for August, which is a rose that stands for Beauty and/or Affection. This is from a Prairie Schooler design called "A Prairie Year". I finished the rest of it after I returned home.






It was a very fun and productive retreat and can't wait until next year. I'm pretty sure Joan and I both got gold!

An Exchange Received and a Weekend Update

My mini-stitching retreat this past weekend was very productive. First, I added another word to my LK Double Flip-Its (only 5 left!). Then I stitched my July Bride's Tree Ornament. This month was to be a fish which stands for Fertility/Christ's Blessing. This was a free design from My Aunt's Attic. I used a DMC Variation.

Then I made a key tag--finally! I used a freebie pattern from Gencat. Again I used a DMC Variation thread and some Silkweavers Fabric which Carol sent me in an exchange. The other key tag in the pix below I had previously stitched.

Off and on in between I also worked on Joyful Summer, which is great fun to stitch. On Sunday, after I came home, I did the finishing on the pics below.







This mini-retreat was great fun and I can't wait to go on our annual retreat in August.


Yesterday, I received my summer fob exchange from Jenny in Australia. The fob she stitched she designed herself based on a scrapbooking stamp she has. She also sent me 3 packs of Mill Hill Glass Beads, 7 skeins of DMC Variations, 2 very fun fat quarters, 2 different lengths of fun trims and a pad of paper with a cover that magnetically closes that is adorned with beautiful peacocks. WOW! Thank you Jenny!

June Bride's Tree Ornament

I finally finished my Bride's Tree ornament for June. It was to have fruit on it for Generosity. I chose the Strawberry fob/pinkeep pattern from Anita Stitches.

May's Brides Tree Ornament

This is my May ornament for the Bride's Tree Ornament SAL. It is an Angel Stitchin' design from the 2003 Just Cross Stitch ornament magazine.


The theme for May was a bird to represent Happiness and Joy. I chose this design as I am very fond of cardinals.

April Bride's Tree Ornament

Here is my ornament for April. The theme is a rabbit for Hope and Faith. It is a free design found here.

I had a hard time deciding on this one but I am happy with how it turned out.

March Bride's Tree Ornament...

I have finished my March ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL. It is Winter Basket by Lizzie Kate.





I have been doing alot of stitching, however, it has been mostly on exchanges which I can't post just yet. Hopefully I will be able to do that very soon.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to wish my friend, Joan a Happy Birthday yesterday. That was great fun!

Happy Easter to all!

February Bride's Tree Ornament...

I finished my February ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL. It is a Homespun Elegance design from the 2000 Just Cross Stitch ornament book.

My First Stitch-A-Long (SAL)...

I joined my first SAL, it is the Bride's Tree Stitch-A-Long. The Bride's Tree is a Christmas tradition from Germany in which a couple's Christmas tree should have 12 specific ornaments to help ensure happiness in their life together. In this SAL, you stitch 1 ornament a month that has a specific theme.

January is a house, which stands for protection and/or shelter.

I chose an Elizabeth Design's pattern from the 2000 Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine.

I had been thinking of stitching some Christmas ornaments during the course of 2008 and I figure that this would keep me on task.


The last couple of weeks I have spent quite a bit of time organizing (again) my stitching stuff, mostly my fibers. I think I have finally finished, and I must say how nice it is to have it organized.

Now I am going to go back and finish up the first group of the 2008 LK flip-its.

Happy Stitching!