January Finishes

It seems only yesterday when I bravely achieved my first post and I had thought I would be posting much sooner than this but for several reasons this just did not happen. At least the weather has been a little cooler which means I have at last done some stitching at night.


Managed to finish two Mill Hill Christmas santas which were worked on perforated paper with beads and thread. Seems every year I managed to finish off some Christmas ornaments in January which I had thought would be completed in December. This year I will try and at least finish one per month. If I only do Mill Hill kits which are in the stash that will take care of 12 ornaments.



The Hardanger Needle Roll by Lorri Birmingham has been in the 'to do' pile for too long but has now been completed along with the Friends Needle Roll - this one I really enjoyed. The make up was so quick as it was worked on Linen Banding so no hemming of the ends! Also completed a small pin cushion from The Victoria Sampler Beyond Cross Stitch series - a quick project but I did make some alterations. The project that has taken more time than I expected was a small wedding sampler for one of our adopted daughters Meagan whose wedding is on the 16th Feb. I had offered to make a ring pillow as I had made one for the wedding of her older sister. Meagan decided on a small wedding sampler instead and left the choice of design up to me. It would have been much quicker if I had just stitched one from a pattern in my collection but for some reason I decided to design one but this did prove to take a lot more time as I kept changing my mind over colours and elements of the design. (Oh well my star sign is Libra so that says it all). I'm still not sure about a couple of things but will have to decide quickly and have it complete in the next day or so. Here is the progress - 98% finished, I think !!


I must finish off my squares for Stephanie, my partner in this round of Fair and Square swap. I had almost finished a square for her when I came across a design in my folders and thought it was nicer. Need to try and get it in the post this week to allow a couple of weeks for it to travel to England. I can't show these until I know they have arrived safely.

I did receive a wonderful package for Margie from the U.S. I selected some patterns from her For Sale List and they arrived in a week and I was so thrilled. They are in mint condition and patterns that we rarely see for sale here. Two of the design are Garden of Life and Awake the Dawning Day which I had seen on other stitchers' blogs. They are my Blackbird Designs. There is nothing like putting the first stitches in a new project but I must not be tempted until I finish off a couple more UFOs.
Well I guess if nothing else I have managed to add some photos to this post but I am still working my way through other features. This is one time when it might help if we had children - they always seem to know more about these things. My nephew who is a computer wiz is still working in Boston and he phoned last to say that he probably won't be home for another 2 years. It was so good to see him when he was home for a couple of weeks last year.