Last Gifts to Arrive!

Hello my dear stitching friends and a warm welcome to my new followers!  The last of my Christmas packages finally arrived in the new year!  This gift was sent to Lee in Brazil and included quite a few handmade gifts, as well as some Christmas labels, Christmas themed mini pegs, a souvenir teaspoon of South Africa and a Christmas card: 

 

I stitched this Christmas tree for Lee - it is a segment from 'Vintage Christmas' by Country Cottage Needleworks and finished as a hanging pillow ornament (also shown in a previous post):

The design for this needle painted pinkeep is from Trish Burr's book Needle Painting Embroidery: Fresh Ideas for Beginners and is backed with the pictured fabric (also shown in a previous post):

This gorgeous beaded doily was made by my mom especially for Lee!  The work is so delicate and I just love the 'pink-gold' colour of the beads!  Thank you mom for making this gift for my friend!

Here is a pic of all the handmade gifts:

I also included a little gift for Larissa.  She is a student at Lee's embroidery school and was kind enough to send me a gift last year.  Larissa also received some handmade gifts, Christmas labels, Christmas themed mini pegs and a Christmas card:

This sweet little 'Prancer' is by JBW designs and is stitched on 28ct blue linen and finished as a hanging pillow ornament - such a cutie!

I also made these counting/marking pins and matching scissors fob for Larissa - I hope she likes them!

Well, that 'wraps up' the Christmas gifts for last year - I am always so relieved when all the packages arrive safely at their new homes :)

Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

 Michelle

Christmas Gifts Sent and Received

Hello dear stitching friends!  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas - we spent a wonderful day with family!

Dear Edit and I have been exchanging Christmas gifts for the past few years and this years both of us received our gifts before Christmas!  Here is the package I sent to Edit:

Here are the stitching and Christmas related items, including an ornament, counting/marking pins, fabric, cute Christmas themed mini pegs, labels and a card:

Here is a closeup of the ornament that I stitched for Edit - this sweet Owl is a design by The Floss Box and is stitched on 28ct self-dyed fabric and finished as a hanging pillow ornament:

This lovely bear and the hanging heart ornament was a gift for Edit's little baby girl, Sara - I hope she will like it!

I was lucky enough to receive this wonderful gift from Edit this year!  Look at that gorgeous draw string bag - it is so lovely, I wish I could use it all year round!  And that piece of Santa and reindeer fabric - so cute!  Also included was a chart for JBW Christmas ornaments and those cute gingerbread magnets and a little reindeer ornament!  Thank you so much Edit - I love everything!

That's it for now!  Have a great weekend and a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year!

Happy Stitching,

Michelle

Stitching Goals and Gifts Sent and Received

Can you believe that we are already ten days into the new year?  This year, for the first time I have decided to set some (hopefully obtainable!) stitching goals for myself.  The first goal being to stitch more Christmas ornaments - at least one a month.  Here is my ornament for January:

It is a 'Treasure Christmas Pincushion' by MTV Designs and was featured in the November 2008 issue of The Gift of Stitching Magazine.

It is stitched on 28 count evenweave fabric in DMC stranded cotton and House of Embroidery threads and trimmed with gold seed beads.  What a fun stitch!

Some of my other stitching goals include finishing at least a few blocks on my Shores of Hawk Run Hollow start and to completely finish the huge Historic Countries Sampler from The Gift of Stitching Magazine.  I am also going to try to restrict my amount of new starts until a few WIPs are done.  That being said - there are some new starts in the pipeline, but I will tell you more next time!

I sent out a few gifts to some blogging friends over the Holiday season and am happy to report that all gifts were received in good order.  This little package went to Edit - I love the little Winter Wonderland cushion and might even make one for myself  this year!

This package went to Annie - I am definitely enjoying pincushion finishes at the moment!

This gift went to Babs, along with an extra scissors fob for her mom.  I was lucky enough to receive some of the lovely Belgian Lace that her mom makes in a giveaway some time ago.

Here is a close up of the hand made gift goodies:

I also sent a gift to Lee in Brazil:

Here is a closeup of some of the contents of the package.  Lee collects thimbles and I found this cute little fellow in a local antique store - perfect for a Christmas package!  I made the fob, biscornu and scissors/needle book for her - all in pink!

I was also lucky enough to receive a lovely Christmas package from Edit.  I absolutely love the fabrics and can't wait to use them for some finishings!   I also love the ornament - it was on my 'to do' list and now I have one.  Thank you for the great gift Edit!

That is it for now!

Until next time - Happy Stitching!

Michelle