November Smalls

I thought I had screwed up on the date for this post but then realized my mind is better than I thought, lol! I managed to complete two smalls this month.
As you saw in my earlier WIPocalypse post, I stitched up Threadwork Primitives Christmas Fruit Basket. I had a few small patterns in my stash which contained fruit baskets. I got the bright idea that perhaps I should stitch up a few of them, finish them into pin pillows and display them for the upcoming Christmas season.
Here are the next two fruit basket designs I completed. The first is by Heartstring Samplery and is called The Holly Bears the Crown.

The second finish is by Tina Woltman of Early Workings and is called A Colonial Christmas. I especially love this one!

I have one remaining design, another Early Workings, which I'd like to complete and add to these. I know I'll get it stitched in time but there may not be time for my final finishing now. I've managed to fall behind in some stitching for Christmas gifts. I like to stitch a couple of ornaments for my granddaughters but they like to choose the designs. I only just received their requests last week so now I'm concentrating on getting these two stitched and finished first. I will have pictures of these up for my December Smalls along with the last fruit basket finish. See you then!

November WIPocalypse

Late to the party again but at least I arrived! I switched gears this month and decided I had better get some of my Christmas stitching done. Consequently I never got my Blackwater Hollow piece finished off as I'd hoped to. Here's where I am at this point.

There isn't a lot left to do on this piece but I'm still working on Christmas so it may be some time before I get back to it.

As part of a SAL group on F/B I stitched up this lovely piece by Nan Lewis of Threadwork Primitives. It is called Christmas Fruit Basket and I plan on finishing it off as a pinkeep. 

I have several Christmas pinkeep patterns all of which have a fruit basket of some sort in them. I decided I would stitch up a few of these and display them in my antique dough bowl along with some sprigs of pine and berries. I have finished stitching 2 more with a third yet to follow. I will then finish them all together. You can see pictures of the other two finishes on my Smalls post towards the end of this month. 

As well as the fruit basket designs I am at work stitching up a couple of Prairie Schooler ornaments for my granddaughters. I don't have enough progress to post a pic on these yet.

I also picked up two framed pieces of my stitching this month. The first one is framed in an antique frame with convex (bubble) glass which I found while antique hunting in Muskoka this past summer. This piece was already stretched and it was just slightly small for the frame. My framer said he could work with it and would add a mat. It turned out beautifully! I have already had so many compliments on this one.

 Plum Street Samplers Fruit of the Spirit

The second frame is an early Christmas gift from my husband. Usually I go and pick the frame but don't see the final piece until Christmas day. This time however I wanted this one on the walls to display leading up to the holiday. I stitched this in late 2014 and finished it in early 2015. 

With Thy Needle & Thread Heaven & Nature Sing

Stitching aside now,I made a weekend visit to celebrate my granddaughter Summer's birthday. She is the younger of the two and has now reached double digits! Here are a few pics from the time I spent with them. I miss them both terribly already!

 It was a lovely weekend for the drive up there and I'm so glad that I went when I did. Here is what we woke up to this morning.

 It has snowed all day and there is now more than what appears in these pics. It was a rude awakening but we had been told to expect it. From what I hear it will be a long, snowy winter!

Now back to my Christmas stitching! See you soon.