December WIPocalypse

The last two months I've mostly concentrated on small finishes for gifts. I planned on posting last month with the one finish I did have but I realized that I wasn't able to show you a pic because I'd already delivered the piece to my framer. I asked him only to stretch the piece for now and I'll get it framed later with consultation from my son. The finish is of course the birth sampler I stitched for my grandson.

 I'm quite pleased with how this looks. We wanted a birth sampler that wasn't really babyish and would grow with the child so that it could be hung in his room at any age. It's really a great birth announcement for a boy.

After finishing this one off I pulled out a kitted work by Shakespeare's Peddler. It's a small Christmas sampler called A Wassailing. It was a limited edition kit when it was released so as far as I know it's no longer available. It's stitched on Lakeside Linen Vintage Meadow Rue with Limited Edition Gentle Art floss. I've managed to complete a little more than half of the piece and I'm really hoping that I can finish it by year's end.

That's it for current WIPs although there are a couple still hiding in my pile, lol. They can wait for now as I start searching through my stash for what pieces I would like to work on in the coming year.

I didn't accomplish any of the goals I set out for myself last year with the exception of two. I completed the Pennsylvania Dutch Sampler that I had started last year and I chose A Yuletide Welcome as my Christmas stitch for the year. All of the other charts that I had pulled remained untouched as well as the WIPs from the previous year. As per usual, I ended pulling and stitching out a completely different choice of stitches. In light of that, I may just not compile a list for next year and just go with the flow, lol! 

December Smalls

 December was another busy month for smalls in terms of final finishing. I needed a push in the butt to get moving because once again I left things to the last minute and with less ambition and enthusiasm.

My granddaughters ornaments were the first priority specifically their requests, the snake and the rabbit. Here are the results of the final finishes. I've included photos of the backing fabric I used as well.

It was difficult to find a fabric in my stash to back the snake with. The fabric I chose reminded me somewhat of a snake's skin although it's not as clear in this picture as I would have liked.

With those two finished I moved onto finishing their Christmas ornaments. I cheated and pulled two previous stitched ornaments out of my pile and finished them up.

I squeeked out the final finishes on Dec. 14, packaged all their gifts up and mailed them out by Xpress post on Dec. 15. Believe it or not, they arrived at their home in Quebec two days later!! I was shocked. After all we all know how long it's taking to receive mail during the pandemic. 

I wasn't able to see the girls over Christmas but they took and posted a few pictures for me to see them opening their gifts. It looks like the ornaments were a hit as well as their requested pieces.

I also managed to finish off a name tree for my friend Trish and I finally got around to stitching one for myself after all the others were finished.

The first name tree is designed by Nouveau Encore Designs and my name tree was designed by M Designs who unfortunately is no longer designing.

I also finished the stitching on two small ornament finishes of a design called Twinkles by Stitcharoo Gifts. I spotted this little ornie on either a Facebook or Instagram post by another stitcher. I thought it would be a sweet and quick little finish.

I have stitched in on two different fabric linens. One is a pink-blue colour and the second is a light green with brighter colours for the floss.

As you can see, I have almost completed the final finishing on the first one. These will be put aside for next year's gifts for my granddaughters so I'm already ahead of the game!

I don't know how but I managed to squeek out all my finishes on time!