My, my...where has January gone?

I cannot for the life of me figure out where January went!  I've been happily stitching along and here it's down to the last few days of the month, already!  My first finish of 2012 was to complete the stitching on the Prairie Schooler 2011 Schooler Santa.

I am now all caught up on Santas and can begin the process of "ornamentification" (thanks Heather for coining that word!).  I also have tons of other finishing to do, including two class projects, several door banners (all seasonal), and a couple dozen other ornaments. I might have to devote a whole month to sewing machine work to get everything "FINISHED"!

This one at least was a breeze....a Pine Mountain kit called What A Hoot! I was lazy and bought the pillow form after I took this picture. This just slips over the pillow and is tied on. If I ever do any more of their series I can just switch out the pillow form. My kind of easy!

Both of these were finished by January 3rd!  About that time I learned that my dear sister-in-law (DSIL) Ann (hubby's sister) is coming with her family for a visit this spring from way down under in New Zealand!
We were able to go down for a visit way back in 2000, which is when this next project started....she took me to a stitchy shop in Taupo and saw the Heritage Stitchcraft Map of New Zealand and asked me if I would stitch it for her, so how could I say no?  Long story, shortened, I worked on it for a while (and I recall that this was BEFORE I attempted anything that big, like a TW or Chatelaine). My daughter was 6 and time just did not allow for much work on it and I put it away the end of 2001.  Now that they are coming for a visit, I just HAD to get it out to finish so she could carry it home with her. I will make it a door banner too, for that reason. This is what it looked like early this month...sorry the pic is not very good.

Now, the South Island is done!

In fact, most of the North Island is done since that picture was taken a couple of weeks ago...I need to take another picture, and finish the coat of arms floating offshore to the west.....hopefully by the end of the month!

I am also working on two mini stocking ornies for my not-so-little kittens adopted last August. They are my carry-around project.  I also have a surprise coming soon, as I have been working on some biscornu designs of my own creation to share this year on my blog!  I just have to stitch up the first one, and get some help converting the pattern to a pdf to make it easier to download. I am using PCStitch Pro which I just got in the most recent form, and am still figuring out some of the new stuff on it.  Any advice on posting would be appreciated for those of you who have experience in this area!  Happy New Year!

Lots of smalls to celebrate!

November was a VERY busy month, and December is looking the same, so I'm posting a Happy Dance catch-up today!  I'm going to try and keep them in chronological order, so here we go.....

Early in the month I stitched the Mill Hill Buttoned & Beaded kit for the Gingerbread House, which was a birthday present for my DMIL Helen. I have given it to her so now I can post a picture!

The red frame is also from Mill Hill....what could be easier?

Next I stitched the last of the Val's Stuff Kitty Kalendar series for December. Stitched on a Silkweaver Solo on hand, and very cute!  Now that all 12 are done, I've got to figure out a way to finish them, possibly with only one small frame to switch them out every month.

Next is my November tiny biscornu, a freebie pattern from the Alexandrina blog Matrioshka Biscornu, the Acorn Biscornu and Scissor Fob set. I made the biscornu tiny by stitching over one and adding a leaf button. It is about an inch and a half across.

At this point I was on a roll when it comes to smalls, and decided to keep going because the month had been so busy with Thanksgiving and all, and the teenage boy kittens were getting too interested in my large Chatelaine on the frame!  Next up, the 1989 Schooler Santa from Prairie Schooler.....now I only have this year's 2011 Santa and beyond!

In a Christmas mood, I decided to get out the backlog of Just Cross Stitch ornament issues and stitch up a couple. These two are both from the 2004 ornie issue, Never Too Big, by Dragon Dreams....

...and Woodland Snowfall from Little House.  Hope to do a lot of ornament finishing in the new year!

Lastly, since I was going off to the JCS Christmas in Williamsburg Stitching Seminar I kitted up my December necklace fob and had it done in no time. The motif I used was from a pattern by Janie Hubble from the November issue of The Gift of Stitching online magazine. This is the smallest one yet, barely an inch across!  I added some beads and a tiny Polar Express bell to make it festive.

Now I am all caught up, and will post more later on the stitching seminar I attended with my friend Carolyn.
The class we took was with Barbara Jackson of Tristan Brooks Designs, and is a crewel strawberry needlebook and fob.

Christmas in July!

Wish we had the weather to go along with Christmas!  It's HOT in North Carolina right now!

My rotation interlude turned out to be a Christmas ornament, the 1990 Schooler Santa by Prairie Schooler.
It is stitched with DMC on 18ct putty khaki davos over one. I started stitching them around 2000, and decided to go back to the year my DH and I met in 1989 and make one a year onward as well. I am almost to the end of the oldies!  I will finish them all as ornies and will have a Schooler Santa tabletop tree at Christmas (along with our artificial tree...we have cats). This one I have dubbed the Wildlife Santa.

Now I get to go back to a large piece, Chatelaine's Holland Landscapes, to finally stitch the last of four tulip rows! At that point I will be 75% done on it. Think cool thoughts in this hot summer!

Christmas is sooner than you think!

Yep, I just realized...only about 3 and a half months till Christmas! I just recently got the 2010 Schooler Santa, so stitched him up over the first few days of the month...this year Santa is a skier! Eventually I'll have a whole tabletop tree of Santas when I get around to finishing them all into ornaments. ;-D

Newest Prairie Schooler Santa!

I finished this Hockey Santa Monday night. It is by Prairie Schooler, in their Schooler Santa series for 2009. Made a few "adjustments" to reflect my favorite hockey team, the Carolina Hurricanes! See if you can find them.....

....the fabric is 18ct khaki putty davos, and he will join his brothers as another ornie!

Prairie Schooler Santa ornament

A little Christmas in July stitching, this one being the 1991 Schooler Santa from Prairie Schooler!

I'm stitching backward through them all to the year I met my DH, which was 20 years ago last weekend! Two more, and then I'll just stitch each new one as they come out every year. Eventually I'll finish them all as ornaments and they will have their own tree. If you had to finish 20 ornaments how would you do it? I have some nice backing fabric, but I'm not really looking forward to 20+ little pillow ornies. Suggestions welcome!

I have also been working on stash organization and clearing my hobby room of extraneous "stuff". Right now it's chaos as I have been putting everything into an Excel file (being a former librarian has it's advantages, and obsessions too!). All the charts and leaflets are done, and most of the kitted stuff....saving the magazines for last as they are a whole other "obsession"! I'm eventually going make a list of stash up for adoption, so stay tuned.

Not to worry, I'll leave time for stitching, or go crazy!