I put all other sewing aside for the last couple of weeks so that I could make my gift tag for the annual office Secret Santa exchange. I do a tag every year; it's become a tradition. At first I did some complex paper tags, but then I changed to cross stitch on plastic canvas. The last couple of years I have added beading. I always make them double-sided so they can be hung as ornament. This year the tag is completely beaded. It looks very nice, but it's a lot of added work. Cross-stitch is zip-zip, but when you bead you have to pause at every cross to catch a bead on your needle. I lost one whole evening of stitching because I hit the bead container wrong and spent the rest of the evening painstakingly rescuing beads from the carpeting. Sheesh! Anyway, it's done now and I think it came out well. The person whose name I pulled this year has a 1 1/2 year old baby, so I thought this Santa tag would be nice.

End of November Already?!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving this year. Meg was home from school Tuesday night. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner (butternut squash soup, turkey, stuffin' muffins, mashed potatoes/sweet potatoes, California salad and Meg made cream puffs for dessert). We always have a good time when we get together with my brother's family, so the whole evening was fun. Even better was the rest of the weekend. Dennis had to work Friday, so Meg and I did a little bit of Black Friday shopping (NOT at 4am!) and got our hair cut. Saturday morning we all volunteered at our church food pantry for a few hours. Aside from that, we had Wednesday evening, Friday evening and almost all of Saturday as relaxing family time. It was so nice to look up from my sewing (it was so nice to have time to sew!) and see the two people I love most right there.

By dint of working really hard, I did manage to finish the first page of my Winter Fairy! That's 1/4 done! I'm very excited - many times I thought I'd never get this far. All the half stitches in her face and hair just about drove me crazy. When I got to her eyes I decided to change the drak grey of the pattern to a dark blue of about the same shade. Here's a picture of her. Isn't she pretty? She looks like she's stepping behind a wall right now. I debated on whether to do the other top page or the bottom righthand page. I really don't like working on her skirt (white; near-white; ultra pale blue; pale blue...) so I decided to do the bottom right page and get a lot of the skirt done and out of the way. Getting to the little bunny at her feet will be my reward.

If anyone does read this, I'd like your opinion. Do you think I should backstitch what I have done or wait until the whole picture is completed? Some backstitching I can't do yet because I don't have the special Kreinik thread. I need to order that online. I will definitely leave the beading till the end.

Happy November!

Assuming anyone reads this, I don't have any picture updates for you today. I have finished one piece and started on another but as they will be Christmas gifts and there's the possibility of the recipients reading this post (ha! now that will keep certain people wondering!) I can't post any details or pictures. Suffice it to say that I'm very pleased with the one that is done and am making good progress on the other. All that has cut into my stitching time on WF, though. I have gotten some work done on her, but will wait until I have more so that a picture will be worth posting. If all goes well, I will be done with the first page and started on the second by Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, so that this isn't a total waste of your time, here are some things to celebrate this month. My comments are in brackets.
Weeks:
1-7 World Communications
4-10 Chemistry
5-9 “Dear Santa” Letter [write early - avoid the rush]
8-14 Pursuit of Happiness
11-17 Geography Awareness
11-17 Random Acts of Kindness [nice to do all year]
12-18 Shallow Persons Awareness [don't be one!]
18-25 Bible

Daily:
2 Plan Your Epitaph
3 Cliché [but not on your epitaph!]
3 Sandwich [try something new or revisit an old favorite]
8 Cook Something Bold and Pungent
11 Veterans Day [thank a Veteran]
13 World Kindness
14 Teddy Bear
15 America Recycles
17 Chocolate Celebration [I thought that was every day]
18 Mickey Mouse
20 Great American Smokeout [encourage someone - or yourself - to quit]
23 Buy Nothing
25 American Thanksgiving
26 Electronic Greetings [tell someone you’re thankful for them]
30 Stay Home Because You Are Well [now there’s a good way to end the month!]

Bookmarks Done!

I finally finished stitching and putting the backings on all my bookmarks. Dorothy sent me hers as well - they are so cute and beautifully done! - and the package is on its way to St. Judes Hospital. Here's a picture of all dozen of them. Mine are the two "I [heart] to Read", the rose, the elephant, the ghost and "Read" with the little animals on the letters. I'm thinking of trying to get people to do a batch for a late spring mailing. It really feels nice to do something creative and then send it off to brighten a stranger's life, particularly a child's. If anyone reading this is interested in participating, please let me know.

Mid-October Update

I finally had time to sit and work on my WF, and I completed another whole portion of her wing. One more portion of wing and half of her lovely face to go and then I'll be done with the first of the four pages of design. Obviously, she will NOT be done for this Winter! But I will continue to take advantage of my Sunday afternoons and holiday time and finish her for next Winter. So here's the latest look at her.

Bookmark #5 Done

I kind of zipped through bookmark #5. It was a bit different, as it used a single thread over 18 count. It was fun and simple enough that I could work on it while watching TV - so I did. Isn't it cute? The fabric and pattern were a kit. I changed up the colors slightly, so I would could use floss I had on hand, but they're very close to what the pattern specified.

Just one more bookmark to complete for the package to St. Judes. I will go through my patterns tonight and set up a new kit. We're busy for a lot of Saturday, but I'll try to get a start on it. I've designated all Sunday sewing as purely WF time. I may work on WF at other times, but any sewing on Sunday is on her. Once I finish the last bookmark I'll start on the Christmas present I plan to do. I also need to choose and make a gift tag for my office Secret Santa gift. Busy hands are happy hands! Meanwhile, here's a picture of #5.

Ah, September

I don't have a favorite season. My favorite time is the beginning of each new season - the first snowfall of winter, the first crocus in the spring, the first time it's warm enough to wear short sleeves with no coat, the first nip in the air that brings out all the snuggly clothes. So I'm happy to see Autumn arriving with all its glorious, intoxicating colors. I love switching out the flowery summer decorations for the rich, deep leaves and bright chrysanthemums.

Stitching, however, is a year-round pleasure. I've been going great guns in my "snippet time" (little bits here and there) and am nearly done with bookmark #5. I'll have a picture of that to post next time. After this, I have one more bookmark to do by October, and then finish them all to send to St. Judes before Halloween.

I have also made some more progress on Winter Fairy, as you can see. Got more wing done and a little bit of her hair that frames her face. However, barring winning the lottery and thus having nothing to do but sew all day every day, I've reluctantly come to realize that there is no way she'll be done by this Winter. So my goal has shifted to finishing this first page and getting a start on the second page by Thanksgiving.

I have one other project to start after I finish the bookmarks, but that is a Christmas gift, so I will not post any descriptions or pictures until after it's been received.