More Christmas stash!

I am sooo soooo happy! I got more stash for Christmas. My friend Curtis gave me 2 Charles Craft 28ct Monaco fabric in white and off-white, which is great because I needed fabric. But better yet, he gave me my first ever pair of Gingher scissors!!!! They are great!! I've wanted a pair for a very long time, but never got one. Now I have one thanks to him! Thank you Curtis!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Happy Holidays and Picture Catch Up

Here are the charts I got for Christmas. My DSD gave me the "Dawn, the fairy Spirit of Grace" chart from Passione Ricamo. My DH gave me Circe The Sorceress by Passione Ricamo as well as the fabric Bewitched by Polstitches Designs that is created specifically for that pattern. I am so so so happy!! I can't wait to kit them up and start stitching!

Here are the pictures of most of the crochet peices I have been doing as well. A rather large peice has no picture as it is not done yet, and a smaller peice is being used so it is not pictured either. There are 5 more angels that are not pictured, a silver one, gold one, white one and two red ones that I gave as presents.

Here is an ornament that I helped my friend Curtis make. He wanted to learn how to stitch so I helped him and he stitched this ornament for his mother for Christmas. I put it together and crocheted the hanger.

Last but not least, here is a picture of the ornament that I received in the Cross Stitch Crazy Ornament Exchange. It is stitched and finished by Jacque (momtogemma) and I LOVE IT! It has been hanging on my tree since I received it!! Thank you so very much Jacque!

Happy Holidays to everyone!!

Rough Week

Something happened to my back and I don't know what it is. I went to the emergency room beacuse it felt like the plate that holds my hip bone to my sacrum had moved or broken. According to the x-rays I had not broken the plate, nor had it moved from where it should be, but it does rock a bit since the screws are now all loose. The doctor thought it was the swelling that I have (my whole body with pitted edema in my legs) which is causing the increased sciatica and major pain increase that sent me to the hospital. I've been in bed for most of the week to try and keep the pain controlled. Today is the first day that my pain level has been below a 7 as I am currently at a 5. The swelling has not gone down, even with the diuretic I have been put on, so I get to call my primary care doctor and go see them to start checking on my kidneys, which the ER doc told me to do. The idea that something is wrong with my kidneys really scares me.

I have been stitching though, mostly crochet. I've finished a bunch of small peices that I am not sure what to do with yet. Though the angels will be turned into a window decoration for Christmas next year. I put one of the doilies under the crystal nativity peices on top of the TV. It has a ruffled edge, but it looks okay. Well I think I'm going to go do a bit of stitching on Stroke of Midnight.

Another Ornie

I turned that "Noel" peice that I did a while back with Kreneick silks into an ornament tonight. I made the cording myself and used the "join the backstitches together" finishing technique that I used on the blackwork cat for Velda. I really like that finishing technique. I gave this ornie to my friend's mother. She is a stitcher herself so I knew she would really like it. She did not believe that this was only my second completed ornament (ready to hang up complete). She said the blackwork cat looked like it was done professionally so that is why she did not believe it was my first. I looked her straight in the eye and told her that the cat had been my first completed ornament and the one I had just given her was only my second. That finishing technique is quick, easy, and turns out great results!

Velda got her ornament the other day and really liked it. Though she did tell me I am not to spend that much money on postage ever again. To me though, it was worth the $22.00 to send it priority mail as it was already late. I felt real bad being late on my first ever exchange so I sent it priority mail to be sure that it would arrive with enough time for Velda to enjoy it before Christmas is over. I'd do it again in a heart beat too. Considering the package I sent to California cost $16.00 and it was not sent priority mail, I feel that the extra few dollars spent to send the ornament to Canada quickly was well worth it.

Speaking of the package to California, it contained the birth announcement that I stitched for my friends' daughter. It was done over a year ago, I just kept forgetting to mail it so I made a special point to get it into the mail when I sent Velda's ornament. Chris and Chris were so happy when they got it! They loved it! Here is a picture of that peice as well.

I've been doing a lot of crocheting also. I haven't taken pictures of the peices I have finished, but I will try to get those up tomorrow.

It's Done!

YAY! I got it done and I am so so proud of it! I was so worried that any ornament I actually finished would look horrible or maybe like it was sewed by a chimpanzee! But when it was done, I was soooooo very happy with it, it looked great! I won't deny that for a few moments I wanted to keep it for myself LOL Instead I went to the post office, put it and a couple surprises into a box, addressed it to Canada and mailed it off to Velda. I really hope she likes it! I feel bad because it was late and even express mail said it would take 3 to 5 business days due to it having to go through customs. Which means the latest it will get there is Thursday the 13th, but at least it will be there 2 weeks before Christmas and she will have time to enjoy it before the holiday is over. The pictures do not show the fabric very well but it was a hand dyed Solo from Silkweaver that changed colors from a gray-blue to blue and then light purple to purple. I used the mostly purple peice for the back as Velda's favorite color is purple. For the seams I used a backstitch border around each peice then using 4 strands of floss (2 black and 2 dark purple) I joined the backstitches together to close the seams. I used the purple to help bring the purple back together with the blackwork front. The holly leaves are dark green satin stitch 3 strands, and the holly berries are red seedbeads from Mill Hill, 4 of them stitched close together with 1 strand red floss. The sparklies in the fabric were perfect through the blackwork, gives it a sparkle, but this doesn't show up well on the pictures.

The back was done by hand and I did not chart the words. I added the gold braid star to balance it out when it came out with extra space on the end of X-Mas. The back looks ok I guess.

I'm just glad that I got it done and it came out as well as it did. I hope Velda likes it!