2018 Online Advent Calendar

Here is our Online Advent Calendar, it will be updated every day. 

Scroll down to see the latest picture and a link to the poster's blog.

This year I have asked each participant what their favourite Christmas song is.

It could be a traditional carol, a hymn or a more modern song.

Pop over to each blog to sing-a-long with our stitch-a-long!

Saturday 1st December

Aimetu's Stitching

♬ O Little Town of Bethlehem ♫

Sunday 2nd December

Dragon Stitches with Astrid

♬ Must Be Santa  ♫

and

Wicked Stitcher

♬ O Holy Night  ♫

Monday 3rd December

Kitten Stitching

♬ The Little Drummer Boy ♫

Tuesday 4th December

Miniz Diary

♬ Jingle Bells ♫

Wednesday 5th December

Ishkabibble

♬ O Holy Night  ♫

(with added Hawaiian lyrics)

Thursday 6th December

Tickled Pink in Stitches

♬ Move Me Closer (A Shepherd's Prayer) ♫

Friday 7th December

Le Coeur Celtique

♬ Fairytale of New York ♫

Saturday 8th December

Needles, Pins & Dragonflies

♬ Carol of the Bells ♫

Sunday 9th December

Tales of a Stitching Mouse

♬ The Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth) ♫

and

Tiffstitches a Blog
♬ The 12 Days of Christmas (Muppets and John Denver version) ♫

Monday 10th December

Oh Sew Crafty

♬ Every Day is Christmas ♫

Tuesday 11th December

Beth's Needlework Stash

♬ Emanuel ♫

Wednesday 12th December

RJ

♬ I'll be Home for Christmas ♫

and

Mary

♬ The Christmas Song ♫

Together RJ and Mary are:

Stitching Friends Forever

Thursday 13th December

The Easily Influenced Stitcher

♬ Mary, Did You Know? ♫

Friday 14th December

Jeremiah's Mom

Saturday 15th December

Ariadne from Greece

and

Mary's Threads

Sunday 16th December

A Stitcher's Story

and

The Flashing Scissors

Monday 17th December

Jocondine

Tuesday 18th December

Sewing After Seven

Wednesday 19th December

Books, Crafts and Other Procrastinations

Thursday 20th December

Elfin Stitches

Friday 21st December

Crafting Ramble

Saturday 22nd December

The Alchymyst's Study

and

Yellow Flower Meadow

Sunday 23rd December

Stitch Bitch

and

A Patchwork of Crafts

Friday 24th December

Needle, Pen and Sword

Hope you enjoyed the Advent Calendar this year! Remember to leave comments on each day to let people know you have visited too.

Becoming a OAAT Stitcher!

Sort of anyway if you don't count the Ten-a-Day, the Temperature SAL and the Bath Time stitching!

The Focus on a Finish project is currently Just Nan's 12 Days of Christmas.  I had been doing one a month throughout the year and have just two left to complete in November and December.  It made sense to work on both together to save changing colours so much.

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Getting close to a finish, just some black, some gold, the numbers and some backstitch.  Easily finished in time for Christmas this year.

The Temperature SAL is now firmly in the Green colours (7 to 14 degrees C)

One more column on the left and then the final four days of December have an entire side each.  Hetti has suggested that we had the words Temperature SAL and our location in the top and bottom borders which is a great idea.

I'm on Day 42 of my Ten-a-Day project which is currently Summer Typography:

stitched on 32 count Pink linen
(which looks nothing like that photo!)

It's really nice to be stitching something Summery even though I had to double check that was a yellow sun and not a white snowflake!

My rock painting has turned to Winter though.  Our group is hosting an Advent Calendar.  The chief Admin came up with 25 themes and we add a rock each day.  Here's a random selection of Christmas rocks I have done (not in any order, just added randomly).

Some will be hidden in the shop, some are off to Dover with a friend and some will be hidden near the local Primary School.  Too cold and muddy for the woods right now!

Finally, the Advent Calendar Blog Hop is now up and running.  We've seen some beautiful stitching and heard some lovely songs too.  I'm off to find out what today's choice is and update the post.  Don't forget to leave a comment on the post of the day.

December TUSAL of Finishes

It's TUSAL time, the Totally Useless SAL where we all show our ORTS and link-up on Daffycat's blog.

Here is my TUSAL jar with two projects:

The project on the left was my Focus for a Finish in November which I completed on the 2nd December.  Joan Elliott's Septemeber Reading Fairy:

stitched on 28 count Jazlyn in Aurora by Crafty Kitten

I added beads to her hair

Metallics to her dress and the backstitch for the wings and the moon

A little subtle bling for her.

This Fairy was part of the 2013 Diary which was a cover gift from World of Cross Stitching magazine.  It is now available from Joan and her usual stockists under the title "Year of Magical Stitching"

Here are all the designs I have completed so far:

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

APRIL

JUNE

JULY.

The project on the right hand side of the TUSAL is my latest Just Nan Small - Jump for Joy.  At the beginning of the year I started stitched 30-a-Day on these smalls and completed quite a few.  This idea ground to a halt at the end of September and it took me ages to finish the current one.  There will be a little charm in the centre.

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen

Finally, the Advent Calendar Blog Hop is now up and running.  We've seen some beautiful stitching and heard some lovely songs too.  I'm off to find out what today's choice is and update the post.  Don't forget to leave a comment on the post of the day.

The People Chose Dragons

Regular followers will be aware that for over 3 years now I have run a themed SAL on the first Saturday of each month.  First we spent 26 months doing The Alphabet Club and then 12 months of the Zodiac.  Now I have decided to listen to the People and post about your choice of theme.  In September I asked for suggestions on the blog and then made a poll in the IHSW Facebook Group from those suggestions.

The top three choices were:

Hallowe'en - posted in October

Birthstones - posted in November

Dragons

Obviously  this is a really difficult one for me, I had to hunt around and try dig out a dragon design I'd stitched.  Back in November 2015 I made a collage for the Alphabet Club D post:

So all I have to do is update that!

You Were Hatched by Teresa Wentzler

Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams

Bande des Dragons which I am calling a finish because I hate that aida and I'm cutting off the letters and making a drum finish using the top border.

I have one dragon WIP - Little Snap Dragon by Kustom Krafts:

the confetti is a killer!

There are a number of dragon themed designs in my stash including the companion to Dragon of the Winter Moon called Dragon of the Summer Sky.

Also, two samplers by Lisa Steele - this is Emerald Treasure:

So, why dragons?  What's so special about dragons?  They are intelligent, they are gorgeous, they are majestic, they can FLY.  Some can speak, others are telepathic.  They rarely deserve to die at the hands of knights!

The first book with dragons as main characters that I remember reading was Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey:

The story of Menolly who is driven out of her home, impresses a clutch of fire-lizards (miniature dragons) and becomes a harper.  Other books in the series focus on the full size dragons who are used to fight thread and protect the planet of Pern.  Wonderful stories and only slightly dated now in their treatment of female characters and the drudges.

I've been drawing dragons ever since I can remember too.  First on paper and now on rocks!

Based on You Were Hatched

Now it's over to you.  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Dragons, mention The People's Choice SAL (you can copy the picture I used at the top of this post and in my side bar) and my blog.  Please link up using the URL of the actual blog post, not the home page of your blog.  I look forward to seeing what you all post.

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Last month everyone voted on the choice for February.  Hearts was by far the most popular choice so that will be the theme for February.  I have updated the sidebar to show this.

Finally, I need your suggestions for the next poll.  Any thing, no matter how obscure, weird or random will go into the poll.  Keep the theme suggestions to a single word or two - so you could have Cats, or Blue, or Spring, or Holidays, or Warmth etc.  Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

Looking forward to reading them all!