December Smalls

         

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

Following the sucess of the October Smalls Focus I decided to do the same in December with three Christmas Smalls from my Just Nan-athon.

The first up as the complementary Angel Ornament which comes with the Angel Flowers chart.  I started this one in May 2021 and finished and FFO'd it this month:

Next up was Snowberries, part of the Ornamental Treasure series.  I started this one way back in 2018 and it's finished all except the beading.  I don't have the beadpack so I have to find substitutes from my stash and need the time to do that.

stitched on 28 count pale blue evenweave

The third Small is finished and I added beads to it rather than wrestle with metallic Smyrna Stitches!  This one is Special Delivery, the 2003 Ornament.  It came with the fabric and the gold envelope charm which even has a tiny Christmas card inside!  I also started this one in 2018.

stitched on 28 count Flax linen provided

Card inside the envelope!

Not bad for one month - one FFO, one finish and one nearly finished.

Finally, thanks to everyone who took part in the Advent Calendar Blog Hop this year and to everyone who visited each day and left lovely comments on each post.  People really do appreciate those comments, especially at such a busy time of the year.

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for December

        

Hosted by Rachel the Ten Hour Stitcher

This SAL is designed to motivate us all to do something with that box of Finished pieces instead of just storing them under the bed.  We will all be linking up on Rachel's blog on or after the 10th of each month (10 Hour Stitcher - 10th of the month).

I have two fully finished objects this month.  First of all, a little Christmas pillow ornament.

Following the success of finishing Just Nan Spooky Smalls in October, I decided to do the same in December with some Christmas Smalls.  The first one is the complimentary ornament from the Angel Flowers sampler.  This is something Nan did with some of her older samplers, add a little ornament to match.

I started this one in May 2021 as part of my annual Just Nan-athon and just added a simple gold hanger.

stitched on 28 count pink linen

The second finish was professionally framed by my lovely framer of 20 years.  I took this one in and she was delighted with her gift as she is a Taurus herself!  I told her that in exchange for free framing for life she could keep it LOL

We went for a dark brown frame with a silver inner to keep the glass away from the beads.

Corner detail of the frame:

Each Zodiac sign with be framed differently as the fabrics and designs are so different, I don't need the frames to match as it's unlikely I will dispalay all 12 together!

Finally, the Advent Calendar.  Unfortunately we didn't get enough participants this year so I will be using the spare days myself.

This year the topic is Santa Stories, and here's one of mine.

This was the silo in our town that the elves used to store presents for all the local children.  When the tree on top was lit up that meant the silo was full and it was a signal to Santa that he could stop by and refill his sleigh when he reached our town.

In reality, it is a grain silo and the tree was placed on top for a bit of festive fun for the elderly mother of the manager there.  She lived in the only tower block in town and could see her son's workplace from her window.  So his workmates thought it would be nice for her to have a tree to look at!

Initially it was a real tree but in later years it was replaced by a much taller metal tree.  There's an article about it here - https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/21097378.lowestoft-christmas-tree-hits-epic-heights/