Gifted Gorgeousness December Link-Up Post

Welcome to the Gifted Gorgeousness link-up post!  The link-up date will continue to be the 15th of each month but I will keep the linky open until the end of each month so you have plenty of time to join in.

The format remains EXACTLY the same as last year so I'm sure you are all aware of what can be included - gifts to and from you; charts, fabric or threads; shoe-horns welcome!

This is, of course, the final link-up post of the year.  Well done to everyone who has posted regularly and not-so-regularly.  It's always good to read your updates.  I will be having a giveaway again to celebrate the end of the year.  Each time you linked up gives you one entry into the giveaway.  I will choose a winner and then decide what to send them!

Gifted Gorgeousness will be continuing into 2017, I have quite enough gifted stash to keep me going for at least another year ten years fifty years!

Here are the gifted pieces I worked on over the last month:

Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dream - a gift from Riona

stitched on 32 count Moondust evenweave from Crafty Kitten

Spot of Winter by The Drawn Thread - giveaway prize from Gwen

Oberlin Witch, a gift from Barbara:

stitched on 32 count Lime Green Murano

And a new start for the Christmas Ornie SAL and the 12 Days of Christmas FB SAL:

stitched on 32 count white evenweave

This is Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas, a gift from my MIL some years ago.  My plan is to stitch an Angel and as much of the border as I can manage prior to the start of the 12 Days and then stitch on the relevant blocks for each day.

*************************

Here is the place for you to link up so we can see what Gifted Gorgeousness you have been stitching so far this year.  Please use your name or your blog name in the field NOT the words "December Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month.

And link to the actual post, not just your blog.  It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

Thank you.  I can amend links if you make a boo-boo though.

*

*

Finally, if you haven't already voted for me in the British Craft Awards, then please click on the link and do so now!  Only 5 days of voting to go.

December WIPocalypse Recap of the Year 2016

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World.

The focus of my WIPocalypse will be my "16 in '16" which are 16 projects I particularly wanted to concentrate on in 2016.   The full list can be found on my WIPocalypse page where you can also find my secondary list "16 Series in '16".

**************************************

So how did I do?  Answer - freaking amazingly well!  Probably my best WIPocalypse year ever!

I stitched on all 16 of my "16 in '16" and completed 12 of them, making really good progress on the other 4.  Here they are in no particular order:

Jannlynn – Gathering Honey - WIP

From here:

To here:

Teresa Wenztler – You were Hatched - Finished

Dragon of the Winter Moon from Riona - WIP

From here:

To here:

Nora Corbett Snowy Cottage from Nataly - Finished

Kustom Krafts Snapdragon from Lesley - WIP

From here:

To here:

CCN Poinsettia Cottage from Stitcher Anon - Finished

Strawberry Sampler from Lee  - Finished

Book of Spells from Carin  - Finished

Shepherds Bush She Tends from Kati - WIP

From here:

To here:

 

Shepherds Bush Mulberry Mini Sampler - Finished

Scarlet Letter - Elizabeth Shephard from Nicola - Finished

Nora Corbett J   - Finished

Nora Corbett C  - Finished

Nora Corbett E  - Finished

Nora Corbett S   - Finished

Just Nan Counting Bats   - Finished

Certainly a picture-heavy post today!  I am out for the work's Christmas meal tonight so I will leave it there and be back tomorrow with the Gifted Gorgeousness post.

Finally, here's a photo of our tree all decorated:

and one with all the lights on:

Making the Most of a Long Weekend Off

It's gonna get busy enough soon enough!

I usually only work 2 days a week, last week I worked Monday and Tuesday.  Next week I am working Thursday and Saturday so that meant I was off from Wednesday to Wednesday!  Eight days off without having to take any holiday.  Let's not mention that I will be working 7 out of 10 days from Thursday for the Christmas Rush.

So what have I been doing?  Helping hubby with the end of year accounts, writing Christmas cards, clearing the living room, keeping up with running TWO online Advent Calendars and, of course, stitching!

You saw the Spot of Winter last post and here is my final piece for the Hallowe'en Ornie Blog, Free Choice December:

stitched on 32 count lime green murano

This is part of a larger design by The Oberlin Sampler Company called Witches.  I will be stitching more of it as it fits into the themes next year alongside my focus piece for the Hallowe'en blog which you'll see in January!

I like this witch stirring her cauldron, there's a clever use of blended threads using grey and yellow for the highlights down her back and also grey and red down the front of her dress.  Love the flash of pink in her underskirt too.  She also has some French Knot warts on her face!

This afternoon I completed another Christmas Cube for the shelf:

And took the Small Boy out for a walk so Hubby and the Large Boy could wrangle the tree into place:

The decorations are still in the loft, not a place which is Small Boy-proof so I'll be getting up there tomorrow when he's at school.

In the evenings I've continued with Fox Forest by The Workbasket:

stitched on 32 count light khaki linen

It is looking nearly done but there's quite a bit of fill-in motifs and then a border all the way round the edge.  Should be done by the end of the year though.

Finally, I hope you're all enjoying the Advent Calendar Blog Hop.  I had so many people in the end, we are doing Double-Door Weekends so there's plenty to see.  Please leave comments on the participating blogs when you visit.  It's nice to share the love!

A Spot of Winter

Not just the weather, but a finish too!  Back in November Kaye from Kitten Stitching showed some new stash including four Drawn Thread designs; the "Spot of ..." seasons.  I mentioned that I had the same four charts and we decided to start a You've Got a Friend SAL (Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, all you have to do is call etc.) because that's the order we're stitching in.  Despite it being Summer in Australia!

Anyway, I decided to use the same fabric for all four designs which is the 35 Country Mocha linen I used for the Christmas Cubes.  Here is Winter:

Each chart comes with a little charm, a snowflake for Winter

And a selection of speciality stitches.  The trees are Sprats Head stitches, aren't they effective?

I used my own DMC conversion, changing some of the colours to make them a shade lighter or darker to suit the fabric.  And B5200, of course!  I also added a little Smyrna stitch in the centre of the hollow eyelets because they looked odd being empty!

I'm waiting for Kaye to catch up and show her's now.  We'll start Spring on 1st March.  If either of us remember!

In the evenings I've been down in the forest with the foxes!  Lots of progress on Fox Forest by The Workbasket here:

stitched on 32 count Light Khaki linen

(which is more green in real life)

Again, I am using my own DMC conversion to make it a little brighter.  I have one more fox to start and finish the rather raggedy looking fox on the bottom left.  The top left one looks like a corgi to me!

I finish-finished another Christmas Cube:

Because they are slightly smaller than the Hallowe'en Cubes they will actually fit in the shelf three high.  Just!

Finally, I signed up for a new Challenge on Facebook - The Ten a Day challenge!  Nothing to do with feminine hygiene, it's simply choose a project with approximately 3,600 stitches and stitch 10 stitches a day, you'll complete it at the end of the year.  I have copied Claire and chosen Just Nan's Spring in the Square:

The Quaint and Quintessential Alphabet Quorum

It's the first Saturday of the month so it's time for detention!

"They only met online, but it changed their lives forever"

I think most of you know the lovely enigmatic Chiara who blogs at The Grey Tail?  We were chatting via email a while back and between us came up with the idea of an A-Z language challenge.  We batted some ideas around and are calling it the The Alphabet Club.  Chiara has the full details on that link but basically she will post a link-up post on the first Saturday of each month (Saturday being detention day in the film) reminding us of the month's letter and we will all link up with themed things, from stitching to designers and local customs.

Q is for Queen of the Night from A Dark Alphabet designed by Julie and Becky's Note of Friendship blog.   She has Queen stitches in her crown.  These are a real love 'em or hate 'em stitch.  The Queen in the stitching is holding an embroidery hoop and an over sized needle and represents the Queen in a Turkish fairytale related on the NoF blog here - Q-is-for-Queen-of-Night.html

Q is also for Quilt which I know a lot of my followers enjoy.  Here is the Q block from A Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books.  It's a little different to the other blocks as the letter is not the focal point of the block, it's tucked into a corner:

stitched on 28 count afghan.

Q is for Quaker, a style of sampler made popular by the Quakers, a group of Christians founded in England in the 1600s and more formally titled The Society of Friends.  You can read more about their history here - Quakers - Our History.

The samplers often feature geometric motifs in a symmetrical pattern, or close to one, depending on the skill of the stitchers!  Here is Elizabeth Shephard, a Scarlet Letter reproduction I completed earlier this year:

And here are a couple of modern Quaker designs, Bunnies from Palko-lap:

 

I don't have any Q designers in my stash but I did find Queenstown Sampler Designs who have both reproduction samplers and original designs on their website.  And yes, they have a Quaker inspired design:

Quaker Friends by Queenstown Sampler Designs

I do have two Q designs in my stash, one called Quiet Hour Sampler by La Broderie and this one:

Queen Anne's House by Mill Hill

Over to blogging friends:

Quilting Dreams

Quietly Stitching

and a YouTuber

The Queen of Starts

I knew it would be a shorter alphabet post than usual!

Finally, the Advent Calendar is up and running, we have a new Door every day and Double Door weekends so make sure you pop back each day to visit the new bloggers.  Remember time differences mean some people post after some other people have gone to bed!  

November Pie and a New Start

Slight accumulation of posts at this end of the month!  I usually try space them better earlier in the month.

Let's have some Pie first:

You can certainly see what I worked on most during November!  Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams started off looking like this:

And ended up looking like this, not just a heap of snow after all!

stitched on 32 count Moondust evenweave from Crafty Kitten

I also spent quite a lot of time on the Brooke's Books Alphabet because I stitched 2 days on P at the beginning of the month and 4 days on Q at the end, usually it's only one letter per month.

I finished Q yesterday so I thought I would get a head start on the Hallowe'en stitching today instead of waiting until Friday.  Here's what I stitched:

stitched on 32 count Lime Green Murano

At least one person will recognise the design!

Here's where I am with The Workbasket's Fox Forest:

stitched on 32 count Light Khaki Linen

Apparently there are other Forests in the series - Deer, Rabbits and Owls.  Not sure if there are any more than that.

Finally, I would usually detail my spending for the month here.  But not this month because I spent a grand total of Nurthin!  Absolutely Zero, No Pounds and No Pence.  Even my mag sub isn't due until December!   See you all tomorrow for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop.