Happy New Year!

There's bit over 3 hours left of the old year, so I'd better hurry and show the rest of the finishes of 2008.

I finished the Damier at the end of November. Yay! It turned out so beautiful. The design was published by Les Grilles de Maryse throughout 2008. It is stitched on Silkweaver's 32ct Spanish Moss Belfast linen with DMC floss. I'm planning to finish it as a cushion, hopefully sooner than later :-)


Then I finished Chatelaine's Christmas Mystery V. I took it to framer's right away and got it back just for Christmas. I love how it turned out! The lovely fabric is 28ct English Rose Jazlyn. But it doesn't photograph too well, I'm afraid.

And here's a close-up photo to show the frame better:


After Christmas I finished part 6 of Chatelaine's Mystery XI and moved on to part 7. Hope to share a progress picture of that part soon.


And then some older finishes... I stitched this ornament for a birthday card. It's from Tantes Zolder and stitched using Needle Necessities floss.


During my summer holidays I stitched this summer bag. The bag itself is from Violarium and the model, by Margaret Sherry, from Cross Stitcher magazine, issue 201. It was a lovely project, the materials were easy to carry anywhere I went... :-)


This card was for a cousin's wedding in autumn. The letters are from The World of Cross Stitching magazine, issue 141.


With this, I'm wrapping up 2008 and wish everyone a Happy 2009!

Christmas

As Christmas Day is turning into night, it is high time to share with you the wonderful Christmas exchange I received already earlier in December. It was sent to me by Mari.

This exchange included six items: an ornament, two stitching related items, something with recipient's favourite (Christmas) colour, something to eat and a surprise. And this is what I found when I opened the envelope:


I had indicated green as my favourite colour and Mari had stitched my name in the cover of a small green box. It is just lovely! And when I opened the box, I saw all these wonderful items:


The ornament itself is a cube, with stitching on all sides (please visit Mari's blog for more photos of the ornament itself) and a jingle bell inside! What a clever idea! It is so beautiful, the colours are truly lovely! The two stitching related items were floss and fabric (both of shades of green). I already have ideas how to use them... Something to eat was the After Eight chocolate, one of my favourite goodies! As a surprise Mari sent me lovely buttons (they are hiding in the small angel box). I love the ornament, and the box, and the chocolate (which is already long gone :-), and the floss and fabric, and the buttons... And there was a lovely card and equally lovely letter enclosed in the package, too. Thank you, Mari, for such a magnificent package!

I sent an exchange to Outi. I had received the Autumn exchange from her, so it was really nice to plan an exchange for her in return! I stitched her the Snowflake from Mill Hill's Tiny Treasured Diamond series.


And this is the whole package I sent. Let's see if you can find all the items (the ornament, JCS ornament issue 2004 and some backing fabric as stitching related items, silver candles according to her favourite colour, chocolate, and as the surprise: a small blue glass angel, as Outi mentioned angels are one of her favourite themes). There are more photos in Outi's blog.



And to wrap up this long entry, here are some Christmas gifts I made this year:

I stitched another Blue Ribbon Designs' ornament for my goddaughter, this is from the Gift of Stitching magazine December 2007 issue as well:


I also stitched an ornament for a cousin, this one is from Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue 2008. I will add more info later (the magazine is at home and I'm not :-)


I stitched this two-sided ornament for my parents. The dogs are from two different designs by Frimousse. I changed the Cavalier King Charles design a bit to make it look more like the one my parents had. The Bernese Mountain Dog stayed as designed as it would have been more difficult to change (as it is over one and as the two Bernese we've had in our lives so far did not look exactly like one another, of course).


My mother received this bookmark, Le Panier de Marie-Antoinette, by Le Bonheur des Dames, in a package together with a book. It was really fun and quick to stitch and finish.


And these tiny socks were made for my little godson:


I still have other finishes to share; I will try post them before the turn of the year, so please check back!

I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas!

A new start

After a long while (I had a rough autumn and just about forgot about this blog), I thought I would make a new start, so here are finally some pictures...

My first finish of 2008 (just after an hour into the new year :-) was Chatelaine's Mystery X, Secret Victorian Garden. It took about 280 hours to finish, from January 2007 to January 2008. I will attach the bicones after washing the piece.


Later in the day I finished this small design (from a Lanarte kit). It started as my travel project last autumn and took overall only a few hours to stitch:


I have several new starts in January. I'll post pictures of them later next week.