‘The Tree Lot’ – Hands on Design

Apart from this year’s Holiday Countdown, these cute trees may well be my last finishes for 2025.

Tree 1 was started on 19^th and finished on the 20^th.

Tree 2 took a little longer because it was started on 20^th and finished on the 22^nd.

And the final tree was started on the 22^nd and finished on the 23^rd.

I grew a whole forest in just 5 days!

I’m so pleased with the way the colours pop on the black Aida and can’t wait to fully finish them.

 I wanted to get them all done and dusted before the big day, but didn't have to time to get to Hobbycraft for those little pals that people used to stand them in, because our local one closed.  Instead, I had a look in a couple of charity shops to see in I could find an alternative, and found this tray with four wire egg cups

And here they are fully finished.

I used some florist foam and decorated them with foliage from my garden. 

I would just like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who visits my blog on a regular basis and those who just stumble upon while searching the web for something else  and end up here, for the lovely comments you leave for me.  

We all know we don't keep our blogs in the hope of nice things being said about us, rather for the sheer joy of stitching and maybe inspiring others, but I'm got going to lie, it's heart warming to know that others appreciate and like what I do.

Wishing you all the joys of the season.  

Have a Peaceful and Happy Christmas, and most of all......

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Project

The Tree Lot

Designer – Hands on Design

Fabric – 16ct Black Aida

Threads – Classic ColorWorks

‘A Pretty Song’ - 2025 Holiday Countdown – Day 21 & 22

 The Holiday Countdown,  ‘A Pretty Song’, is coming along nicely, and after these two days we have just three more to go.

Day 21 the floss was a pretty pink called Piglet.   Very Apt!

The artwork is a drawing by Willen Wenckebach dated 1870 – 1937 and is called Children in the Snow.

And then yesterday we had ‘Brick House, a beautiful coppery brown accompanied by artwork from a Egyptian textile of a grapevine inhabited by two birds, from the 5^th to17th century.

 

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Project

‘A Pretty Song’ -  Holiday Countdown 2025

 A celebration with Evertote, Modern Folk Embroidery & Roxy Floss Co

Designer – Jacob de Graaf – Modern Folk Embroidery

Fabric – 36ct Linen – Vanilla Custard - Roxy Floss C0 / Evertote

Threads – Roxy Floss C0 / Evertote

 

 

‘A Pretty Song’ - 2025 Holiday Countdown – Day 19 & 20

 I really didn’t have an intension of having any more new starts before Christmas, but after deciding to put the Sal from Historische Stickmuster to one side because I couldn’t decide on the fabric, I  pulled out ‘The Tree Lot’ from Hands on Design.

I’m not sure that stitching on Black is something I’m really enjoying, but to make it a little easier, I decided to stitch it on 16ct Aida, and I made some good progress on my first afternoon of stitching.

I do love how the colours pop though!

I've also completed days 19 and 20 of the 2025 Holiday Countdown, ‘A Pretty Song’.

Day 19’s art work is a Limestone statuette of a bird.  ca.600-480BCE  and the thread was very special.  ‘Parakeet’ is a beautiful blue with tiny specks of green.

And today we had ‘Lipstick’, a rich variegated red and a very sweet thread bobbin....that was a nice surprise!

The art work shows details from ‘The Falcon Hunt’, a tapestry from the Southern Netherlands, ca 1500-1530.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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‘A Pretty Song’ -  Holiday Countdown 2025

 A celebration with Evertote, Modern Folk Embroidery & Roxy Floss Co

Designer – Jacob de Graaf – Modern Folk Embroidery

Fabric – 36ct Linen – Vanilla Custard - Roxy Floss Co,  and Evertote

Threads – Roxy Floss Co, and Evertote,

The Tree Lot

Designer – Hands on Design

Fabric – 16ct Black Aida

Threads – Classic Color Works (Called for)

‘A Pretty Song’ - 2025 Holiday Countdown – Day 17 & 18

As the stitching progresses, we are now adding to the centre of piece and we have two more beautiful threads from Roxy Floss Co,

Cashmere and Belladonna

We’ve also had some more artwork on the back of one of the charts.

This is a silver box in the shape of a swan by Huybert van de Berch, Dordrecht, 1639.

There was no artwork on day 18 because Jacob from Modern Folk Embroidery has kindly given us another bonus chart, making 4 extra charts so far.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Project

‘A Pretty Song’ -  Holiday Countdown 2025

 A celebration with Evertote, Modern Folk Embroidery & Roxy Floss Co

Designer – Jacob de Graaf – Modern Folk Embroidery

Fabric – 36ct Linen – Vanilla Custard - Roxy Floss C0 / Evertote

Threads – Roxy Floss C0 / Evertote 

Snow Globes – Hello from Liz Mathews

Over the weekend of the 5^th December, I joined in with the ‘Jingle Ball’ and took part in three of the virtual classes and yesterday I spent the afternoon having fun making up my Snow Globes.

I decided that I would make two globes to start with, one in a jar and the other in a plastic globe that I came across in ‘The Works’. I had pre-stitched all the little pieces, including a little Robin, because he is known as our Christmas bird over here.

The first one I completed was a little woodland scene, with a tree, reindeer and rabbit.

Then, I went for a winter scene, complete with a house, snowman and my little robin.

I was so pleased with the way they turned out and especially loved the technique that Liz came up with to stiffen the stitching around the edges to stop the fabric from fraying.  It’s definitely something I will try using again on other projects.

Now I need to get a wiggle on and finish the projects from the other two classes, but instead I've been trying to catch up with  ‘A Pretty Song’,  the 2025 Holiday Countdown. 

You last saw it when I had reached day 6. 

Now I've reached day 16 and I've caught up.

I'll share all the previous, fantastic artwork that Jacob has given us later, as well as all the gorgeous Roxy Floss, but todays artwork is ‘Argonauts in Peacock Boat from 1664 and the floss was  ‘On the Air’

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Happy  Stitching!

Sue

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You’ve Been Framed!

 It's only taken 3 years to get the oldest of these pieces framed.

But this was the weekend!

You will have already seen that I ordered the frames from my usual supplier, Picture Frames Express, a few weeks back and this has been the first opportunity I've had to get them done. 

The first project that I framed was ‘Sing for Joy’ from Cottage Garden Samplings which I finished in April this year.

All the other projects are all Evertote, /Roxy Floss Co and Modern Folk Embroidery Holiday Countdown related.

First is the Holiday Countdown from December 2022, which was a Frisian Band Sampler.

And that year we were also given a bonus chart, ‘Dream of a Winter Garden’.

Next is the Holiday Countdown from 2023 and that was ‘Gathering the Last Fruit’.

And finally, last year’s Holiday Countdown was 'The Yule Dance’.

This year’s Holiday Countdown is coming along nicely, although I'm still playing catch-up and I'm currently stitching on day 9.

But I already have the frame for it, so there shouldn't be a 3 year wait for this one!

 

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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12 in 25 - Believe – Christmas Blue Ornaments – Joan Elliott Designs

Last week I was on a high because all the plans I had made had gone well and I achieved everything I'd set out to do.  This week…..not so good!

Some things have gone well, including the finish of my final stitch for the 12 in 25 Christmas Ornament Sal, hosted by Carol from   Stitching Dream Blogspot

‘Believe’ was the 9^th of the Blue Ornaments that I changed to Gold, from Joan Elliott.

I even managed to correct last month’s one that I had mistakenly finished on the wrong side.

So, here’s my little tree, displaying this years efforts, well 10 of them anyway! 

The other two have already gone to their new home.

Thank you Carol, for the fun challenge again this year and roll on January!!

I managed a new start last week, which I also FFO'd and one other FFO.

The new start that I fully finished was ‘Snowman’, a free chart from  Erin Elizabeth Designs 

And the other FFO was ‘Toy Shoppe’ from Dimensions.

I ordered the custom frame from  Picture Frames Express .

Now, the things that didn't go so well were the two stich-a-longs. I feel bad, having promised daily updates, because I’ve not done a single one.

I’m still playing catch up with ‘A Pretty Song’ the Holiday Countdown from Evertote, /Roxy Floss Co and Modern Folk Embroidery.

I’ve just finished day 6 and love how it’s coming along.

As for the Santa Claws is coming to Town, from Historische Stickmuster , well I’ve not touched it at all since then.

As you know, I changed the linen because I felt to was too stiff and swapped it for a lighter colour.  But I’m not happy with that either, so I ordered four new pieces of linen from 123 stitch. 

All I have to do now is decide which one to use and start over again.   Third time lucky!

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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