Snowmen Christmas ornaments

I was finally able to finish the Handprints - Woodland Animals project with baby info. Henry was born on August 17 (only 3 days late). Here is a photo to see how the fabric will look with it the wood frame.  I still need to frame it properly, this was just to check the colour. The love how the frame matches the colours of the raccoon.

In the meantime, I have stitched 2 snowman ornaments.  I have stitched this pattern in the past. I will mail one to a friend in OHIO (keep the 2nd one for a backup sometime), that is why I decided on this design because the ornament is flatter than most. You layer the 3 snowballs on top of each other. 

I’ll try and build them for next months FFG along with assembling 5 mice.

Here is the link to the last time I stitched this snowman.  https://colourfulcrossstitches.blogspot.com/2016/09/snowman-ornament-happy-dance.html

I have been going through some of my old cross stitch magazines looking for some new projects.  Here are 5 I have chosen. 2 lighthouses for our ensuite bathroom and 3 garden scenes will go somewhere else in our house.

Lighthouses - Just Cross Stitch June 2001. I will be using 28ct Jobelan Bablingbrook (leftover fabric from Snowman Wisdom shown below). 

Lighthouse - At Home on the Point (5x7)
Lighthouse - Rounding the Point (5x7)

In the Garden - Cross Stitch & Country Craft magazines (1988). I will use 28ct white evenweave for all 3 garden scenes.

Colonial Garden (7 1/2 x 5)

Victorian Garden (7 1/2 x 5)

Country Garden (7 1/2 x 5)

These should keep me busy for the rest of 2023 and early 2024.

Fully Finished Gallery - July 2023

 

Thanks to Rachel over at Ten Hour Stitcher for this monthly SAL. This is the first time I’m participating this year because it is my first big finish of the year. My husband Dave requested a wall hanging to replace the winter snowman one, so this is what he got.

I made it into a quilted wall hanging. It is bigger than I pictured in my mind but I had to use more butterfly fabric between each flower or you wouldn’t see much of the butterflies. I thought a metre of fabric was enough but that only did the front. I found some purple fabric in my sewing stash.

I watched a video on How To Make a Flanged Pillow by the Twisted Stitcher (Vonna Pfeiffer). She taught me how to make sure my evenweave fabric was cut straight. I used the pulling a thread method instead of the rotary cutter because my fabric was crooked. This way I knew I’d have the same amount of threads all around the square flowers. 

December - poinsettia

 I just completed the last monthly flower.

Next week I will assemble the 12 monthly flowers into a wall hanging.

November - chrysanthemum - Happy Dance

 I just completed another monthly flower. I’m on vacation for the next 2 weeks, so I may not have time to start the last flower until I get home.

November - chrysanthemums

 I started the next flower on May 29th.

October - calendula (happy dance)

 I was able to finish the flower this evening.

October - calendula

 I made a start on the next flower.

I also completed a 1000pc puzzle of wild birds.

September - aster

 I finished this flower the middle of April but forgot to post a photo.

I only have 3 more to do. I really like how the flowers looked backstitched, so I am going to back stitch around the flowers I already completed before starting October. I did January this afternoon, and now I’m working on February. 

August - gladiolus

 I just finished another flower August - gladiolus.

July - Larkspur

 I finished the July Larkspur flower last night. 

I hope to start August - Gladiolus later today or tomorrow.

Monthly Flower borders

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Dave & I have both had head colds for over a week now.  We feel better, but can’t seem to get rid of the cough and stuffy nose. I haven’t stitched much this month, but did manage to measure and cut my fabric, then stitch the borders for the last 6 monthly flowers.

I am about to start the July - Larkspur (top left) flower today.

The other flowers are August (gladiolus), September (aster), October (calendula), November (chrysanthemum), and December (poinsettia). 

2023

 Happy (late) New Year!

I am still cross stitching, but just terrible at blogging.  I started a new project for my husband.  He asked me to stitch something to hang on the wall that isn’t winter themed because I already have a winter wall hanging (Snowman Wisdom) and he wants to replace it during the other seasons of the year.  So I looked through my computer files and thought flowers would be nice to look at throughout the other parts of the year.  You can find the free monthly flowers by Ellen Maurer-Stroh on her website.

This is what the flowers look like (I borrowed these images from her website. 

I plan on doing 2 columns of 6 flowers. This is the butterfly fabric I will be using in between each square. I couldn’t find one with brown, but I think it will be fine with the flowers.

The pattern calls for DMC 3864 for the square borders (outside and inside), but I used DMC 3862 (a bit darker) for the outside double border and the DMC 3864 for the inside square border instead.

January - Carnations (Nov 14-23, 2022)

May - Lily of the valley (Dec 2, 2022 - Jan 5, 2023)

February - Violets (Jan 5-13, 2023)

March - Daffodils (Jan 15-19, 2023).  This is the only pattern so far that has backstitching.

April - Sweet Peas (Jan 19-27, 2023)

June - Wild Rose (Jan 27 - Feb 1). I added the backstitching because I thought it needed it. Might go back and add to the other flowers, but not sure yet.

I am thinking of participating in the 2023 Botanical Blackwork SAL at The Steady Thread. I have joined their Facebook page and am watching everyone else to see if I want to commit to the project.  It is 47 weeks long.  There are 2 versions (square and hexagon) with different border options to make the project more personal for everyone.  I’m planning mine out first on my computer to see which border and extra items to add to it in case I want to join in.  It won’t take long to catch up on blackwork.