WIP Wednesday: 2017 Wrap-up

2017 is almost over, and this is the last Wednesday of the year for me to share my work in progress pics with you. I’ve got four main projects in the works right now.

Helix Nebula is coming along nicely, but has been put on a hiatus while I finish my Mom’s Christmas present.

This is my Mom’s Christmas present. As you can see, I have not yet finished it, despite it being after Christmas. She knows that it is on the way, though, so posting a picture won’t spoil it.

And I’m also knitting up some mittens for my sister-in-law’s Christmas present. These are also not a surprise, I spent most of Christmas day with her working on them. The pattern is York Fingerless Mittens, free on Ravelry.

And finally, I’m in the home stretch for piecing the Colorwash quilt top. My goal was the finish the top before Christmas, because I got the kit last Christmas. I just need to sew together all the rows and add the borders. All the rows are pinned and piled on my sewing table.

That does it for WIP Wednesday for 2017. See you in the new year!

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Flower of the Month: December

The tenth installment of the flower of the month series is here, with December’s poinsettia. The patterns from the series are from Ellen Maurer-Stroh, who has some great free patterns.

The poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is native to Mexico and Central America. It has been associated with Christmas since the 17th century. Around this time of year in the U.S., there are poinsettias everywhere: doctors’ offices, grocery stores, banks, etc. In fact, today, December 12, is National Poinsettia Day here!

Like the other squares, I added the month name in the border (with DMC 935), using the chart I posted.

The stitching is done in two strands on 18 count antique white aida cloth.

Next month: the carnation.

Christmas & Hanukkah Dogs

Happy December, everyone! Time to get fully in the swing of the holidays, and I’m doing my part by sharing these cross-stitches that I made almost exactly one year ago.

These are two sides to an ornament I made last year for my parents. One side is for Christmas and the other for Hanukkah. The dog is designed to look like their dog, Claire.

This is Claire

I think I got the colors and the ears pretty close. I colored the Aida cloth with acrylic paints & Martha Stewart fabric medium, which worked fine to color it, but did make the fabric very stiff and harder to work with. Also, it was probably not a great idea to make the Christmas background green and the text red. But my parents have another (additional) dog now, so I will have to make another set of ornaments for 2015!

What are you stitching up for the holidays?

TBT: Red and Black

I thought it was time for a little throwback Thursday, so today I’m sharing an older finished cross stitch piece that I made:

I made these snowflake/star things in December 2014; they were my last finish for that year. This was my first project working on black aida and it was not nearly so bad as I thought it would be! The holes are a bit harder to see but it gets easier with lots of light and a light-colored background to hold the fabric against. I had a hard time working with it when I was wearing jeans, but if I held it in my lap wearing light-colored pants, it was much easier!