Merry Christmas Designs

 Knowing how busy you can be now, I'd like to thank everyone who left comments on my previous post.
I will try to be short today. First I will show you my new designs.
For a long time I have wanted to make a design with lots of snow in it. Why? Because for me it's hard to imagine winter holidays without snow?  When it snows,  everything is so beautiful, quiet and romantic. Did you notice that even in a blizzard people walk and smile? Well, you might think I love snow too much. :-)) OK, put on a broad smile on your face and let's take a look at what I've done.

When I showed this design to my friend  Olga  she wondered what I was going to make it into. The easiest way is  make an ornament or to frame it. The design fits well a usual photo frame.

 But my initial plan was to make a drawstring bag which can be used either for packing a gift or keeping tools and floss necessary for a project.

                                  "Merry Christmas" Drawstring Bag

The bag is reversible without raw edges. If you can see in the picture, there are no seams on the top and bottom of the bag. It took me a little while to figure out how to do it but I am happy  with how it turned out.
I also made two ornaments  based on this design to show what the design will look like in other classical combination of colors:

                

                             








                                        
 "Merry Christmas" Ornaments

 If you are interested in buying my designs, please contact me. My e-mail is in my Profile.
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A few days ago I got a Christmas gift from my dear friend Olga from UK. I told her that this is the most beautiful gift I have ever received. Just take a look at these beauties:

Olga stitched and finished the set so beautifully - I just love every little detail! And look, she sent me 2 baby booties!

She knows I will become a grandmother soon and will need lots of booties and blankets... oh my...
Olga, thank you very much  for your generous gift, you have spoiled me so much. Hugs!!!
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Thank you for stopping by and take care.

Gracious Era and more

Hello my dear friends and readers of my blog, thank you for being patient.
Again it has been a long time since my last post. You are probably tired of reading about my Internet problems and can you imagine how much tired, upset and angry I am because of these never ending problems? A couple of hours ago a cable technician left, they have not replaced the main cable as they had intended to and I am not sure if their "patch work" has fixed the problems. Well, I'd better  start writing  about my cross stitch finishes while the Internet is still working.
"Gracious Era" is finished and is waiting for the frame work now. 

I must say that I've made a few mistakes. You know, I stitched the piece during my trip to Russia and due to poor light on board the planes, in airports and hospitals I mixed up 4 colors, Dark Yellow - Yellow Orange which were used in the big windows on the left, and Pale Yellow - Cream in the cloud to the right from the tree. I noticed this when the picture was almost finished, it was not a great deal to restitch the places but I decided first to complete the picture and then to decide what to do with the mistake. With this kind of pictures it is better to look at them from a distance and when I did this I liked what I saw. My DH, my main critic, said that it is even better , more colors give some more depth to the picture.
One more little thing, I made the picture a little wider. Do you see two little women figures on the left? I kind of like them but they are so close to the edge that they would be covered by a mat.
While stitching faces, some clothes, horses I added some fractional stitches and instead of Back Stitches I mostly used Couching. The most enjoyable part for me was to "make these snowflakes" as I do not mind French Knots, that was something I was looking forward to while stitching the picture.
I have missed my favorite smalls so much that I first treated myself to a little needle book by Just Nan:

After this treat I continued working on my Girly Pincushions.
If you remember I promised to show you one. Well, I've made more than one, some of them will be presented to my friends for their birthdays and Christmas.
When making the pincushions I wanted to check if I still remember how to make roses. My mother taught me to make them years ago.

The last piece of this pretty vintage lace was used for one more round pincushion:

 I over-dyed the ribbon for the rose and made a strawberry scissor fob to match the pincushion.

One more set of pincushions:

I liked the two color scheme, it reminds me of bridal decorations.
I already do not remember who gave me a little vintage doily and said to throw it away if I did not like it. Well, to throw away is very simple, how about to give it a second life?  For the pincushion I used the fabric which can hardly be called traditional for this kind of craft.

Some vintage buttons were used for the pins to embellish the pincushion. I liked how the pincushion turned out and added one more strawberry which looks more girly.

And here is the last pincushion which I want to show to you. Isn't it funny? I have not finished it yet because I am still looking for a better fabric for it. If I do not find what I want, I will leave it as it is.

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To thank my customers and followers of the blog for staying with me, I offer you a complimentary  design which is called "A Russian Motif, Autumn". It is in soft autumn colors and can be used for making different smalls of your choice. It would be nice if you send me pictures of your finished pieces.

The offer will last till November 25. In order to get the design, please e-mail me. My address is in my Profile.Happy Stitching to everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Elegant In Blue Biscornu

It has been long since my lat post and I want to thank you for your patience. My Internet was down all summer and TV signal was scrambled too because our provider is working on high speed Internet in our area.  Some of our neighbors have changed the provider but we still think that when the work is done, we will get the best possible Internet. Yesterday the Internet was down only a couple of times, I could not post but I already could visit a few blogs. :-)
 On the stitching front I have a few finishes to show to you.
 First goes a biscornu which I called "Elegant In Blue".

 A slightly asymmetrical intricate design makes the biscornu corners look different. A few beads and pins embellish the biscornu so nicely.

I really love the result: the biscornu looks pretty and elegant.

    The next design is "Sunflower" Scissor Stand, which is a little addition to "Sunflower" Collection. The stitched band decorates the wood reel and can also be used for parking needles.

I did not feel good in August, you can't do too much while you have to stay in bed. I read a few novels and was making pincushions: you never have enough pincushions! The Girly Pincushions I created  look great on my stitching table and as well as on the dressing table if I forget them there. Now I am working on one more pincushion in this style, I will show it in the next post.

If you are interested in buying my designs, please contact me. My e-mail is in my Profile.

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You are probably wondering if I finished my Windmill. I did, long ago! Long enough before my husband's birthday. We bought a frame for it and my husband wants to make a mat himself but he hasn't decided on its color yet. So here is the windmill with my new landscape.

 And some detail:

I "planted" some tiny flowers in the most modest colors around the windmill and was allowed to leave them there. ;-)
   "Gracious Era" is also almost finished : now I am working on the Back Stitches. I need a couple of days more to finish them and to make a snow storm  with French Knots.

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On another note... If I ask you if you know what  Easter Bunny is. You will, of course, say that it is the character... but I am speaking of other bunnies. These are the bunnies which appear in your yard a little after Easter. You know, people buy a bunny for their kids for fun but after the holiday nobody wants to take care of it and people let the bunny go. You must have heard such stories too.
A little after Easter there appeared a little black and white rabbit in our back yard. We worried about the little creature because we have hawks and owls in our back yard and the rabbit's coat is so well seen from a long distance. Very soon "our" rabbit brought a friend to our yard and they began to eat my plants and brake flowers in beds. I "arrested" the little fellows and put them into a pen till we found a good family to adopt them. Before we found such a family "our" rabbit gave birth to babies.
That is when all my trouble began. Mother-rabbit was a baby herself and she had not gotten enough food and water during her pregnancy so her babies were born very weak and one by one she refused to feed the little ones. I had to become a baby-rabbits sitter and a nurse. Believe me,  it was a heart breaking experience to see the babies gone... And that was when I really got sick because of all the stress...
But I have some pictures for you to show. These are my sweet survivors:

 They are about 2 months old. The rabbit on the other side of the pen is not the mother - she never comes close to babies. That is Daddy-rabbit, he likes to watch his babies.
I told you this story to ask you for one thing: next time when you or you friends  want to buy an Easter Bunny for the kids, consider of buying a toy, please.
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I also want to show you a little gift I got from my dear friend Mylene. 
She knows how to make your day! Mylene, thank you so much for the gift, it is so pretty, I just love it!

 A few pictures from my garden - enjoy!

 Thank you for visiting my blog and staying with me. I enjoy reading your comments and do appreciate your time and effort to do this.
Tonight I am going to visit your blogs - I've missed this a lot!
Happy stitching!

Cheerful Daisies Collection

 Today I am going to break a bloggers' tradition and to tell you about the gifts of my giveaway before one package is received. I have waited long enough but it seems the post office is not in a great hurry to deliver the package. I do hope the package will be received tomorrow or the next day... I do not even want to imagine that it can be lost, I can deal with this later, am I right?
I will tell you about the stitched gifts without saying to which of my winners the gift was sent to. Does it make any sense? I hope it does. Here is the picture of Cheerful Daisies Collection:

 Well, there must be one more piece in the picture because the collection actually started from this:

 But you might remember in spring I sent this Scissor and Floss Fob to my friend Yoyo who once called yellow daisies "cheerful" ( I know this is also a phrase from a movie). When I was working on the gift, I thought this could be a good name for a collection. Later I asked you about the color of your cheerful daisies. You named blue and pink and red but nobody mentioned my favorite color of the daisies. Maybe that is why I  gave away all the stitched models - they are not in my favorite daisies color.
In the pictures you can see that the design changed  from piece to piece, so did the colors of the daisies and the fabric on which I stitched them. But one thing remained unchanged : all the pieces are stitched one over one.
Besides the Scissor and Floss Fob the collection has  Box Top:

Pincushion:

Needle Book:

  And Altoids Tin Top:

 When I was stitching these pieces I saw some pretty fabric in the store and made these pincushions for my giveaway winners . I just love these sewing notions!

 I also send RAK to one of my friends. I know she stitched "My Rose Garden" Biscornu. This was my first cross stitch design which I created on June 16 two years ago. So I have been designing for two years! To commemorate this date and to make something for my friend I added one more design to My Rose Garden Collection, A Token Of Friendship:

 It can also be finished into a bookmark or a floss tag. I turned a pencil box into a sewing notions box:

 If you are interested in buying my designs, please contact me. My e-mail is in my Profile.

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I also made some progress on my  WIPs.
One of them is The Windmill. I've got a few questions on it. The original design 'Windmill And Poppies' by Durene Jones was published in The World Of Cross Stitching # 141. How am I going to get rid of poppies? Well, have a look, I've almost finished this part.

My other WIP is Gracious Era which I stitch for Christmas SAL which is run by Yoyo.
Before showing the picture of the progress I want to tell the participants of this SAL that I have some news about Yoyo. She is ill at the moment and she is recovering from a disease. I hope she will be back with us soon. Let us continue stitching the projects, she will be happy to see our progress. 

 And, of course, the picture of my TU SAL:

Some of my friends asked me to show where and how I keep the floss. In the previous post I wrote that I am making some renovation in my stitching room because I got tired of some of the things. Lately I was making floss organizers for projects. I bought one from an Internet store before but I do not quite like it, it takes time to put the floss through the holes. I made a more convenient (for me!) floss organizer :

It can be placed either on the floor at the chair or on the table. I was thinking if to attach a pincushion on it or not and then decided to make another more complicated organizer.
I started with a pincushion, embroidered it

 and then added some places to keep a thimble, scissors, laying tools, pins and there is even some place left for a frog - let it rest here and I will be keeping an eye on it ;-)) .

 I love how this organizer turned out, it looks like a portable work station.
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 I 'd like to thank Smily for an award and traditionally to pass it to all my readers. Come visit Smily's blog, you'll find a lot of interesting things there.

Thank you very much for your visits and your comments, they are all treasured by me.
Happy stitching to everyone!