I'm a Winner!

Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe picked my name as a winner of any chart in her eBay shop!  I chose this one, "Merry Christmas."  It only uses variegated red and variegated green floss.  I added it to my list of projects to start in February.

Last night I made a list of all of my cross stitch fabric.  I have been buying some all year from eBay, thrift stores, CraigsList, and online shopping.  I was able to match up fabric to all of my charts for the UCJC and SDUCFebC.  I only need to buy a big piece of black Aida for one project.  Yippee!  I don't have a huge stash of floss, but I have Michael's, JoAnn's, and Hobby Lobby within a few miles so I can always pick up what I need.  All of my challenge pieces are lined up and ready to go!  How about you?  I put them all in this wicker sewing box, but it's not my permanent solution.  I will put half of them in a plastic storage tote, and keep the other half here.

I haven't made much progress on the Harley-Davidson puzzle and the cross stitch. Maybe I need another week. LOL.

It's also time for the Oldest UFO update.  I'm ashamed to say that I haven't put any more stitches into the Nativity scene since the last update photo.  I have been busy trying to get Christmas gifts finished.  Here is a current photo.  (Sorry, Evalina!)

Vickie is having a giveaway!

Vickie (Reading and Stitching) has cleaned out her craft room and is having a giveaway of fabric for stitching. She will draw 2 winners on New Year's Day. Leave a comment on her blog HERE for your chance to win, too!

Harley-Davidson logo and puzzle

Oops!  I haven't finished this Christmas gift yet, but I won't see my boyfriend until New Year's Day, so I still have time.  I finished the white letters in full cross stitches, but then I decided to do the orange and black in half-stitches only, saving half the time!  I think I have a chance to finish on time, do you?

I also planned to put together this Harley-Davidson puzzle for him and get it framed.  It's twice as big as I expected and not very easy.  This is my progress after 4 hours last night!

Wish me luck!

Last minute Christmas gift - finished!

I monogrammed these brand new handkerchiefs for my dad on Christmas morning before going to my parents' house.  He uses hankies everyday, which he refers to as "snot rags." LOL.  He was happy to get some new ones, but then when I showed him that I had stitched his initials on them, he was really happy!

Merry Christmas, Dad!

The pattern for the monogrammed capital "D" is from a freebie alphabet from StitchAlley.com, and the "DF" and "DGF" initials are from a Leisure Arts booklet.

Capital "D" from "Alphabet SA058"
Designed by Kai and Denis Chabault
StitchAlley.com
Started 12/25/2011, Finished 12/25/2011

Initials "DF" and "DGF" from "120 Alphabets"
Designed by Carol Emmer
Leaflet #2285, Leisure Arts
Started 12/25/2011, Finished 12/25/2011

TUSAL #13 - last one for 2011!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  This is the last pic of my ORT jar for the 2011 TUSAL!  These are all the bits of floss from my projects in 2011.  I'm going to need a bigger jar for 2012!  To join us for the TUSAL in 2012, leave a comment on Daffycat's post HERE.

We visited my grandma last week for her 100th birthday.  On the way home, we stopped at a little Mexican restaurant called El Rio for lunch.  I was so impressed that every table had a cross-stitched welcome mat under the glass.  Bienvenidos is Spanish for Welcome.

X-Stitching Christmas Challenge 2012

Lady Kell of Kincavel has started a new challenge of completing 12 items for Christmas 2012 (cards, ornaments, decorations, gifts).  We will post our progress on the first Saturday of each month.  You can join up HERE.

Help Randi reach 100 followers!

Randi is having a giveaway on her blog of a $10 gift certificate to 123-Stitch. She is trying to reach 100 followers and is almost there!  Enter HERE.

Mario and PS3 finished and framed for Christmas!

Hurray! I finished another gift in time for Christmas!  This is for my son's girlfriend, who is a PS3 fan (even though my son prefers his X-Box).  You can find lots of video-game themed cross stitch patterns in the Sprite-Stitch forum.

"Home is Where the PlayStation Is"
Designed by Ellentje
Sprite-Stitch freebie
Started 11/12/2011, Finished 12/20/2011

I have both gifts framed and ready to be wrapped and shipped, since they live very far from here and will be spending Christmas in Florida!

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: Hand Dyed Floss Give-Away on New Year's Day!

Nancy is having another giveaway of 15 skeins of her hand-dyed floss on New Year's Day.  Check out her website, Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe, to enter.  Tell her that I sent you, and I will earn another entry!

Christmas gift finish and update!

I finished this fun cross stitch picture for my son!  Now I am looking for just the right frame so I can send it to him for Christmas.  He lives in a different state.  The Sprite-Stitch forum has lots of video-game themed cross stitch patterns.

"Perpetual Mario & Luigi"
Designed by Lord Libidan
Sprite-Stitch freebie
Started 12/2/2011, Finished 12/16/2011

I am still working on this Sony Playstation Christmas gift also. I am finally finished with all the gray in the body of the controller.  Next, I will stitch the handles and the buttons and it will be done.  I already have a frame for it.

I made a new page on my blog for the WIPocalypse 2012.  All my current WIP's will be shown here.  I will update the pics every full moon.  To join the WIPocalypse SAL, sign up on Measi's blog.

I am in the Christmas holiday spirit now!  I'm getting closer to having my Christmas gifts finished, and I'm wearing an apron, baking cookies, and listening to Christmas music!  This is the first batch that I baked last night - Peanut Butter Blossoms!  Yummy!  I posted the recipe with step-by-step photos on my other blog HERE.

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: Hand Dyed Floss Give-Away for Christmas!

Nancy is giving away 25 skeins of hand-dyed floss on her Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe blog! Be a follower and sign up to win! Drawing will be on December 17.

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: Hand Dyed Floss Give-Away for Christmas!

Very generous Christmas giveaway!

Nancy from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having an awesome giveaway of hand-dyed floss, charts from her store, and trim packs.  Several winners will be drawn on Christmas day.  Check it out here:

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: Merry Christmas Give-away! Hand dyed floss, charts and hand dyed trims!

Christmas gift stitching and SAL update!

I stitched this ornament for my friend's husband.  I already made her the martini ornament a few days ago.  I bought lots of ornament kits from Janlynn a few months ago, with the plan to make them for my friends and family.  I also bought a lot of ornament kits from Linda.  This is the first year I will have cross stitched ornaments on my Christmas tree.

"Pirates of the Caribbean"
Janlynn
Started 12/2/2011, Finished 12/6/2011

I didn't make much progress this week on Trick or Treat, just the outline of the letter R.  You can see Linda's progress HERE.  The reason why I didn't meet my goal of finishing all the letters this week is because I was stitching on two Christmas gifts for my son and his girlfriend.

My son has always had Nintendo or X-Box, but she uses the Sony PlayStation.  I will be glad to be done with all this gray and get back to something more colorful!

I am stitching this one for my son.  It is called Perpetual Mario.  The brothers, Mario and Luigi, are playing Nintendo, and the TV screen shows them playing Nintendo, and then another, and then another.  I thought my son would really get a kick out of it.  This is what the pattern looks like:

My cat usually sits next to me as I'm cross stitching, which gave Teddy a great idea! He climbed right up onto my lap!