Whoa - it feels like it was just April and here we are, very close to the end of the year! I can't believe that I never showed off my finished EMS Antique Sampler, especially since I actually did finish it before the end of the year - as in 2012. I even got a cheery cherry-red mat and a frame for her, but I haven't gotten a chance to lace her in quite yet. If I get a couple of minutes to myself one of these days maybe! I am not placing any bets on that though.
Since the arrivals of my precious "smalls" I really have not had a whole lot of time to do much of anything. I mean, some days during my maternity leave at the beginning of the year, I was happy just to get in the basics, like a shower, food, drink and bathroom breaks. Somewhere around week 6, the girls actually started to sleep in shifts, so there was absolutely no breaks whatsoever. Getting back to work was a piece of cake - all of you stay-at-home parents; I have no clue how you do it! Good job!
Since sewing often is significantly faster than stitching is, I did have fun with my sewing machine and my piles of fabric. I found a perfect freebie pattern and tutorial for this adorable Tulip Petal Sun Hat and managed somehow to swing a coupe together for the girls. The hats are good sized, so the girls will be able to wear them for a couple of summers, I hope. (Pardon the fact that Little Miss O doesn't wear any pants below...)
This is little sister, Lilla L.
I
Posing together!
I had a lot of fun fuzzy cutting out the fabric so that the birds would be lined up beak-to beak and tail-to-tail around the rims.
Other than that, not a whole lot of crafting going on at home. I did start a new WIP the other day; Hillside Samplings Folk Art Sewing Roll. I have finished the easy (and boring) border, so I get to start playing with colors now - yay! I think that this will be a pretty quick stitch, but I am not sure here I'll find the time to do the finishing work... :-)
I am still really lucky to have a group of crafty friends at work, so I do get to stitch for a while over lunch every day. Earlier in the year, I finished up this Blue Jay Silken Wings kit from the Crossed Wing Collection. They have a bunch of different bird silk & gauze kits available, but for some odd reason they are not displayed on their web-site. I had no problem picking from quite a selection when I called Paula to place my order and she was happy to send them to me. I am excited about stitching the other ones sometime in the future. As always with Crossed Wing, the designs are just perfect - delicate, realistic and detailed. The only drawback is that the mat-boards that the silk gauze has been pre-mounted to varies in color between kits, so they won't look like a unit if hung together. I guess that it is always possible to mount on a different mat.
Lately, I have been stitching a lot of Scandinavian monochromatic designs.
The Christmas bell-pull below was a fun stitch and is a Handarbejdets Fremme design. I need to hem it and find some suitable bell-pull hardware, but that shouldn't take too long. My favorite panel is the center one. it reminds me of traditional Scandinavian embroideries on the ladies blouses back in the days. 
*Baby Break*
This is a recent new start for me - my very first wool penny rug. This is a total cheat.. everything was pretty much pre-cut and ready to go in this kit. The only thing I have left is to attach the pennies to each other and to the center piece and it's done! Quick and fun! Now I just need to figure out where I can display it where chubby, sticky fingers won't get to it... lol
These super-cute and small mono-chromatic Christmas pictures are from a Swedish hand-craft society. They are pretty hard to come by, so my mom sent 15 of them as gifts. The society gives out a new design each year and I believe that the first one was published back in the mid-60s. The kits have the most generous amount of floss that you can ever imagine - you can easily stitch the picture 3 times over and I bet you'd still have lift-over floss. So far I have finished 5 and I have started on my 6th, but I haven't kept up with my photography. The plan is to make a red-and-white quilted wall hanging to hang in our entrance during the holiday season.
The grand plan is that I'll finish (I guess I'd better start it first...) this kit I bought from French General, Mansion de Garance, and I'll hang that in the same spot during the rest of the year. Grand plans, but a girl can dream! :-)
Speaking of French General - I did also pick up a couple of Odile doll kits. I have cut out all the pieces and embroidered my girls' monograms on the apron pockets. One of these days I'll get the sewing machine back out - I can feel it!!!
Photo curtsey of Leslie Jane Moran blog.
Well, I'd better run, but before I do -
Happy Halloween everyone!
Happy Stitching,
