Favorite Freebie Finishes--Christmas Edition

I want my summer back!! Yes, I know many of you are enjoying lovely warm, sunny summers, but we've been experiencing even more days of record low temperatures here in western Pennsylvania. Honestly--wearing my winter bathrobe on these chilly "summer" mornings is not something I want to be writing about as August approaches, but that's my life right now... How are things in your part of the world? Warmer and sunnier, I hope? I think a lot of us thought that after that frigid winter we endured, we would be rewarded with a perfect summer... ha!! Unfortunately, it's been anything but...

In keeping with our chilly weather, I've been working on catching up on my monthly Christmas ornament challenge and have finished three new ornaments which I'd love to show you today. These all happen to be freebies, and, as I've said many times before, I'm so thankful to all of you talented cross stitch designers who share your talents with us.  The first is one I'm sure you'll all recognize: "Seven Pines" by Little House Needleworks which you can find right here. This linen doesn't photograph very well because the holes are so large. I'm not even sure what it is--some mystery 25 or 26 ct. scrap that I found in my stash, but I liked it because the white showed up so nicely. Since the holes in the fabric were so large I ended up using two threads stitched over one rather than the usual "one over one." I like the effect--the stitching really stands out! I used long stitches for the carrot nose rather than cross stitching it as was charted and made a couple of changes to the suggested DMC colors. I used DMC 498, 869, 921, 3051, 3371, and white (just in case you're wondering)...

And here is how I finished it into one of my little pillow ornaments. The size of the snowman stitching is only 1½ inches by 1¾ inches so it definitely needed to be beefed up to make an ornament worthy of displaying on a full-sized Christmas tree. I found three coordinating fabrics, some rope-like braided trim, and a couple of buttons in my stash which finished him off quite nicely! The back of the ornament is the same green fabric shown on the left. So, this counts as my ornament finish for May (I told you I was behind!).

"Seven Pines" freebie finish

My ornament for the month of June is designed by Erynne Chard over at Stitcheree blog and is just a small portion of her delightful "Joy" design. You can find the link for this freebie in her post right here. This one is stitched on 35 ct. natural Northern Cross linen (another great fabric when you want the white to really stand out) using the suggested DMC colors. I really like the blue jay that Erynne designed--a nice change from the cardinals that you typically see in Christmas stitching. As usual, the red in my photo is much, much brighter than the color in real life. I sure wish I could find a camera that photographs reds well...

This was finished into a flat mounted ornament (using the talented Vonna's tutorial).  I forgot to pad the stitching before attaching it to the mat board, but it still looks fine. This was the first time I used the mini-pompom trim on a finish and I love how it turned out--so crisp and fresh looking.  This piece stitched up very quickly and would make a great last minute gift for a stitching friend, don't you think?

"Joy" freebie finish

My third ornament finish is, again, just a portion of a different chart by Erynne called "It Snowed Last Night." I really wanted to stitch a snowy winter scene on this lovely 32 ct. blue Belfast linen that I purchased a while ago and thought this piece fit the bill perfectly. Stitching it over one was a bit difficult, but I love how tiny and detailed the finished piece is. You can see the full chart right here--isn't it pretty? I have a special fondness for sayings with the word "bliss" in them because that is my mother's maiden name. A lovely name... don't you think?

I kept the finish very simple for this one--just added the blue plaid fabric that is shown in the background and some bright white cording. I think the snowflakes Erynne designed are just about the prettiest ones I've seen--the whole scene perfectly captures that special feeling you get when you awake to a landscape that has magically turned white over night.  Again, the red color of the DMC is not coming through properly at all in this photo--it is actually a deep burgundy in real life. Thank you, Erynne, for your darling designs--I will proudly hang them on my Christmas tree each year...

"It Snowed Last Night" freebie finish

So, I'm caught up, for now, with my ornaments... I can't wait to gather them all together at the end of the year for my annual "Parade of Ornaments" photo shoot! I'm really proud of the ones I've made this year...

Gifts in the mail... I was so touched to receive a package of goodies all the way from western Canada from my sweet friend, Anne at Doll's Musings. She sent a beautifully stitched and finished box filled with fabric, buttons, and thread (all in blue, of course!). Just look at this beauty she stitched and monogrammed just for me! Having done a couple of box finishes myself, I know how long they take so the fact that dear Anne would spend her time creating one for me makes it even more special. I love the blue birds and the pretty flowers--I believe Anne said this was a BBD design. Thank you so much, my friend--I will treasure your gift and think of you each time I look at it!

Such sweet gifts from Anne!

Busy July... The month of July is always one of the busiest for our family. My husband and I celebrated 37 years of marriage on the 23rd, my youngest son turned 26 (hard to believe) on the 9th, and my husband finally caught up with me and turned 59 on the 14th (yes, he is a "younger man" by six whole months and he never lets me forget it!). Add to that trips to Washington, DC and upstate New York to visit my parents and it is surprising that I found any stitching time at all. I really miss my needle and threads and am looking forward to our annual beach vacation next month where I hope I can relax and stitch more often. 

A simple gift idea... I wanted to share a gift with you that I made for my husband's birthday. When you get to be our age, you really don't need much of anything so it's a challenge to come up with something a bit different. Have you heard about the Tabletopics conversation starters? Well, I thought about buying him an edition, but at $25.00 each, I thought... why not make my own questions? I discovered that many others have had a similar idea and was thrilled to find an abundance of questions and even a downloadable graphic to decorate the jar that houses them right here. I found another great bunch of questions here and you can easily Google "conversation starters" for more ideas.

 You never know what you'll learn...

I picked and chose which questions to use to best suit my family and spent an afternoon printing them out, cutting them up, and folding them to place in the jar. The jar is a simple clear plastic container that once housed my former (I'm proud to say) addiction--chocolate covered raisins. (Unfortunately, I've moved on to a new addiction--Milk Duds!). I attached a coordinating green ribbon to the lid to jazz it up a bit, too. The questions range from serious, to silly, to sentimental and my oldest son is enjoying them so much he has decided to add a few of his own to the jar. We only pull it out at Sunday dinners when we are together with our older sons, but we've all really enjoyed it and are learning a lot about each other.

Some new backyard creatures... So many of you have told me how much you enjoy seeing the photos of our backyard wildlife. Yes, we certainly are blessed with an abundance of wild animals (well, except when they eat our flowers and vegetables, that is!). On Sunday, I happened to look out and see a turkey--well, not just one turkey, but an entire flock! We've seen one or two turkeys before, but never a papa, mama, and seven little ones (turkey babies are called "poults") running around. Oh, they were darling--you couldn't help but smile when you watched the little ones trying to walk up the hill and keep up with their parents... (You can click the photos for a larger view).

An entire turkey family visits our yard

And here are a couple of close-ups--notice the pretty markings on the father...

Soon after these photos were taken we saw not one, but two Great Blue Herons out by the pond--you just never know what you'll see looking out our kitchen window!

Well, I think that's more than enough from me today... I hope each of you enjoys a wonderful August--not many days left until school is back in session, are there? Thank you all for your great comments on my last post and I'm so appreciative of all of your advice on healing my Plantar Fasciitis pain. It seems to feel better for a while and then I have a set-back, but I think I'm on the right path... I really miss my daily treadmill walks, but filling in with the stationary bike and lifting light weights has actually been great, too. I'm glad I've discovered even more ways to stay fit although I wouldn't wish the pain of Plantar Fasciitis on anybody. Enjoy the rest of your summer, my friends. Bye for now...