Gifted Gorgeousness - December 2020

Crikey ..... not the best day to write a blog post! 

It is Christmas Day as I write these words, and I think everyone in the world must be on-line as my computer is reacting so slowly!!

I hope you will stop and have a little read here today as I join Jo of Serendipitous Stitching for Gifted Gorgeousness.  If you don't know what it is all about do pop over to Jo's blog to read all about GG HERE.

(Not my stitching, this is Jo's
badge for the SAL0

There are a few gifts to mention this month ;

The only cross stitch to show this month is a page of a calendar from CrossStitcher magazine - January 2021 -   Issue 365 - a Free Gift to be exact, and therefore qualifying for Gifted Gorgeousness. 

I stitched the January picture really fast, to send in to the magazine as part of a competition to see who can stitch this picture first. (Only the picture with the blue edges - the pink edged one is February).

Then I stitched this mask and pouch for a blogging friend:

And, yes I've been really busy this month, also finished and gifted this bag I'd started waaay back at the begining of lockdown, for a non-blogging friend:

Oh, and we received these very tasty little biscuits from our neighbour's children with our  Christmas card  the result of a baking session with her young daughters:

Clare has now fully finished the flower (see photo below) I sent her back in August. You will no doubt have seen all the completed flowers on her web-site HERE. 

What a shame Covid stopped people seeing the tree of flowers in person at the church as Clare had planned, still hopefully they will be able to show them next Christmas!

Thank you so much for visiting, and I do hope you are having a Very Happy Christmas!

Roll on 2021 .....  it has to be better than this year surely! Look forward to seeing you again then!

Hugs,

Barbara xxx

Advent Calendar

Today I’m joining Jo of Serendipitous Stitching for her Christmas Advent.  I’m a bit late telling you this, but each day of December you can visit Jo to see who is posting!  If you haven’t seen the calendar yet perhaps you’d like to pop over to Jo's blog now to catch up! 

So, this is my day for door 22

Jo asks that we show a photo of stitching for Christmas:

“Christmas Cheers” by Lucie Heaton

I started Christmas Cheers in November, inspired by Rachel’s Naughty November (see HERE) and finished it around midnight on Sunday !  I was going to try to FFO yesterday, and write my post, but then I realised that would be  bit of a “tall ask” as I wouldn’t be able to eat all day, and I’d end up with severe back ache, so this is it for now ..... but it’s not going in the pile to linger ..... I’m working on it already!

Unfortunately the weather is awful here today and the photo I took, trying to show the colour of the fabric as well as the stitching has not gone so well ..... 

so I thought you might like to see a close up I took while stitching was in progress:

Pattern from The Ultimate Christmas Cross Stitch Collection - July 2014

I really enjoyed stitching this Lucie Heaton pattern and have already ordered the kit for her latest pattern on the cover of the current CrossStitcher magazine (Issue 365) - a lovely winter scene! I hope I don't have to wait too long as I feel lost without a project to pick up in the evening! The strange thing is I've ordered the kit and only today they have sent me an email saying only certain cottons are available and they are on their way ...... but I'm confused, why are they sending these cottons alone when I've ordered a kit? They're not much use without the fabric!!!!

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Jo also asked us to talk about our favourite Christmas book, and I've enjoyed following the others and finding out what their book choices and memories are ......

but, unfortunately, I don’t really have a Christmas favourite  ..... however I especially love the Agatha Raisin series, and remember reading “Kissing Christmas Goodbye” by M C Beaton.

If you’ve read any of the Agatha Raisin series you will know just what to expect.  It’s a while since I read the book and I've forgotten much of the detail of the plot, so don't worry I won't give a spoiler here, but suffice to say it’s full of the usual light-hearted fun we expect from Aggie! The story wasn't quite what I'd expected but I do love reading about Aggie! However I feel the more books Ms Beaton wrote the quality was perhaps not of the same high standard or as entertaining as her earlier books, but that didn't stop my enjoyment of the story. 

Do pop over to Jo's to see all the beautiful stitching of our blogging friends

I do hope you have a Happy Christmas despite all that is happening with Covid, and let's hope things will be better in 2021!

Hugs.

Barbara xxx

My late "Naughty November " post!

Apologies to Rachel and Tiffany for not posting last Monday. I had this ready to go but somehow didn’t press Publish! I don’t know why, but I’m here now!

I really enjoyed joining in with Tiffany and Rachel for Naughty November! The idea was to make a few new cross stitch starts! Mine were all Christmas projects ..... I never usually manage to start in time for Christmas so a new start thingy seemed ideal to me!

And this is where I was up to last week (it's grown a bit more since though!)