2022 Christmas Countdown - Celtic Snow

Day 16 and it's my Celtic Snow cross stitch designed by Northern Expressions Needlework.

There's a few factors that make this piece sing:

- the gorgeous blue linen that's Midnight Tryst 28 count linen from Hand Dyed by Stephanie. It is beautiful and gives this piece a dark mysterious background. It's the shade Nicole used in her sample and the photo on the pattern.
- The beautiful soft (in colour and texture) Overdyed Silk threads from Dinky Dyes.
- All of the tiny beads that make it shine. They took an age to sew on, but they're so worth it.

Thank you everyone who's been following along and leaving lovely comments.  I really do appreciate your support thank you. 

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

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2022 Christmas Countdown - Gingerbread Bakery

Day 11 and it's my Gingerbread Bakery designed by Victoria Sampler.  

I wish I could churn out sweet Christmas treats like these busy ladies do!

Assembling an "L" shaped building was a bit tricky, but the solution is to make two rectangles and then join them together. 

I love the decorations on the roof of the Gingerbread Bakery. 

Can you see the gingerbread men on the top of the cabinet in the photo above? 

I'll be featuring other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

2022 Christmas Countdown - A Treasured Time

Day 9 - A Treasured Time by Dimensions Gold Collection.

This scene is so different to Christmas in New Zealand.  We go to the beach at Christmas and have our summer holidays, but I've always loved these snowy Christmas scenes so I decided to stitch one for myself.  

I love the finished effect, but I can't say I totally enjoyed stitching it.  Dimensions Gold designs are on stitched on aida cloth and I much prefer evenweave or linen.  I considered swapping out the provided fabric, but linen would not have given the same result.  As you can see below, some areas are left unstitched and the colour of the aida provided was perfect. Anyway, it's finished and framed now, and that's what counts.  

I do love the idea of ice skating on a frozen pond with a muff to keep my hands warm.  I have been ice skating, but I've never owned a muff.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

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2022 Christmas Countdown - Gingerbread Church

Day 7 of my Christmas Countdown and it's time for another Gingerbread House.

This time it's my Gingerbread Church - the second building in the Victoria Sampler Gingerbread Village.  

I do love the stained glass windows on the church, and all the snow on the roof.  The steeple was tricky to attach, but it's what makes it a church.  

I was lucky to find a shiny Mill Hill cross just the right size to hang above the front doors.  

And here it is in the sun.  

I'll be featuring other houses from my Gingerbread Village in my 2022 Christmas Countdown, but you can also read more about my Gingerbread Village in the tab at the top of my blog.

2022 Christmas Countdown - Victoria Sampler ornaments

Day 5 of my Christmas Countdown.  

These cute ornaments were designed by Thea Dueck of Victoria Sampler.  I still remember downloading the patterns and then searching through mum's box of embroidery fabrics to find this perfect red fabric. I always get the urge to stitch something Christmassy on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  

Finishing ornaments like this is always a challenge.  It's one thing to stitch the design, but another thing completely to finish them nicely.  I'm very happy with how these two turned out.  

They'll definitely be going on the tree when I get it out soon.  

(I don't think these designs are available anymore.)

Joy to the World

This week I've been working on another Christmas tree decoration designed by Liz Matthews.  

It doesn't look very exciting in this photo, but I'm stitching it on white sparkly 32 count evenweave and I'm really pleased with it.  

I think it will look nice next to my first tree that I stitched back in January.  You can read about that one here.

Next Friday I'll be in Christchurch at my work conference.  I'm really looking forward to regaining some work life balance after the conference.  There's been too much work lately and not enough quilting! I have big plans for the rest of 2022. 

My daphne plant that smells gorgeous right now

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

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Christmas Embroidery

It's only a week until Christmas Eve, and I'm sorting through my Christmas embroideries.  I think Christmas cross stitch is the best kind of cross stitch. I've made a few gorgeous Christmas cross stitches over the years, but of course there are still many more that I want to do some day. 

Celtic Snow by Northern Expressions Needlework

A Treasured Time by Dimensions Gold

A mystery stitch a long by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

A free pattern by Victoria Sampler from 10 years ago. 

And in the "still to be completed pile":

My Gingerbread Flower Shop

Christmas Ornaments by Dimensions Gold

I found it very hard to stitch the Dimensions ornaments on the 18 count Aida.  So I'm going to stitch the rest of them on 32 count linen.  They may come out slightly bigger, but I don't mind.  They will be spread around the tree anyway.  

I follow a number of bloggers who have wonderful Christmas trees filled with hand stitched ornaments.  If you'd like to see more check out Katrina from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand here http://kiwistitching.blogspot.com/

and Carol from Pennsylvania here https://stitchingdream.blogspot.com/

I know there's many more cross stitchers out there, but these are two of my favourites who do wonderful Christmas stitching.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week?  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

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