Gifted Gorgeousness in December

 

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. GG, on the 15th of each month, is when we share our latest gifts. These can be gifts given or received, or any item made using fabric, threads, buttons, ribbon, chart, backing fabric that has been gifted. If you visit Jo's blog you'll find the links to everyone's Gifted Gorgeousness posts.

This is the final GG of 2022, thank you Jo for hosting this super blog sharing every month. 

My first GG is from Mary at Mary's Thread  who sent these gorgeous letters for the Alphabet Tree. Thank you Mary, you are very kind to stitch for the tree.

My second GG is also for the Alphabet Tree. Barbara of The Flashing Scissors  sent these lovely letters, although they arrived after the tree was up I managed to finish them and add them when we visited the church. Thank you Barbara, you are very kind to stitch for the tree. 

Here are all the letters (not including Barbara's) I have received. I am so touched by everyone's generosity and kindness. There are detailed photos of the tree in my Alphabet Tree post, I have tried to take photos to show everyone's letter. 

Hubby and I visited the church last Saturday, it looks amazing. Pop back to my post St Lawrence's Christmas Tree Festival  to see all the beautiful trees with such a variety of decorations.

December is the Christmas Ornament Exchange at Needlecraft Haven, always a fun exchange. We open our gifts on 1st December so our ornaments can be included in our decorations. 

I stitched this cute owl by Durene Jones. My gift was for Christine of The Alchymyst's Study, I included a little treat and one of my upcycled cards. 

Christine sent to me, I received this lovely snowman ornament and card. My jingly ornament is hanging on our tree, thank you Christine.

Although for Christmas I can share these humbugs. I stitched two, one for our daughter and her fiance, and one for our son and his girlfriend. I gave them along with their advent calendars so they can hang them on their trees. 

The humbugs are by Faby Reilly and are part of a set of four, she has individual charts too. Her designs are lovely and come as downloads so instant purchases. Her prices are very good and occassionally she has a massive sale. 

I have a few more GG pieces but as with my Fully Finished Objects they will have to wait until January's posts to share. 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas 🎄

St Lawrence's Christmas Tree Festival

Hubby and I visited church on Saturday for the Christmas Tree  Festival - what an amazing sight to see the church filled with 60 real trees with shiny tinsel, decorations and lights.

It is superb how businesses, individuals, social groups and schools all help make it such a special place. 

I cannot thank you enough for stitching and sending letters to adorn the Alphabet Tree, it has been receiving a lot of admiration and praise. Detailed photos are in my previous post - The Alphabet Tree 

I took many photos and have tried to show views of the church as well as individual trees. I have added the tree name where I can remember which one it was, the names are very clever.

The Alphabet Tree - pride of place

Forestree

A Taste of Christmas 

Peace in Ukraine 

The Poppy Tree - always part of the Festival

Longevity by the church bell ringers
A very special tribute to our Royal Family

Allotmentree

A Christmas Pudding Tree

Remembrance Tree 
filled with stars in memory of loved ones

Our very special stars 

It is so moving yet peaceful to be in the church with all the trees, even with other visitors admiring everyone's work there is an air of calm. 

The trees do make it a special place, I wish you were all near enough to visit but hopefully my photos will portray the Christmas joy.

🎄🎄Wishing you all a Merry Christmas 🎄🎄

Fully Finished in December

 

Rachel, Ten Hour Stitcher, hosts Fully Finished Objects, a super chance for us to show and tell about the crafty items we have completely finished.

My first finish is a Holly Humbug designed by Faby Reilly. Last year I made a mistletoe one for our daughter and her partner. 

I've made two this year, one for our daughter and now fiance, and one for our son and his girlfriend.

This cute design is by Durene Jones, I stitched it for my partner in this year's Needlecraft Haven Christmas Ornament Exchange. The Opening Day was 1st December, although we delayed it s few days because of the current postal delays. 

This is another Durene Jones design, so cute. I'm hoping Postie delivers it safely, as yet it hasn't arrived at its destination.

The lovely Mary from Mary's Threads sent four beautiful letters for my Alphabet Tree. You can read about and see the tree now in church in my previous blog post 

Thank you to everyone to sent such beautiful letters

Although the tree is up I have two letters to add as these lovelies arrived this week from Barbara at The Flashing Scissors. I have quickly made them up and will add them to the tree when we visit the church later today.

2022 Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Are you joining in Jo's Advent Blog Hop? 

It's such a fun activity in blogland. If you haven't heard of it before pop over to her blog post at Serendipitous Stitching where you can find the link to each blog for each day of Advent.

My day is today and Jo asked for a Christmas or Winter stitchy photo. I couldn't chose one photo as I wanted to share my 12 days of Christmas and I stitched two sets in 2021. 

The ones along our mantle is the set by Plum Street Sampler. These are hung for all of Christmas, however my second set (Jardin Prive's 12 Jours de Noel) are hung on my tree and I add one day at a time starting on Christmas Day. 

Jo's question this year is 'What's for Afters?' - afters is another word for pudding or dessert. 

Christmas Day we have a traditional rich fruit Christmas Pudding, flamed with brandy and served with piping hot custard. But not everyone likes it so we also have a chocolate rolly polly, a chocolate sponge rolled into a swirl filled with cream, very indulgent. 

We have been known to have 'Afters' a long time after our Christmas main as we are all so full ... it is often eaten whilst we watch Dr Who, a family Christmas TV must. 

Thanks Jo for organising another great hop, it's always lovely to see everyone's photos a d read their stories. 

Merry Christmas 🎄

The Alphabet Tree

On Wednesday we put up the Alphabet Tree at church as part of this year's Christmas Tree Festival. I cannot thank you enough for the beautiful ornaments you sent, they all look amazing. I received 34 altogether- thank you. 

I stitched 32 so the tree was decorated with 66 letters, a few baubles, tinsel and lights. It did look good even if I say so myself. 

Again this year I was given the tree next to the lecturn which means for every service everyone is looking at it, quite an honour. I took some photos, hopefully covering all sides so you will see your ornament. 

At the top of the tree I hung the 'S' I stitched for my mother-in-law who passed away earlier this year, and the 'A' my friend Gill stitched. This was for Angi, a member of Needlecraft Haven who at the time was unwell and has since also passed away. A tribute to two special ladies.

We will be visiting the church to see all the trees, I'll blog about them afterwards. If you are near it is worth a visit. 

The church is open every weekend up to Christmas- Saturdays 11am to 5pm and Sundays 12noon to 5pm. Admission is £2.00 to raise church funds, a donation will also be given to Mary Ann Evan's Hospice.

A huge thank you again - wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

As December starts

Welcome to December and the start of not only meteorological winter but it's Advent time too. I have changed my two frames: Drawn Thread December and Jardin Prive winter tree. 

The Advent calendars are out here. My lovely Hubby has bought me the Boots No 7 calendar which is filled with beauty goodies, our daughter will probably have some as it's nice to share. I am so excited that this year it is 24 boxes and not windows... I am already thinking of next year's advent reusing it. 

Every year I make up an advent for my Hubby. It's usually a selection of beers and I can sneakily put it together when he goes on a chaps day out. There is no day out this year but he did take the car for a service and update which gave me a few hours ... but no car! It really was a secret mission this year, thankfully Lidl is only a short walk away. He was  very surprised this morning and amazed I had managed to put it together. 

We spotted a tealight advent in one of the discount stores so bought one for our house, our daughter's home and our son's girlfriend's home. I have lit my first one tonight a d it smells gorgeous, sandalwood and honeysuckle.

Are you joining in Jo's Advent Blog Hop? It's such a fun activity in blogland. If you haven't heard of it before pop over to her blog post at Serendipitous Stitching where you can find the link to each blog ... but only from their given day. My day is .......... now that would be telling 🤫

It's Springtime - Topsy Turvy SAL stitching for December is all about spring, as it was for November

I'm hoping to do the spring design from Durene Jones to match my autumn ornament. 

Here's the link to the 2021 post with all the freebie links. You can join in the Topsy Turvy SAL on Facebook, with Needlecraft Haven or by posting on your own blog. 

As usual photos of this month's stitching can be shared from the 20th.

Yesterday we put up the Alphabet Tree at church. Pop by tomorrow to see photos of a very special tree.