Thursday 31 December 2015

2015 in stitches

It was a special year of stitching for me with my family and friends having many special moments.

Our beautiful daughter celebrated her 21st birthday
Philly graduated with a first degree in
Sport Management
Our lovely friends had a civil ceremony in 2008 and with a change
in our law could finally get married in 2015 
Another wedding to celebrate with Kat and Steven
A retirement gift for my friend Kay loves cooking and growing many herbs
Alison's 50th birthday 
Louise's 50th birthday 
Christmas Tree Festival theme 2015
Joy ornaments for my tree 
 It's been an amazing year of stitching gifts with some quite tight finishes. I hope your 2015 was full of fantastic finishes and 2016 is filled with many more.


Sunday 27 December 2015

Festive thanks to all

Thank you to my family and friends for making Christmas 2015 a very special time. 







We always have the snowmen candles on our cake - they have been there for over ten years. They are never lit though as it doesn't seem right to melt them :) 

This year I baked a square cake and used the tree cutter Lindsay gave me in my Meet Up Goodie Bag :) 




Some of my beautiful gifts; gorgeous threads, fabric, perfume, notelets, mug, a bespoke key ring and a beautiful kit. 

Thank you Maggie, Barb, Brenda, Christine, Angi & Gill





I also received some very special gifts - thank you, I was very touched by everyone's kindness. 

Beautiful wine stoppers from Barb and her clever Hubby
Stocking from Cathy from across the sea
Beautiful ornament from my American friend Dusty
Such kind words from Julie
An amazing Christmas Pudding from Lindsay
A special gift from Niki

And a very special gift made by Lindsay and sent from my very special friends at Needlecraft Haven; thank you so much Lindsay, Julie, Angi and Gill



















Wishing you all a very happy NEW YEAR with many happy moments in 2016 !!

Wednesday 9 December 2015

Joy to the World

It's that time of year when we all get festive with tinsel, lights, snowmen and santas everywhere. Our family church has a tree festival every year and I always decorate one of them. It's not only a great fundraising event for the church but a way of bringing people together as many families meet up to visit. The church hall serves coffee, tea and mince pies and if often full of people exchanging cards and gifts as they enjoy their refreshments after visiting the trees. 

I have done many themes but always cross stitched. Last year I repeated a theme from 2009 - Miss Tree - as it's a shame not to see the ornaments again. This year however I have stitched a new theme - Joy to the World. 

This idea began when Mary gave me the beautiful 'Joy to the World' chart from Lizzy Kate. It was lovely to stitch and I filled it with my 2013 orts. It seemed quite fitting to have a tree spreading joy everywhere. 
Lizzie Kate - Joy to the World
Actually the tree has been spreading joy much further than our church, in fact it's spread joy for most of 2015 and all over the world as my lovely stitching friends have also stitched ornaments. It has certainly brought me joy when the Postie has arrived. 

As you can see they really are from all over the world - here is everyone's beautiful work
 thank you :) 

From Sally in Yorkshire
From Dusty in America
From Julie in Leicestershire
From Leonie in Australia
From Nadine in France
From Sally in Somerset
From Jo in Suffolk
I have to apologise from Jo as I realised I have tot taken an individual photo of her ornament so had to crop the photo I took of the sent ornaments all together - it's beautiful and this photo does not give it justice. When I go to church next I 'll take a new one, sorry Jo. 

All the gifted ornaments
(apart from Dusty's which arrived yesterday,
they'll go on the tree on Saturday)
I stitched quite a few too - it was a heavy stitching year for me as I had five important events to stitch for. My own stitching certainly suffered and I would have liked to have completed a few more Joy ornaments but I'm very pleased with the ones I did do. 

My ornaments
The tree looks lovely, I chose the same spot in the choir stalls as my Grandfather sang in the choir. I did wonder if it looked a little bare and might take a bit more tinsel up although the other tree decorating ladies said that may hide the ornaments so maybe not.

Joy to the World
Top of my tree
Ornaments from all over the world
As always there are many themes, I have not seen them all yet but am helping with refreshments on Saturday so I'll have a good look then. I did see Maureen's knitted trees as she was putting here's up the same time as me, they are beautiful as always.

Maureen's snowman tree
Maureen's soup dragon on her Clanger tree
Thanks you again to everyone who stitched and sent an ornament, the tree looks great as does the church. The smell is also amazing especially if you go first thing when the church first opens. It's also lovely to visit at night when it's dark outside and all the tree lights shine. 

A really magical place at this time of year - St Laurence's Parish Church