My Santa ornament is a pattern from Drawn Thread. It took a little longer to finish, but it is a lovely design. I especially love the backside of the ornament…Peace and Joy. Says it all for the season.
I adore this little Scotty dog. It is a gift for someone and I couldn’t post it until I was sure it was received. Tartan is one of my favorites. This pattern is from the magazine Just Cross Stitch Christmas ornament edition for 2009.
This reindeer was a freebie ornament from last year that I didn’t get around to working on until now. It only took a couple of hours to complete the entire piece including finishing. I have no idea who designed it and I don’t remember where it came from, but I think it’s lovely. I did add a bit of holly and berry to the original pattern.
Finished in time for Halloween was my little “Humbug.” I do not know why it is called a humbug…perhaps someone out there knows. But it was quick to stitch…done on a rectangular small piece of fabric then sewed into this triangular shape. Makes a cute little pincushion. There is going to be a series of these “humbugs”…the next one coming out in January (House of Stitches will have it). I love the little owl pin that went with it. I have a little robin as well. 
I hope by this time next year I will have been able to actually design some of my own ornaments! But for now I have truly enjoyed the fruits of others hard work and talent. Hope all of you are enjoying the holiday season and preparations for a blessed Christmas.
A bientôt….Averyclaire
Can’t understand where my days go anymore. It seems there is little time for surfing all your blogs that I love so much, little time for sewing, embroidery, quilting, and all the rest. Just working at the office seems to consume my days and leaves me exhausted at night with my eyes too crossed to see clearly to do much of anything. It’s beginning to sound like a broken record to me. However….
Here again is a photo of my slow, but steady, progress on my “violets” needlework. It has been relaxing to sit in the morning and evening, before and after work, doing a bit of stitching. The sparkle of the Kreinik blending filament is lovely and the Kreinik braid (which I had never used) is quite delightful as well. I wish I had more hours to work on it. Alas the office beckons.
In the needlearts department . . . over the holidays I began working on a surprise for my sister-in-law. My DH’s mother, Violet, died last spring after a brief bout with uterine/cervical cancer. She lived a long, full life and passed away at the age of 87. Last month my friend, Marjorie, gave me some old magazines. In one of them I found a cross-stitch pattern of Violets done on a lovely English Rose Jobelan. My SIL is having a hard time with the passing of her MOM (as we all are), but I thought this saying would be a nice remembrance for her. The stitching will say “The Violet, a lady with a charm, grace, and beauty all her own. I will show my progress as I complete it. Here’s the first photo.
“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.” 
Averyclaire 