Advent, Day 6

This is the story of Isaac and Abraham, but I like it that it does not have those two people in it, just the gift of God for the sacrifice. (The sun does not look too happy, does he?)

Advent, Day 5

This is the third day for the Advent calendar, even though it is the 5th day of Advent. This is Abram and Sarai (before they became Abraham and Sarah). The faces are so small there's not too much room for any kind of expression.



I bought some fancy new pins with colored heads to use when I make Temari balls, and I decided I wanted a new pin cushion to hold them. I wanted a big one, so I used a CD as the base, and some felted wool fabric. It is filled with wool roving, and has a feather stitch vine with detached chain stitch and french knots as the flowers. I really like the colors, even though it is not put together perfectly evenly. I could probably use more practice.



You can see that the pins are very fancy.

Advent, Day 3

These are my latest Temari, and I think they look Christmasy, like poinsettias. The red/white one was a gift for my last year's secret stitcher, and the pink one (I think) is going to my mom. She informs me she has an empty bowl on her coffee table, just waiting for something to fill it.

The white one is a s8 division with a Kiku pattern, wrapped obi, and french knots in the center. All the thread is DMC, perle #5 and spool metallic. The pink one is a c8 division, with a tri-wing motif in a pale green silk, with kiku flowers in each of the 6 frames. They are stitched in 3 different shades of pink, and outlined in pale green. The different pinks don't show up.



I have to get pictures of the rest of my Advent pages that are done. I am officially 1/2 way.

Advent, day 2

Here's day 2:



I love the way the angels are holding up the rainbow! My theme every Christmas is angels, taken from Luke 2: "Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God." The only drawback is our living room is small, and if I put up all my angels, there is no room for us.

Plus this year we have a 6-month old puppy, and I can envision angels strewn all over the floor, after being chewed up. Not a pretty picture! We probably won't decorate a lot this year.

It's December!

It's not that I like winter so much, but I love Christmas, and I have a lot of things to share.

I'm about 1/2 way done with the Advent Calendar from Mary Beale. There are 24 panels that can be used in a myriad of ways, this is the first. They can be stitched as ornaments, all together 4x6 on one piece of fabric, or 5x5 with an extra space for personalization. I've read that one person is putting them together as the pages of a book, or you can make a calendar with each panel being a pocket to hold a button with the date, or a special treat. I'm stitching them on separate pieces of fabric, to keep my options open. I've been working on it for 1 1/2 years already, and it won't be done this year.



It is stitched on an off-white linen fabric (32 count) with NPI silk floss. I considered stitching it in DMC, but I didn't trust my color skills enough to go with my own conversion; about 6 weeks after I started Mary came out with her own conversion. It's all right though, I love stitching with the silk.

The Thanksgiving holiday was very nice. We watched P & C for one evening without their parents, and they were there the next day as well; I am way out of shape for watching little ones. Staying at home with them is hard work! They did enjoy the playdough for a nice long time on Saturday afternoon.