1st Day of Christmas

I will share the 3 pages from the Advent Calendar that I finished this year. They won't be in perfect order. If you want to see the pages I spoke about last year, you can look here and earlier.

This is from the story of David and Goliath. The reason David was successful is because he trusted in the Lord, and because Goliath was "dissing" the God of Israel. I really like the little sheep on the hillside. This one took a long time because I had to so much frogging (unstitching). The whole sky is a stitch sideways, and I had to redo Goliath a couple of times, and the tree on the right was a challenge. But I am very happy with final result.



I think I only finished 3 this past year.

Z is for Zoo and Zebra

The last page in the book is this gate for the zoo. The gate is held closed by a cord that wraps around a button.



When you open the gate, you can see the zebra. The gate needs a little repair work.



I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I hope you are enjoying the holiday with your loved ones and family. Our Christmas eve celebration has been very nice, and we still have the day tomorrow as well. Tomorrow and the next couple of days I will post the couple of advent pages I have finished this past year.

Y is for Yak

I do assure you, this is a yak! My family seems to think it is a silly looking donkey, but a donkey wouldn't work for "y" at all, would it?

The activity for this page is to braid and unbraid the tail, which is made out of embroidery floss. This is like the laces page... learning to braid takes a little more focus than is usually available when reading/playing with this book. But I like to braid, and I really like the fabric of this page.

X is for Xmas (Make that Christmas)

I think this page is one of the reasons it took so long to finish this book. I hate using "Xmas" to describe the season we are in, mostly because in math "x" means an unknown, and in Christmas, the Christ part is very known. However, when I was working on this, I read an article that said that the "x" stood for the cross, adding extra meaning to the description of the season. So I went ahead and made the Christmas tree, specially since I couldn't work out how to make any other activity with X. I considered Xylophone, and X-ray, but it was getting way too complicated.

This is another page the kids like to play with (like the acorns on the tree). The ornaments can be hidden in the present. I did let myself go a little bit, and I made the ribbon on the package out of real silk ribbon. I don't know how well it will hold up, but it is very soft and special.



Here are the two balls I wrapped on Sunday, and the finished stitching on one of them. After discussing the rayon thread I received for Christmas with my friend, I decided it was too fine to use to embroider a ball, I would have to use it to wrap a mari. I knew that using rayon for wrapping would be a challenge, and I was right. Every time I would let up on the tension on the thread a little bit, I would face several rows of thread unwinding while I watched. I learned that when I slowed down, I had to hold the thread down that I had just wrapped, and even so, several times the thread would just slide off. I stopped trying to unwind to a point where everything was tight, and just started winding over anything that was coming apart; it seemed to work okay. I do like the color and the shine of the base, and once the mari was marked I didn't have to worry about things coming un-done any more.



This is a copy of the GITS I made for Anne. I liked (and was intrigued by) the pattern so much that I wanted one for myself, and the other is for Moonsilk Stitches, who gave me the thread (plus she guessed quilt squares). It is a c10, that ends up having a c8 pattern on it. Having the base shinier than the stitching gives it a very different look... I would have to get used to that. For the stitching I used the Pearle #8 on spools that I got. It is not DMC, but is labeled with DMC color numbers, and I have enjoyed stitching with it a lot.

W is for Wings

This page is not very dramatic. The wings move up and down a little bit. This is one of the last pages I made, and by this time I was flying (wings... get it?).



I was going to copy the temari I posted on December 14, so I could give one away. I sat down to mark a c8 division, but I got distracted and marked a c10 instead. So, after the pins were in I didn't want to undo all my work, and I decided to make a companion ball instead of a copy. This is made with the thread challenge threads we received. I should have made the kiku stitches for the stars inside the points of the neighboring stars instead of around them. This gives a knob at the tips of the stars instead of a nice sharp point. I don't mind the way it looks, it's just not what I was expecting. I do like, very much, the way the star and the pentagon weave around each other.



Thank you for commenting on the Q is for Quilt post. I will be sending out temari to everyone who responded. Chloe Patricia, please send me your address to jcompeau at gmail dot com. I know where to find everyone else!

V is for Valentine

I think this is one of my favorite pages. The ribbons are fun to weave, and make a very pretty pattern when you get them right. One of my daughters made a valentine in this pattern when she was in grade school. I don't know if I got the idea from that or from the original book, but this one is a winner. I like the colors too.