Christmas 2010, Ornament Exchange, 2011 - Sheepy Stitching, TUSAL

Hello friends.
How wonderful was your Christmas Day?
Ours was a day full of family, food, wine, laughter and music.  My Dad spent a few days with us, visiting from Dimboola (a small country town in the Victorian Wimmera, halfway between Melbourne & Adelaide) and it was so good to have him here to share the day with us all.  I over-catered as usual, didn't have matching glasses, crockery, chairs or cutlery, but that didn't matter.  The weather was pleasant enough so that we didn't swelter or freeze and the wine was cold and the food was tasty!

Christmas Tablecloth motif for 2009 - adapted from the artwork of Peter Emmerich

I did manage to finish the square to symbolise Christmas 2009 - well, enough to fit on the table - I added the names yesterday and some backstitching - just now developing the photos, I see a small portion of her hair that needs fixing.  I'm not sure about the startled look she now has around the eyes, but without some sort of backstitching, her features fade.  I'll fix the hair today, but that will be enough time spent on that square.  (I chose the poor little matchgirl to symbolise the financial strain we were under at the time, having had to list the house on the market on the 15th Dec - the lit match symbolised hope for the future - and it was, as Martin started a job on 15th Jan, which meant the house could come off the market.  I don't ever want to go through another Christmas like that again!)I'll now be on the lookout for a suitable Santa to stitch to symbolise 2010
 

I must also credit the artist from whose artwork I have adapted for my tablecloth: Peter Emmerich - I thank him for allowing me to use his artwork for inspiration)

Here is also a picture of my Ornament Tree for this year - Harry doesn't want to contaminate the big tree with hand made ornaments (go figure!), so I have a smaller table top tree to hold my ornaments.  There peeking from the bottom, is the lovely snowman ornament received in my exchange from Pokua - wasn't she clever to choose a Snowman theme for me??

Sadly, not all the ladies in my exchange have received ornaments this year in time for Christmas, I suspect the abysmal weather has something to do with it, but also feel that the pixies in the Post Offices, in both the USA and Australia have been making mischief.  If I organise another ornament exchange - I may do it in August!!!!

Since my last post, I've managed to breeze past my 2nd blogaversary - in all the rush of Christmas it was sort of left behind - I just didn't have the time or the inspiration to post.  I will make up for that in the next week and give details of a giveaway - nothing big, but just a token to say 'Thank you' to my followers.

I'm not going to make up big lists of incomplete projects - just add to my WIP list.  I will keep track this year however, of all the patchworky projects and keep them separate from my cross-stitchy projects. I still like to think of myself as a cross-stitcher first.

I will spend the next day or so - lining up all the sheep projects for 2011.  I'm sure at some point in the year, I will acquire a skein of whisper, and use it to fluff up a sheep.  I even have a sheepish quilt in mind for a project.  I found the cuddly sheep last weekend at a market - named him Shawn and nominated him as my muse for 2011


Don't forget T.U.S.A.L. - I'll post a list of dates on the T.U.S.A.L. page - starting on the New Moon - 4th January - but first I would suggest that we all show our TUSAL collections on New Year's Eve, before emptying and starting afresh from January 1st - 4 days worth of orts to show again on the 4th.

I look forward to catching up with all my bestest blogging buddies over the next few days, another addiction that has inspired and challenged me over the past couple of years.   Keep an eye out for my next giveaway to be announced really soon!