Merry Christmas

I wish you all

and a creative and healthy 2015.

Randje per week - more borders

It’s been a long time since I wrote about Randje per week. Lots of progress on 3 different pages. This is randje 83 in red and yellow.

It was the last border I stitched on page 3.

Randje 81, 82, 84, 45 and 88 in terra cotta and blue.

They were the last borders on page 4.

Randje 38, 86, 87 and 89 in brown are the first borders on page 5.

I stitch my borders in the order they appear on the blog Randje per week, but added a few borders I skipped in previous weeks. I didn’t want 2 bold borders next to each other, so I stitched randje 85 at the bottom of page 5.

This is my last update for Randje per week for this year. Next year there will be a new Randje per week SAL, so I just keep stitching pages with pretty borders.

More info about this SAL at Randje per week.

Christmas ornaments

I participated in 3 different Christmas ornament swap in the last months. The first swap was for a cross stitched Santa ornament. The pattern for my skating Santa came from an old pattern sheet without info. I think it’s from the seventies.

 I used DMC Jewell effects for his skates.

Luckily there was a matching fabric in my stash for the backside.

Barbara made this cute sleeping Santa for me in a 3 inch hoop.

In the second swap it didn’t matter what kind of material you used. I crocheted a star, designed by Brenda Smits. The pattern came from the book  Kerstballen haken.

Aletta made these pretty ornaments for me in papier mâché.

The last swap was fabric related. I sewed a 5 inch stocking on my sewing machine for Marja.

And Marja made these cute boots for me. Love the snow on them!

Thanks Barbara, Aletta and Marja!

TAST 135-136-137

TAST stitch 135 is beaded fern stitch. I used cotton a broder and 2 mm beads for this seam on my CQ fan.

TAST stitch 136 and 137 are knotted buttonhole band and beaded knotted buttonhole band. I stitched my sampler on 14 count Aida. From top to bottom the threads are perle 5, 8 and 12. In the bottom row I also put beads on the foundation row.

TAST stands for Take A Stitch Tuesday, and embroidery challenge at Pin Tangle.

Christmas cards

This year I participated in the Christmas card swap at Fibre Fever again. 

Helinä made this pretty card for me with crocheted snowflakes.

And this is the card I made for Margreet. I used the scraps from the quilt I made last year.

TAST stitch 134 is fern stitch, which is perfect to represent the branches of a Christmas tree. I used perle 5 and decorated them with beads.

Chevron stitch in perle 5.

Feathered chain stitch in 2 threads of stranded silk.

Star stitch in 1 thread of DMC satin.

I secured the ribbon with red beads . . .

. . . and finished my card by addding a charm.

Just take a closer look at my card here.

Gigi giraffe

Many weeks ago I promised to share the finished crochet of my youngest daughter. She crocheted this cute giraffe for her best friend’s baby girl. 

My daughter is left-handed and she wanted me to teach her how to crochet. 

She learned crocheting right-handed, I'm a very proud mum!

We both crocheted the same pattern. My giraffe is for another babygirl, born last week. It’s the new granddaughter of my sister in law.

Here you see our giraffes side by side. We didn’t use the same yarn, so mine is slightly taller.

We had to adapt the tails to make it safe for a baby, our solutions were different.

I found the pattern for Gigi giraffe on Ravelry.