ATC Friday: Bird Deck (Spades)

I've been showing my bird deck; these are the spades. Next week, hearts - and that'll be the end of the deck.  I wonder how many different artists I have cards by? Might try to work it out - I'm sure it's not 52, but I bet it's a lot!

Advent Calendar, Day 15: Rudolph

Reindeer time. Coincidentally, I also wore some reindeer earrings and a black scarf with gold reindeer on it today. I didn't choose the reindeer, though - Olivia did.

Advent Calendar, Day 14: Present

Grandma's choice today - again, no particular reason for it, just chose it for the look.

Cross Stitch Update: Christmas Angel Nemesis

Been working on the border this week - not a huge amount done, but you can begin to see the shapes of the letters in the bottom left corner. There are a lot of half stitches, which takes a while to do. But it's getting there...

Advent Calendar, Day 13: Christmas Lights

Another choice - this one Alex's - with no particular motivation. 

Advent Calendar, Day 12: Candles

No particular reason for this choice today, just liked this picture.

Advent Calendar, Day 11: Father Christmas

About time for a Father Christmas, doncha think? Alex chose this square this morning, and coincidentally, Father Christmas visited my classroom today, so it was a good choice, as it happens.

Beginning to look a bit fuller now...

Advent Calendar, Day 10: Snowman

Well, we got a little snow this morning - and I mean just that - a little. Then it got a little warmer and the snow turned to drizzle, and most of the white is gone now. However, being London, this may well be all the snow we get, so it's worth putting up my little snowman. Should we get a big dumping of snow between now and Christmas, there's always a sledge square I could put up!

Advent Calendar, Day 9: Christmas Bauble

Alex and I were up in town today due to his Maths Masterclass and a little Christmas shopping. We didn't go look at all the windows - saving that for our annual trip - but there were decorations everywhere, so the bauble is in honour of that...

ATC Friday: APC Deck - Clubs

Last week I showed the diamonds cards from my bird themed deck of Altered Playing Cards; this week is the clubs cards. Nice variety!

Advent Calendar, Day 8: Star

Olivia chose this one this morning with the proviso that she could change it if it snowed today - it didn't. I didn't really expect it to, though it's plenty cold out there. The colour is truer in the shot below - and look!  we are nearly at the end of the second row, already. Where does the time go?

Advent Calendar, Day 7: Apple

...or as my husband called it, "tomato". I'm not sure why an apple is particularly Christmassy, but there you go. It's more so than a tomato!

Cross Stitch Update: Christmas Nemesis

Well, I can't even tell you the last time I stitched on this before this week - last year I had intended to, but wasn't very well and then just couldn't face it. This year, I was feeling cross-stitchy again, and Christmassy, too, so I pulled it out to work on. I don't have a before picture, but most of the work wouldn't show much anyway, as I did a bunch of fiddly things in the middle, mainly:

I filled in (mostly; I am missing the final colour for this) and outlined the end of this bell pull. 

I outlined the end of this bell pull, where it sits on the blue dress. And filled in some missing stitches in the red sleeve - it was only one colour, so I must have been missing it before and have bought it since.

I outlined the blue angels hand (there are actually a few stitches still missing in her thumb, which I need to go back to) - and a few stitches in the collar of her robe. 

And then I started on a new row of red in the border. I'm going to work on the red border next, so next week the progress should be a bit more visible. It's actually not all that far off being finished, though I doubt it will happen this year.  All the central bit is stitched, except a few stitches here and there (and some beads in the head-dresses), so it's really just the border to finish off. I say "just", as though it can be used in that context!

Advent Calendar, Day 6: Train

Chose the train today, somewhat belatedly, as I didn't get around to doing it this morning, because Olivia went off by train to Reading today for an interview. It's a tenuous link, perhaps, but still.

Advent Calendar, Day 5: Mitten

It's not particularly cold out, but the mitten seemed like a nice, wintery addition to the advent calendar. And look - one row full already! Doesn't time just zip past...

Advent Calendar, Day 4: Cardinal

We don't have them here, but they still seem very Christmassy to me - all those years growing up with them in the DC winters, I guess...

Advent Calendar, Day 3: Drum

Geoff's choice today - he picked the drum because the kids have a band concert tonight, so it seemed apt. 

Beginning to fill up, but still really bare...

Advent Calendar, Day 2: Church

Alex chose this one today - not sure there was a particular reason for it, I think he just likes it. I do, too, especially the batik fabric in the windows for the "stained glass". 

ATC Friday - Bird APC Deck, Diamonds

I'm sure I've shown lots of APCs (Altered Playing Cards) which I have made for other people in various themes, and I think I showed, a while back, a set of butterfly themed cards which I've collected. Those were largely part of a specific swap series aimed at collecting a butterfly deck. This deck, which features birds, was accumulated over a longer period, through a series of individual swaps, Pick-a-theme swaps and other situations. These are the diamonds. I didn't request specific birds or a specific style, so that part is just down to the artist making the card. I did receive a few cards which featured crows or ravens or similar birds, and those I moved over to another deck I am collecting - one with exclusively crows/ravens (or other corvidae).  I'll try to show the other suits in the next few weeks!

Advent Calendar, Day 1: Wreath

Once again, it's December, and time for me to put up my quilted advent calendar. We really enjoy this advent calendar, even though it looks a little bare at the beginning of December. Today's choice of piece is the wreath. I often start off with this one, as I usually hang a wreath on the door on December 1st as well, so it's a thematic choice. Not all the choices are thematic. Sometimes, it's just whatever we feel like putting up. There are more pieces than squares on the calendar so a few always get left off.  Each piece is about 3.5 inches square - they were paper foundation pieced from a pattern by Meadow Lily Bridge.