Friday, December 6, 2013

Preparing for Christmas

Hello to YOU! Oh boy have I been enjoying the holidays and I hope you have been too. Already have attended 2 Christmas parties. One was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. That certainly helped set the cheerful mood for the holidays. Lots to share again with you so grab a favorite beverage and hope you enjoy all the photos.

Cupcake cuteness!!! I LOVE this ornament from 20143 JCS Christmas magazine called Gingerbread Cupcake by The Victoria Sampler. I hand over dyed the fabric myself, the darling gingerbread buttons I found at Michael's, the beads I had in my stash already. Very convenient! This was a ornament that I had marked to stitch but never got around to kitting it up. THEN I had read on Sharon's blog Shebafudge that this was one of the ornaments she wanted to stitch and from reading her post - I was inspired and went on a quest to shop for the gingerbread buttons and the silicone cupcake liners:) I had success after 2 days of hunting.
Thank you Sharon for your inspiration!

Here it is all finished

Made the cording for the hanger myself. I didn't have the tiny heart buttons, I substituted tiny red buttons.

After making the cupcake ornament I was inspired to decorate some edible cupcakes which I took to Ladies Night with for our church Holiday potluck.

I have been participating in some exchanges thru EMS (Ellen Maurer-Stroh forum website). This beautiful ornament was sent to me by Catherine (EMS-Catvache) from France. This was our Holiday ornament exchange.

Catherine sent me some extra goodies with the ornament. I was so surprised when I saw this book - I LOVE it! You see for some reason DMC has lots of incredible chart books that are not sold here in the USA and I wish they did. Thank you so much Catherine.

For our EMS Holiday stash exchange, I sent these gifts to who I had - Christine (EMS - Chrisy59) here in USA. She received her package and loved it all.

Here is all that I received for the Holiday Stash exchange (EMS) from Bea (EMS - Beaj) from Canada.
All these goodies came to me in this Incredible hand made stitched envelope by Bea. Yes it really did get thru customs and arrived safe and sound. Some trims, needles, a pretty felt ornament and a gift certificate to 123stitch.com - WOW!!! How lucky I am!

The back of the envelope Bea stitched a wreath, bee, and a Christmas tree:)
Thank you very much Bea for all your generosity. I am using the pocket for threads and scissors. 

A while back I was a lucky winner at Chiara's giveaway at her blog "thegreytail" back in October. I won a signed copy of Autumn Sampler by Nikycreations. All the way from Italy. How cool is that!
Thank you Chiara, I look forward to stitching it after the holidays.

Some updates on my wips. This is Mary's Sampler all I have to do is stitch the border.

"Peppermint Mint" by Little House Needleworks. The fabric is 28ct Pink Peppermint Candy Stripes evenweave by Fabric Flair. I thought the name of the pattern and fabric where a good match. And I LOVE Pink:)

and here is my progress for my sister's Christmas quilt. These are the fabrics that she has been collecting the past 4 years. I added some fabrics that I had purchased on a recent shopping trip not long ago. The middle panel is all one piece and I wanted to use it as a center focal point. I know there are lots of colors going on but I did my best to lay them out and hopefully look good. This is turning out to be a large sized quilt not a lap quilt - lol.

I did show my sister when I layed them out to see what she thought and she loves how it's looking. I still have to add more rows below whats photoed. So far the size of each square was cut  9x9 and I have 8 squares across and haven't decided on how many squares going down yet. My sister wants is very long because shes tall. Hope to get this done before Christmas. Good thing she loves Christmas all year round.

My progress for Fairy Hill Bothy Threads Cut Thru SAL with Debbie and Linda!

Finished the backstitching for this section. Now you can see a  bag that says gold, a gold cup, a key and gold stars in the earth. There's a fairy resting and reading a book, a jar for teeth for the tooth fairy, even the spines of books are labeled, and a flower clock.

A few years ago I signed up for a online scrapbook class called "Journal your Christmas" by Shimelle.
This is a scrapbooking class to celebrate the holiday season. I've enjoyed participating in this class over the years. And for this year I'm keeping it simple, here is my album cover.  If you would like to learn more of the class click on "Journal your Christmas" above for Shimelle's post explaining all about it.

Just to give you an idea what the inside looks like, this is my page for Dec 1st.
Preparing the album is lots of fun and after the holidays are over I have something nice to reflect back on.
No trees up yet but am getting closer. Preparing for Christmas is so much fun! Do you have your tree up yet? By the way we are having extremely cold temperatures the last few nights - 28 degrees. No snow! I also have my PS - "Christmas Eve" sampler being framed. It will be done in 2 weeks. Just in time for Christmas.
Thank you for your visit.  with my Love and Appreciation - Annette 




28 comments:

Lee said...

that is a lovely interesting post, You certainly are in the Christmas spirit. Love your Journal cover hope you will find time to share more pages with us.

Mii Stitch said...

WOW!!! I just fell head over heels for the "cupcake", fantastic!!!

Giovanna said...

What an awesome cupcake ornament!!! Very inspiring, well done. And lovely work on everything else, too.

gracie said...

Goodness, you have been busy between exchanges and stitching...love it all.

Chris said...

Woohoo Annette! You are having fun! The cupcake is amazing!!! Such a great finish.
What wonderful exchanges you are participating in.
You fairy Cottage looks great too.
Have more holiday fun this weekend!!
hugs!

Margaret said...

What a great post full of lovely stitching, exchanges and fun! You are definitely getting in the holiday spirit!

Shebafudge said...

Your cupcake ornie looks so lovely. I am off sick today with a tummy bug and will work on mine this afternoon. I have about half of the kloster blocks done and it is really quick to do. I am so grateful to you for sending me all the items to make this one. You are so kind and it was a lovely generous thing to do for me.

Those other cupcakes you made look delicious too - feel free to send them over :D

What a lovely exchange you received too. The Noel ornie is so pretty and delicate.

The fabric for you LHN Peppermint mint is wonderful. What a perfect fabric for the design.

The Christmas quilt is lovely, very bright and colourful which is just what you need for Christmas. What a lucky girl! One of my two children's most treasured possessions are the quilts Shirlee (easily influenced stitcher) made for them a few years ago. Getting them off the bed to wash them is a trial in itself. Hopefully this quilt will be loved just as much!!

The Christmas scrapbook looks like a wonderful reminder. Can we see it after Christmas too please?

Vickie said...

Oh Annette! The cupcake turned out fabulous. Love it!
Oh what fun you are having. And it all looks beautiful.
Nope. Our tree is not up yet!

Shirlee said...

Oh wow! So much wonderful stuff! Exchanges & ornies & everything! Wonderful ... just wonderful : )

Dani - tkdchick said...

I just love how you managed to do that cupcake ornament without buying the expensive kit!

llknbillburg said...

WOW! So much crafty goodness!! I stitched the cupcake too but got the kit for it from VS. She is totally out of them now and I wanted to stitch it again for a friend so thanks so much for letting us know you could get all those beads, etc. elsewhere!! Laura

The Inspired Stitcher said...

Oh my goodness, what a fun post! I've done the Christmas Journal with Shimelle too in years past!

Zeb said...

Looks like you've had a fantastically productive time so far! The cupcake ornament is to die for, and the real cupcakes look so delicious! Lovely goodies too you received :)

Hazel said...

So much pretty stuff! I love your cupcake ornies. Beautiful. xx

Anonymous said...

Where did you find the cupcake liner? Thanks for the tip on where to get the gingerbread men. My local store was sold out of the kits and I was so disappointed!

Melissa said...

I can tell you are in the holiday spirit! That's so great. Lovely stitching and exchanges. That cupcake is a hoot!

Annette-California said...

To answer Annonymous's question -
The cupcake liners I found at Bed Bath and Beyond. There are also for sale on their website. They are by Betty Crocker and come in a package of 12. I went to the store and they were hanging on a wall with the other items for the kitchen. Sorry I can not reply to you directly but couldn't due to your Annonymous status. love Annette

Carol said...

Looks like you're really getting in the Christmas spirit, Annette--everything looks lovely. The gingerbread cupcake is just the cutest!!

Karen said...

Your post is filled some wonderful goodies today! I was just looking at the Cupcake ornament last night and seeing it stitch that close up makes it that much cuter! Great job on the finishing too....

happy stitching....

Linda said...

What a great update Annette. Fairy Hill is progressing nicely. Love the backstitching. Great gifts and beautiful stitching as always. Love the quilt.

Linda

Simply Victoria said...

Wow! Such wonderful "eye candy" or should I say cupcakes? Beautiful and yummy : ) Your exchanges are fantastic and the quilt is turning out so festive.

Catherine said...

Great post full of goodies!! Thanks for sharing!

Andrea said...

Annette .. such a wonderful post. All of your exchanges both to and from are lovely. Lots of lovely stash there too for the 2014 list. Now you're making me feel hungry with those delicious looking cupcakes. Your sisters quilt that you are making is so eyecatching. A great way to remember all those fabrics your sister has collected.

Brigitte said...

That gingrebread cupcake is so cute with its buttons and beads, and you are not the only one who loves it. I have already seen it on two other blogs. Seems to be one of the favourites in this year's Christmas issue.
Such great exchanges and giveaway wins that you show here. I'm sure all the packages were sent and received with a lot of fun.
Great stitching and quilting, Annette.

Myra said...

Oh I love your cupcake, those buttons are so cute! All your stitching looks great - I am still working on the border for Mary's sampler and hope to finish it up this week.

Karoline said...

Your cupcake ornament is gorgeous and all your other projects are looking lovely

Teresa S. said...

Fantastic post, Annette! I am behind on my blog reading but enjoyed all the catching up!

SoCal Debbie said...

The Christmas exchanges are so wonderful! You're almost done with Mary's Sampler! Fairy Hill looks so cute with the backstitching details.