SSCS gifts

Now that the dust has settled on our Christmas celebrations I want to share the beautiful gifts given to me by Cheryl in the SSCS exchange organised by Chookyblue and her very able assisant Googy girl.  In my last post I showed you the sweet little angel ornament Cheryl stitched for me and here is my beautiful Christmas stitchery piece, isn't it lovely?  I love the pretty variegated thread Cheryl has used, and the festive fabrics too.  Not only did Cheryl give me some of her beautiful stitching, but she also gave me a kit for another of Marg Low's cute Santa ornaments, I've seen some of these around blogland lately and they are lovely!  Thank you Cheryl, I have been thoroughly spoiled....

My SSCS partner was Maria in Australia, and I made her a Shepherds Bush cross stitch design into a Christmas pillow.  I made a few modifications to the pattern to make it the right size and shape.  I included a hexagon bag pattern and a few fabrics for Maria, a little blog spying told me that not only did she like the colour purple but she was a hexie fan too!  

A big thanks to Chookyblue and Googygirl for the time and skills they put into organising this swap, it's the only one I've participated in every year since I started this blog, and I love it, it wouldn't seem like Christmas morning without my SSCS parcel to open!  

Well the year is rapidly drawing to a close, I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope all good things come to you in 2014.  We are going camping with friends for a couple of nights to see the New Year in, so I will see you all again early in 2014.......... till then, take care ...... Nicky xxx

Where do I start?

So much has been happening here over the last few weeks, I have finally made it to the blog to check in..... 

Firstly my Secret Santa Christmas Swap gift has arrived from Cheryl in Australia, just look at this beautiful angel ornament she made me, it is adorable, thankyou so much Cheryl, I am waiting very patiently(OK, not so very patiently) for the big day to arrive when I can tear into the other parcels!  A very big thanks to Miss Chookyblue and her team for organising this lovely swap....

My SSCS gifts finally went on the sleigh and were delivered to Maria in Australia, where she has now opened her ornament.  From my stalking of Maria's blog I knew that her favourite colour was purple, so it may not be the most 'Christmassy' of colours I wanted to make her a purple ornament, though it shows blue in the picture.

Recently I was thrilled to receive my Scrappy Trip quilt back from Linda at Razzle Dazzle Quilter. Earlier in the year I won the quilting of a quilt in a generous giveaway by Linda.  The quilting Linda has done for me is nothing short of beautiful, and I plan to get the binding attached over the Christmas break, and then I will take some photos of the finished quilt.  So excited about this one!

We've had a busy few weeks of weaning lambs, cultivation work, school concerts and prizegivings. Our Miss 11 has finished at primary school and was rewarded for her hard work this year with a trophy for Diligence for her class at the Leavers celebrations.  She is super excited to be heading off to the college next year.  And Miss 13 received the General Excellence prize for her class with firsts in 5 subjects, we are just so proud of her and her hard work this year.  Two very proud parent moments! 

Christmas shopping to be finished this week, and the aim is to get our crops all sown before Christmas, and hopefully the old ewes shorn, and about 2 weeks of blog posts to catch up on, so if someone could find me a few extra days in there somewhere that would be much appreciated.  

Hope all your holiday season plans are coming together for you and that there might be some time for stitching in there too......    Nicky x