December's Gifted Gorgeousness

Here it is, the last GG post of the year (for more details about the GG blog hop please see Jo's blog)
I've just taken part in the annual Needlecraft Haven Ornament Exchange, which I'm pretty sure counts as Double GG (sounds like a bra size!)
Here is the wonderful ornament and other goodies that I received from Clare

And here is the ornament I sent to Mary

Design from this year's JCS Ornaments Issue. The red and lime are the new DMC Etoile threads. It's the first time I've used them. I wasn't sure at first as they looked as though they wouldn't give very good coverage, but actually they've worked really well and the glimmer from them is lovely and subtle.

Online Advent Calendar Blog Hop Day 1

Hello and welcome to Day 1 of this year's Advent Calendar Blog Hop. For the list of participating blogs please see the Advent Calendar page on Jo's blog.

I thought you might like to see this embroidery that I finished a couple of days ago. The design came as a printed outline on fabric from Anne Brooke (H-Anne Made) here. Such a pretty design and  I love that you can use your own threads and stitches and make it completely unique to you. As you can see I made mine look like a Winter Robin and it's very different from the one on Anne's website

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For the second part of the Advent Blog Hop Jo has asked us to talk about our favourite Christmas film. Well I don't know about anyone else but Christmas doesn't start properly in our house until we've sat down with some Gluhwein and watched Love Actually.
There are so many priceless moments in that film that it is hard to choose a favourite to share with you, but here is Billy Mack singing "Christmas Is All Around"

So if you really love Christmas, come on and let it snow

Gifted Gorgeousness for November - Nothing to See Here

Nope not a thing. No stitched gifts, no exchanges. Nothing. I have been working on a lot of gift pieces, but I can't show any of them yet. Pop over to Jo's blog to learn more about GG, and see how much better everyone else has done this month.
I did make myself this dress using fabric gifted from Minerva, so that is going to have to do.

Sorry, lots more to show after Christmas I promise

Hallowe'en Exchange, Challenge and Temperature SAL Catch Up

You know what it's like. You wait all month for a bloggable stitch, and then three come along at once!
The exchange first. This was the Hallowe'en Exchange on Needlecraft Haven. We had to send a stitched ornament, a trick and a treat.
Here is the lovely gift I received from Mary.

Thankyou Mary, they are all wonderful. I shall be displaying my "Christine's Potions" ornament all year round.
And here is what I sent to Justine.

The ornament is a design from Aliolka , The treat is a Lush Bath Bomb, and the trick is a mint tin filled with creepy crawlies.
The Alioka designs were the chosen designs for the Seasonal Challenge on Needlecraft Haven, so that finish killed two birds with one stone, but I decided to stitch another of the designs as a gift for Eloise

So then, of course, I had to stitch one for Naomi as well, only all the Aliolka designs had that cute little spider, and Naomi does not do spiders. Not even very cute ones, so I combined Aliolka's skull motif with a kitty from a Barbara Ana design and stitched her this one (which you've already seen if you saw the Hallowe'en Blog Hop post)

And finally here is an up to date picture of my Temperature SAL

2019 Trick or Treat Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my Trick or Treat Blog Hop Post.

Here is some Spooky Stitching

This is a combination of a couple of designs, the cat is part of this design from Barbara Ana Designs whilst the skull is from an Aliolka design

Your letter for the Blog Hop is

Now please go to An Arizona Stitcher for your next letter

Struggling to Come Up With an October GG

It's not that I haven't done any gift related crafting this month, just that none of it is with its intended recipient yet, so I can't show it.
(For a recap of Gifted Gorgeousness see Jo's blog here)
So, having wracked my brains for sometime over what to post I believe that I may well have come up with the most tenuous shoe-horn in the long and proud history of shoe-horning...
I made myself this dress last week.

Pattern is New Look 6632, and the fabric is a mid-weight lurex jersey from The Textile Centre.
How is it gift related I hear you ask. Aha! Since I don't have an overlocker, and sewed this on a regular machine, I used a short piece of vintage seam tape on the inside of each of the shoulder seams to stabilise them.
And the seam tape?
This seam tape?

It was a gift from Julie
Boom! Gifted Gorgeousness!

Gifted Gorgeousness AKA Where Did The Month Go?

Gifted Gorgeousness has snuck up on me again. In fairness August is our busiest month so it kind of slipped past me, and now here we are again with me desperately seeking something even vaguely gift related to show. (If you check out the rules for GG on Jo's Blog, you'll see that "even vaguely related" is just fine)
I did make this dress for my daughter (and the gorgeous sequin fabric was gifted from Minerva) so this will have to suffice.

The pattern is the Elsie Dress from Sew Over It.
I'll try to do better next month.