Sunday 16 December 2018

December Gifted Gorgeousness

So this is the last Gifted Gorgeousness of the year and I am so happy for managing to do a complete 2018 GG. This was my first year and I must say it made me stitch more in order to have a proper blog post every month. Thank you Jo of Serendipitous Stitching for making this possible. You can find the linking party here and see all the posts from other stitchers too.
So from November 15th to December 15th I stitched the following!
First this little dragon pin cushion. The pattern is December 2015 Holiday Treat from J.L. Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams Inc. on facebook. You can find lots of free dragon patterns there. This travelled to a dragon loving stitching friend but has not been received yet so I can't say who it is.

 At another occasion I stitched three little beautiful trees to give to charity. We gathered at our friend Anna's of In my closet kitchen and made the trees for Dromoi Zois, a charity in Athens. I managed to make three. Their bazaar was this weekend 15th and 16th December in Athens.
We made really many here are some of them.
 I stitched this for an expecting friend too. I gave it during her baby shower therefore had to delay this GG post so that she doesn't see it!LOL! Pattern by CREATIVITa found on Pinterest.
 This sea glass felted stone and the cactus pin cushion in a pot I made for the secret crafter exchange Anna of In my Closet organized.
 The cactus pin cushion is based on this post by a crafty composition.
 I also started making felt ornaments for my tree but they are not ready yet. I was going to give some of these as gifts but never managed to finish them in time for the mail.
I also made some other felt tree ornaments with sequins using the materials I was sent at the secrecrafter exchange as well as things I had.
I am decorating my Christmas tree with these this year.
I received my secret crafter exchange parcel from Poppy of Poppysstuff. There were lovely things inside.
 I especially liked these vintage stitched pieces that belonged to a relative of the sender.
She sent me all that!
She knows how much I love blue and sea glass.
 Using the material she sent me I made some brooches for pet friendly people.
 And I also made this sea glass felted stone for a friend's new offices.
 I also received a parcel from Mia of Craftartista which I had won in her birthday giveaway.
 She sent me lots of stitchy things. I loved the stamped angel and all the DMC.

I also sent the January birthstone 
 and the All dolled up pattern to Diane of Lavender dreams who won it in my last giveaway.
I also sent Clare of Aimetu's Stitching what she won in my giveaway,too, in the previous GG.
I made and sent lots of 3d paper cards this Christmas too. Like this one.
 Here's the lot.
 And added some embellishments to some IKEA cards to send too.
And something else I received.
From dear Rania a stitched card and handmade bookmarks. Thank you so much Rania.
Finally I would like to show you some stitched pieces I saw at Art Thessaloniki this year. Unfortunately I didn't write down the artists' names.





So that was all.
Hope to see you in the next GG in the middle of January in the New Year. Enjoy the holidays and have a merry Christmas!

Saturday 15 December 2018

2018 Online Advent Calendar

Hello everyone and happy holidays!
Welcome to my door!
Knock on to see what's inside!
This is the Online Advent Calendar made by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching and you can find all of the days in her blog.
This is December 15th and it is my turn to show you what I have stitched this Christmas.
Please come inside.
First I stitched  "All Dolled Up" by Little House Needleworks, a pattern I had won in Kaye's of Kitten Stitching giveaway some time ago.Thanks Kaye. It looks lovely stitched and I put it in a white frame. I also gave the pattern away and the winner is Clare of Aimeteu's Stitching.
I also stitched these felt trees with sequins and beads from my stash and from what I was sent at the Secret Crafter Exchange about which you can read in my GG post tomorrow.
 And this little Christmas Dragon was stitched this Christmas too.
It is December 2015 Holiday Treat by J.L.Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams Inc. which you can find for free on their facebook page.This is travelling to a dragon loving stitching friend.
Also Jo asked us our favourite Christmas song and I must say I have many but my all time favourite classic is the 1942 White Christmas with Bing Crosby


.
But I also love  a song I often teach my children for Christmas.


If you want to follow more on the Advent Calendar today you can also visit Mary's Threads to see what she has stitched.
The next blogs you can go tomorrow are A stitcher's Story and The Flashing Scissors.

This Online Advent Calendar is organised by Jo of Serendipitous stitching. Hop along to see the rest of the days.Thanks Jo for organising this. Have great holidays! Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Tuesday 11 December 2018

Craftartista Birthday Candy

Hello there,
the year is coming to its end and I still want to blog a bit.
I recently won a beautiful giveaway from Craftartista blog from dear Maria (aka Mia) who is very talented and makes beautiful things. She was celebrating her blog birthday and chose 22 winners! Wow! I was one of them!
Here's what Mia sent me.
Mia made for me a beautiful fabric tote which I will definitely use a lot. The lovely doilies were made by her grandmother and I really loved them. She also added a stamped cross stitch fabric which although I don't stitch on stamped fabrics I really want to do this one as it looks so sweet. She added lots of DMC threads, wooden items to stitch, three pairs of earrings she made herself and a lovely card she also made.
 
 Look at the earrings. And the detail of the doilies.
 The stamped canvas, and the chocolate!
 The wooden items and the card.
Dear Maria thank you so very much!

Monday 3 December 2018

Let the people choose-December-Dragons

It's the first Saturday of December (well it was two days ago lol) and here is my post about Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching new brainchild Let the People Choose.
This month the theme is dragons.You can read her post here and can link up if you want.
I have never stitched anything with dragons so I had to look up and finally made this little Christmas dragon ornament.
I am not very good at ornament making but I tried and used a vintage trim.
The pattern is the December 2015 Holiday Treat from J.L.Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams Inc.
You can find them on facebook and download lots of dragon patterns for free and for personal use.
Here you can download the one I stitched.

 And here you can see the ornament on one of my son's favourite children's books. It is in Greek Drakologia and you can find it in English as Draconology by Ernest Drake. It's a beautiful 3d book with lots of pop ups. It is amazing how much more expensive is the English version in contrast to the Greek one.It was published in 2003 and in Greek in 2004.

It has great detailed illustration and lots of little pockets to open and discover.

Finally the giveaway pattern "All Dolled Up" by Little House Needleworks of my previous Gifted Gorgeousness post goes to  Diane of Lavender Dreams
 And along  Diane will receive the January stitched piece I made for Let the people choose January theme birthstones. Diane you were the only one with a January birthday that claimed it and also the only one who claimed the pattern so I didn't even have to make a choice. Please send me your full name and address. You will only have  to wait a bit till I turn the stitched piece into an ornament, unless you want it like that to make it yourself or to frame it. Please let me know.
No giveaway in this blogpost as the little dragon ornament is going as a gift to a stitchy friend who loves dragons!
Thank you all, see you soon in my GG post and the Advent calendar post. I am on the 15th of December but if you want to follow along go to Jo's blog for the Advent calendar is on already.
Also and by the way those of you who commented on my Paperless Post blog post will receive a virtual Christmas card from me if your e-mail is connected to your comment profile.