3 More Days ...

 It's time for Jo's annual Advent Blog Hop! I always enjoy participating, and seeing what stitchy goodness others have been up to.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten much done this year. I've been cross-stitching my fingers off trying to finish this design for my video game-loving son, and of course I had to make it harder on myself by changing up a bunch of the motifs to match the games he plays (at least I had the sense to stitch it on white, rather than black fabric). I promise to show it off when it's done, though!

I also stitched the infamous Peeking Jesus for my brother, a Benedictine priest:

The only Christmas-themed stitching I've done is a cute advent calendar by Wandering Threads, given to me by a friend. I'm pretty far behind, though, because of the aforementioned cross stitching:

It's a fun design, though.

Jo has asked us to answer what we have for "afters" -- dessert. For us, it's Christmas cookies! The days of my baking dozens in a marathon session a few days before Christmas are long gone. Instead, every weekend of Advent I try to bake at least one batch of something, and stick them in the freezer until Christmas eve. Then I lay them on the sideboard in our dining room, and watch them disappear over a few days. If I have the wherewithal, I will also give some to our neighbors and mail some to a friend or two.

This year's selections: sparkly gingerbread, coquito lace cookies, stamped brown sugar shortbread, crushed peppermint-chocolate cookies, and if I have the time, chocolate-dipped triple coconut macaroons. 

I hope all of you have a sweet Christmas filled with peace and joy!

Advent Blog Hop

 Welcome to my stop on Jo's annual Advent blog hop! As usual, I have a few ornaments to show off (I prefer to stitch small projects; I'm more likely to finish them in time 😛).

"Tres" by Monsterbubbles (Just Cross Stitch August 2008):

This has been on my to-do list for a long time, but stitching on metal mesh/screen is a pain; the beaded edge was fun, though.

Here's "Meowy Christmas" by Fern Ridge Collections (Christmas Ornaments 2019):

It's true to life, too! There's a reason why I keep my fragile ornaments on the top of the tree ....

(I also stitched "Mary & Jesus Stained Glass" by Snoflake Stitchery (Christmas Ornaments 2019), but  I forgot to take a picture before I sent it to my mom.)

Jo also asked us to write about our favorite Christmas book. Mine's a new one, that I discovered last year:

I loved it so much I bought my own copy this year. This collection of stories, memories, and recipes is moving and insightful, and I highly recommend it.

I hope you all have a lovely and peaceful Christmas, and a much-improved new year!

On the First Day of Christmas ...

Well, it's not the first day of Christmas yet, and not the first day of Jo's Online Advent Calendar, but it still seems appropriate because my two most recent cross stitch finishes are partridge-in-a-pear-themed, to go with my growing collection:

Prairie Schooler

Just Nan

We don't celebrate Boxing Day in the States, although I am familiar with it because my father-in-law is English. Nonetheless, we have developed traditions for the day -- my brother is a Benedictine priest, and while he is required to stay at the Abbey Christmas Eve and Day, he is given a short vacation after. So every year, my mom and brother come on the 26th to stay with us a few days.  Since Christmas Day usually has an English vibe (turkey or goose if we can afford it, Christmas pudding, crackers), the day after I crank up the Puerto Rican Christmas music and prepare a pernil (roast pork shoulder). If I'm especially ambitious, I'll also make tostones (twice-fried plantains), queso frito (pan-fried white cheese), or coquito (like eggnog, but coconuty). It's nice to keep the celebrations going for more than a day.

Merry Christmas, and I hope everyone has a wonderful Boxing Day!

Advent Calendar Day 18

Merry Christmas! Jo over at Serendipitous Stitches is running her annual Online Advent Calendar, and she asked me to participate today.

First up is some stitching.  With no big project to occupy my time this season (except painting my living room; such a good idea to do that two weeks before Christmas), I decided to focus on finishing up various designs I stitched over the last couple of years.

A Partridge in a Pear Tree, to add to my collection:

The Victoria Sampler's Gingerbread Garden and matching ornament:

Taken on a gloomy day, unfortunately

And Shepherd Bush's 2000 Years Ago series:

This is actually the second time I've stitched them.  Years ago I stitched the first seven and had them in a nice stack, awaiting the arrival of the eighth pattern, when they somehow ended up in a donation pile my husband gave to a charity.  I haven't quite forgiven him yet, but I do hope someone out there is enjoying them.


Jo also asked us to write about a special decoration we take out every year.  I think for me it is the Advent Calendar I made for my children, particularly since this year I finally figured out how to work it so it is liturgically accurate each year.

The pockets are attached with pins to the background, allowing me to rearrange them as necessary.  It's a fun annual tradition to teach my kids about the different symbols and feasts of the season, while giving them a little treat each day (if they start to complain about the quality of treats -- i.e. not enough chocolate -- I threaten to replace them with Bible verses).


I hope everyone has a joyous and peaceful holiday(s)!

Advent Calendar Finished -- for Real this Time

This year Advent is 28 days, the longest possible, and given that it's a leap year I had to make two more squares.

St. Lucy, whose feast day is December 12:

She is the patron saint of eyes, so the pair of eyes milagro seemed appropriate.  And in various Scandinavian celebrations she is symbolized by a crown of candles.

An elf, suggested by Beadboy2 because by now I was completely out of ideas and feast days:

The solution to the changing liturgical calendar was to come up with a new background onto which I could pin the requisite number of pockets each year.  For that I sewed together 36 squares of various red fabrics, added a red and white print border, and backed it with red felt:

Rather than quilt it, I tied each intersection with a silver-lined bead:

Finished:

Jo's Advent Blog Hop

Jo at Serendipitous Stitching asked me to participate in her stitching blog hop again, and assigned me today, the 19th.  Which is perfect, because I finished the stitching on my tree yesterday!

Finding this design was surprisingly tricky.  I first saw an image of this tree on pinterest, but clicking through led to a Vietnamese blog.  Google Translate translated the page for me, but there was no mention of where the design came from.  Some hints from the text led me to a Russian blog, but that page, too, did not mention the origin of the pattern.  So I tried a Google image search, and that told me that the design was most likely from the book Handmade Style: Stitchby Penny Black.  But of course, it was out of print! (The Kindle version did not strike me as a good way to get a cross stitch pattern.)  That's when my mom came to the rescue, ordering me a copy from a used bookstore in England as a very early birthday present.

I changed the colors quite a bit, because the original pattern called for muted, neutral shades.  I didn't have just the right shade of green, so I mixed together one strand of Sampler Threads in Deep Sea and one strand of Weeks Dye Works in Collards.  The rest of the stitching is in Sampler Threads:  Dark Chocolate for the trunk, Cherry Wine for the presents, and Gold Leaf for the star.  I found a bit of tinsel thread in my stash, so I used that for the ribbon.  Then came the best part -- stitching on the beads:

I used seed beads in sizes 11 and 15, with a few faceted glass 4mm beads.  The tree fits perfectly in the hoop, so I'm finishing it that way.

I also stitched an ornament for one of my aunts from a kit that I'm not sure how or when I got:

The design is "Quaker Joy" by Homespun Elegance, from the 2008 Christmas Ornaments magazine.

Much earlier in the year I stitched up the Gingerbread Garden sampler and matching ornament from the Victoria Sampler:

But I haven't figured out how I want to finish them.

Finally there's the poor, neglected Yule Sampler by Primitive Needle:

Which will probably keep being neglected, because I still have to finish the quiet book for Beadboy3, and make a Minecraft t-shirt and Star Wars light plate for Beadboy2, and make a Cookie Monster t-shirt and Wizard of Oz bag for Beadboy1, and come up with some quick little ornaments for my other aunts, and make shaving cream and spice rubs for Mr. Beadgirl, and bake several dozen cookies, and finish up my promised hours for work, and and and ...

Jo asked us to write about our Christmas Eve traditions.  Ever since I moved to New York City to marry my husband, Christmas Eve has always been a bit lonely.  He's not Catholic, so he usually attends a Vigil service an an Episcopal church with his parents, and my family is too far away for me to see them, so I would go to Christmas Eve Mass alone.  The music and rituals were always beautiful and moving, and I knew I would be seeing family and friends later.

Now that I have children, they come with me.  For the last few years Beadboy2 and I have been part of the informal bell choir at our Church, so we attend the 4 pm Christmas Eve Family Mass to ring the bells and sing as loud as we can.  This year Beadboy1, who has Down Syndrome, finally made his First Communion, so he will be coming with us.  Wish us luck! I have no idea how he will react to such a crowded Mass, where he won't be able to sit where he usually sits and where I'll be able to chase after him only with great difficulty.

Once I get back from Mass, I put on Christmas music and touch up a few decorations.  I always replace the purple ribbon on the front door's wreath with a white one, to mark the end of Advent and the start of Christmas.  I impatiently wait for the kids to fall alseep so I can bring down their presents and fill the stockings.  Then my husband and I settle down to watch The Bishop's Wife, a favorite movie of ours.

Merry Christmas!

On the Second Day of Advent

I had to make another square for the Advent Calendar:

A bell!  And here I thought I had run out of Christmas symbols.  I backed the sparkly silver fabric with heavy interfacing to keep the edges from fraying, and to allow me to shape the bell a bit so the jingle bell could hang freely and make a little noise.

My current system with a secondary panel for those Advent days in November is working, but isn't ideal.  I'm now thinking I should just cut both panels apart, making actual pockets out of the squares, which I could then back with a little velcro and place on a new background.  This would allow me to arrange the squares as I want to suit every Advent season, regardless of when the first Sunday falls.

Christmas Stocking

Jo from Serendipitous Stitching is hosting an Advent blog hop, and I (along with Jeremiah's Mom) have been chosen for today.

My Christmas stitching is the Shepherd's Bush stocking for Beadboy3, which I've been stitching off-and-on for the past year:

 

 Frankly, I'm kind of shocked I actually finished it with three weeks of Advent to go!

I backed it with velvet, as I did the first two, and fortuitously I had in my scrap bin a purple velvet dress one of my cats tore up years ago.  For the trim and loop I machine-sewed a purle ombre ribbon around an old and ugly length of cord, then hand-stitched it into place between the stocking and lining.  Done!

Waiting to be filled by Santa:

Jo also asked us to write about a favorite gift.  I'm not sure I have a particular favorite, but there are a number I remember over the years -- the cruise ship for some dolls that "Santa" left half-built, and which I finished while waiting for the rest of the family to wake up; the lovely set of notions and sewing gadgets my mom gave me one year; the joke wedding gift a colleague gave me, a copy of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, which ended up being one of the more useful gifts I've ever received.

One particular memory stands out, however, from my early childhood in Puerto Rico.  Back then Three Kings' Day was a much bigger deal for children than Christmas, because that's when we got all the toys and fun stuff.  One year my father collaborated with my godfather, an executive at a toy company, to give away lots of gifts to all the children from the local village.  At the end of the day, there was one lonely Barbie doll left, so I got to keep her.  She had a skirt that changed colors, I think as a result of some sort of lighting?  I don't remember the details, but I do remember the pretty colors, and how lucky I felt.

Happy Advent, everyone, and I wish you all a fabulous and peaceful Christmas.

Because I Can Never Leave Well Enough Alone

I'm very pleased with my Advent Calendar, but like secular calendars it has only 24 squares, corresponding to the days of December before Christmas.  I'm trying to teach the liturgical calendar to the kids, however, and that means celebrating the actual Advent season, which this year starts today.  I'd been meaning to make extra squares for those years Advent starts in November, and this year seemed the perfect time to start, since I'd only need to make one.

But what design?  I pretty much exhausted my repertoire of secular and religious Christmas symbols  I like.  A little bit of research, however, reminded me that December 12 is the feast day of La Virgen de Guadalupe, a big deal both for Latinos and Americans in general.  Perfect!

Because I am not nearly skilled enough to replicate the image in thread or pencil, the original plan was to sew a prayer card onto the felt square, but although I have a gazillion prayer cards stuffed into a cigar box, La Virgen wasn't one of them.  Then I remembered I had actual fabric printed with her image, which was even better.  I snipped out her likeness and attached it to the felt using gold thread and straight stitches to mimic the rays around her.  A few ribbon roses finished it off.

I wanted her on the twelfth day -- of December, not Advent, so the twelfth square on the main calendar section, and this sounds ridiculously complicated just typing it -- so I removed the square in that slot (a poinsettia) and sewed it on.  The poinsettia moved to the first slot, because the original square there, an Advent wreath, I want to always be first.  That I moved to a new panel designed to hold the extra "November squares":

Makes sense?  Of course, I now have an issue when Advent starts December 1, 2, or 3 -- the main calendar will suffice, but it won't have the Advent wreath square.  I'll deal with that in 2017.

We Three Kings

As I wrote earlier, the Mill Hill kits inspired the decorations for the mantel this year:
The main pieces are my Santos from Puerto Rico. Santos are wooden carvings of saints and other Catholic figures. Originally devotionary in nature, they are now a big part of the art and culture of the island. I've loved the Three Kings ever since I was a little girl, so when I started my own Santos collection, that's whom I gravitated to.

My first set, bought by me on one of my trips to P.R.:
A triptych style Beadmom gave to Mr. Beadgirl the Christmas we got engaged:
And Beadmom's, which she gave to me when we moved:
Poor Balthasar -- his present broke off, and no matter how many times I glue it back it falls over.

I also have another cross-stitch Three Kings:
This was a pattern from the defunct British magazine Needlecraft that I made in the 90s.

I also have some of their camels. A Prairie Schooler design:

An ornament from one of those international fair-trade-type stores (made in India I think?):

And a felt camel, from I forget where:

The pillar candles to the right of the mantel are my Advent Wreath:
Pillars last a lot longer than tapers, and they are harder to knock over -- an important consideration because of the Beadboys and the Beadcats.

Once, when I was a little girl in P.R., I remember coming back late one night from a holiday outing with my family and my godfather and his wife. I was half-asleep when my godfather pointed out the car window to a house which had plastic statues of the Kings on its front yard. "Look!" he said. "Those are the Three Kings, stopping at that house to deliver presents. But they saw us driving by, so they are pretending to be statues." I spent the rest of the trip staring intently at other statues on other lawns, trying to catch a glimpse of the Kings moving and giving themselves away.

Gifts!

Now that I've given them, I can write about them.

For Beadmom, a dishtowel with an embroidered woman who has her priorities straight:
The design was originally a cross stitch pattern from the Dolly Mamas line:
It was a largish design, however, and I find cross stitch to be a little tedious, plus I had previously cross-stitched another design from the series for my mom, so I did it in embroidery instead. Conversion was easy -- I just traced the outlines of the cross stitch pattern onto white cotton and started sewing, using whatever stitch struck my fancy. Her hair is made from layers of detached chain stitch; I had a close-up of it, but did not realize until now it was too blurry. And, of course, the towel is no longer in my possession.

Once the embroidery was done, I cleaned and pressed it and sewed it to a dish towel. I added a border of grosgrain ribbon and purple lace to gussy it up, with the intention that the towel be more for display than for cleaning. (I'm not crazy about the ribbon, but I did not have time to go to the fabulous trim stores in the city, and so I had to make do with what I could get from Jo-Ann's.) (The lace I already had.) (Ignore the fact that I forgot to miter the last corner.)

For Fr. Beadbrother, who likes all things space- and alien-related, an Arecibo bookmark:
I got the pattern here. Once cross-stitched, I sewed it onto blue felt (literally as Beadmom and Fr. Beadbrother were pulling into my driveway). I also gave my brother one of Olisa's awesome green alien ornaments.

Finally, (this is not really a gift) I sewed a little baby Jesus for the 24th pocket of the Advent Calendar, to be hung on a button at the center of the Calendar:
Sometime in the coming months I will back the Calendar to make it sturdier. Plus I have to repair a few pockets, courtesy of an over-zealous search for candy inside by Beadboy1.

Whew!

It's not quite finished -- Beadmom suggested I put a ribbon around the edge, and I need to make a little baby to be kept in the last pocket, and attached to the center Christmas eve. But it's close enough for me to use with the Beadboys.

Although, I ran into a snag when I tried to explain yesterday that Advent started, even though, liturgically, Advent began on Nov. 28. A liturgically accurate calendar would require adding or subtracting squares each year, so I'm sticking with a December-based calendar. And looking forward to when Christmas falls on a Wednesday, so that Dec. 1 is the first day of Advent.

The Last Two Squares

A poinsettia:
Not my favorite flower, but it certainly belongs in the season. I think I should have added a fourth green leaf.

A dove:
I was completely out of ideas after 22 squares (the drum was a suggestion from one of my quilt classes), so I asked Beadmom for ideas. After naming a bunch I'd already done, she suggested a white dove (Prince of Peace and all that). That would have required appliqueing it onto a colored square, and that on a white square (a technique I had done before), but a search of flickr showed some prettily embroidered birds, and I decided to embroider my own floral pattern. It adds a nice color, and technically the dove is still white, just embellished.

The Pressure Is On

I've got another five advent squares done; just two more to go! Plus, sewing them all onto the backing, and making a baby in a manger, and getting them numbered, and finding a way to hang it . . .

A shepherd and sheep:
Pretty cute, if I do say so myself. I used a combination of needle-felting and applique, with a little embroidery. I thought about trying to define the shepherd's body more, but I didn't trust myself to do it right (especially since I'm on a time crunch), and Mr. Beadgirl likes how he looks like he belongs on South Park.

Rudolph:
He looks a little plain, but again, I'm afraid of screwing him up if I add more detail. And now that I see the picture, I realize I have to finish his second antler.

A drum:
When I was little, every Christmas my grandfather would dress up as the Little Drummer Boy and come down the stairs, banging on a drum. Add my father dressed in a Santa suit and coming up the driveway in a tractor, and defective trees that were s-shaped or two-headed or completely bare on one side, and it made for some interesting Christmases.

A Christmas light bulb:
The old style, with big, rounded bulbs. Those were the ones my father wanted to use on the tree, but my mom always made him use them outside. I used floral wire to mimic the electrical wiring. But this bulb won't blow out!

A present:
The least exciting of the squares. I wanted pretty sparkly ribbon, but I did not have any in the right width. I may someday replace the ribbon with something nicer.