Gifted Gorgeousness - November Edition and Some Help Please!

Here we are at our second-last or penultimate Gifted Gorgeousness link-up! I have always loved that word and its iterations, like anti-penultimate, which is 3rd last. :) I think it keeps adding "anti"s after that, so 4th last is anti-anti-penultimate, etc. 

Hosted as always by the marvelous Jo aka "speedy needles" for her finishes this year (okay, that's maybe my inner voice talking) this is our monthly showcase for all the things we've worked on that are somehow related to gifts. So if we're giving them to someone or have received them for someone or it's a free pattern and therefore a "gift" from the designer, however you can shoehorn your work in, go for it! 

My summary since last month is:

Halloween Monster, a FFO!

Halloween Bat by Durene Jones, free from her Facebook page

Somebunny - for DD

I feel like somehow Somebunny looks like a weird ghost Goofy right now, but it will get completed for Xmas. I was disappointed to not get finished by the weekend, but I had to spend 2 nights on photo orders for Xmas gifts and they had to be done last week or they wouldn't be delivered on time, so not much I could do about it.

DD doesn't really know or care at this point either, but I'm a little disappointed in myself. 

Song of the Weather Hardanger Lap Afghan

for individual photos check the 2015 Completions tab

Almost done! I just have 4 more bands to attach to the backing, then either YouTube or DH will help me figure out how to use my sewing machine to make the backing a little prettier. Then I hope to make a fringed outer perimeter. You pull out out all the horizontal threads, then sort of tie the vertical ones together. Fingers crossed I can pull it off before I go visit my Grandma. She turned 93 yesterday... 93! 

If you're a follower you know she's had a lot of issues this year, and currently she's dealing with some severe back pain. They don't know if it's stress fractures or neuropathic, but they've upped her pain meds. Of course that has other side effects and my cousins and I are trying to prepare ourselves that she may not have much longer, but I don't think it will matter. We're going to be wrecks. 

She has been the most meaningful family member in my life. Always there, always willing to interact with us, fiercely protective of us, to the point where one day when my Grandpa said something she thought could be misconstrued she made him call me to apologize! Wow.. She's knitted I don't know how many amazing sweaters for us, taught me how to knit, just an amazing person. She's given so much of herself to so many people. I even made DD's middle name the same as hers, only turns out she's always hated it!! She's always had a great sense of humour too, and has kept it even though she's in pain pretty much every day right now. 

So I'd also like to finish off Rejoice Tree for her as an Xmas present. I'm debating about a cube finish that could be put on a table since apparently it's hard to get anything hung up in her nursing home. 

Last thing is, I kind of dislike working on Vermont.. and I'm debating about a new start. Your advice, as always, is appreciated! This is Vermont:

and this is the new start I'm considering:

A friend on the Cross Stitch Forum was de-stashing and passed along the chart. I'd always thought of stitching this for my co-worker's family and now I own it! I don't know if I have the fabric, but I might have something similar. I'm also expecting my FOTM from Chromatic Alchemy (new website, check it out, wish lists!) which is Florin and might work well for this pattern if it's large enough. 

I wanted to change the lettering colour anyway, but I think the other elements might still work on this fabric. 

I've started Vermont, although not much:

and I haven't started the other, but it looks fairly quick. 

Suggestions are very welcome, and thank you if you made it all the way through this long post. Clearly I had some things to talk about. :)

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch