Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Advent Calendar Blog Hop 2021

Here it is again, time for Jo's annual Advent Blog Hop! I hope a lot of you have joined in with Jo's wonderful idea again this year and let's cheer on everyone's holiday-themed stitching. Click on her name to visit her page and start the blog hop. 

This year I managed a few Christmas and winter related finishes, and of course started several so there are still a lot of WIPs to work on. 

Jo's theme this year is our Christmas tree, and here's ours this year:

We always have an artificial tree. I always did as a child as well, except one year we had a real tree. I forget why we never did again. This is the first year we've put lights in the windows, and I've had the big blue Santa for the last two Christmases. It was one I gave to my Grandma over a decade ago and she always had it out in her room at her nursing home until she died. 

You can also see a small green 3D printed tree to the left of the large tree, that was a new addition last year when DH became obsessed with 3D printing. He also made a pink one for DD. Rudolph and Clarice were gifts from my Dad. 

We usually have our tree up some time in November, we love having it up and tend to leave it up till March as a "winter tree" :D You can just see Santa on top. That's a family thing, my Dad grew up with a light up Santa on top of the tree and we used to use a similar one, but it was a little damaged through age, so now we use this Santa. 


Some special ornaments are Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind, which was my Grandma's and we've all gained a few ornaments since she passed, so we hang those in her memory. You can see 2 basset hounds there, one stuffed and one ceramic. They're special because of the basset hound we had for 13 1/2 years. DH loves to add the stuffed bassets to peek out at you. 


Here are a couple stitched ornaments, one a gift and the other I stitched, plus another hidden basset!


And now that DD is more capable of making ornaments, the penguin was from last year and the flower was painted in school, and you can order the ornament with the art from a school-related website. She was also very helpful decorating the tree this year. 

On to the stitching, keeping in the tree theme, here's my alternate Christmas colours tree:
Patch Christmas Tree 1 by Angie Designer
stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct white Monaco with stash threads
 unknown Dinky Dyes, Caron Waterlilies parrot, Dinky Dyes Down Under Blues and Jodyri Oz the Great and Powerful, another unknown Dinky Dyes, DMC 3799 and Kreinik gold start, Etoile 699 for the lines

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season however you choose to celebrate it! Stay safe out there and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch



17 comments:

  1. Tiff:It is so much fun seeing trees decorated, you have a lovely tree, I love the large Santa, I have a couple in my collection.
    Three D printing is so interesting, its amazing what can be done nowadays.
    The dogs in the tree is such a sweet touch, I like the stitched tree, very pretty.

    Merry Christmas
    Catherine

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your tree is such fun and so pretty! I really love your Patch Christmas Tree ... it's gorgeous! The colorway is perfect. Merry Christmas! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Such a joyful tree and all full of memories! I make some of my ornaments "peek" out too. I know just what you mean by doing that. Your black(color)work tree is great. Well done on that! Merry Christmas!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. End of November that sounds great... so busy to make the ornaments this year I didn't put the tree yet (and we are in holidays till 15th!). Love all your big ornies and the basset dogs sharing Christmas near the tree. The stitching is gorgeous. Joyeuses fêtes de Noël. xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for sharing your memories along with your tree.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for taking part in the Advent Calendar this year. Love your quirky ornaments, it's nice to have some to remind you of your grandma too.
    When I saw the first picture, I thought the Santa was a blond child bending over to look at his toes!

    ReplyDelete
  7. You have a beautiful tree with so many beautiful ornaments and treasured memories, lucky you! Of course all the handmade ones are perfect.
    Happy Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for sharing your memories with us, lovely trees, both the decorated and the blackwork one!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love your tree and Christmas decorating. I particularly like the memories that family items bring to Christmas. I have really enjoyed my visit. Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I like your tree, very bright and pretty with different ornaments and the embroidery is gorgeous - going to have a look at the design.
    Merry Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wonderful and cheerful decorations.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your Christmas tree is lovely. It's great having memories to share while you are decorating it. Your Patch Christmas Tree is pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lovely post Tiff! Especially love the idea of all the Bassets peeking out everywhere! What great memories too. Love the patch tree, it’s very pretty! I’m joining in tomorrow, if I can use my blog again, tee hee, it’s been so long I’m not sure it will work!
    Barbara x 😁👍

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love the ornament and your tree and decorations. Merry Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Your tree looks very fun - no wonder you keep it up for so long!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Very nice Christmas tree and ornaments. I'm sure Grandma's ornaments will bring you much comfort over the years.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I used to only like Christmas trees with 'traditional' impersonal decorations but, like a lot of people, am now finding that it doesn't matter what the decorations are, it's their meaning that's important. So glad your tree is full of memories for you. :)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for any comments!

Catch-up Post and Mischievous March

Hello again, things conspired so I didn't get a chance to put a post up, but I have been stitching. I also remembered to pick up my Misc...