The Days of Santa, Christmas 2017

There have been many times when I set a goal for myself and see if I can achieve it... these past few days have been spent similarly, even though it started out quite innocently enough with the little Santa I started stitching just a few days ago, on Christmas Eve.
it was a fun stitch and a quick one too, and I was glad to see that I could pick up the pace again and not have issues with my hands.... but then I started looking more closely.... had to still work on regaining clarity of my stitches.  It could be that the threads in the kit are not as good in quality but that coupled with my desire to just have some time for 'fun stitching' while watching Christmas movies on TV, resulted in one more Santa - started late in the evening on Christmas Day and finished yesterday except for the  back stitches of the face.  I finished that a few hours ago and then also tweeked the face of the first Santa...
here then are the results of these last two days  - hope you too have had some time with your needle and thread. 

 

Now right after I finished this second Santa I decided to change the eyes of the first Santa I had shared in the previous blogpost.

I changed the color of the eyebrows and restitched the eyes ... better but still not quite there

So, I decided to just let the charted design be and add 'what felt right'... added pinks and reworked both eyes again...

So, this is the status of my linen remnant to date...

 maybe one more tonight?

Season's Greetings, Christmas Eve, 2017

Every Year around this time I like to stitch at least one thing that is 'christmassy' .... my favorite motif is perhaps stitching a Santa... somehow the promise of hope, peace and good will associated with this fictitious jolly gentleman always makes me smile.
So, late last night, I took out a remnant piece of 32 count linen and started stitching ... finished it this morning... I will as always embellish it and finish it as an ornament (one of these days); but for now, here is wishing you all some joyful and peaceful times these last few days of 2017

Quick update

Update on my needlework on this second snowy Sunday of Advent 

1.

Dutch Beauty - finished a few days ago - still need to add my initials and dates but have to figure out if I want to put those within the sampler or around it

Dutch Beauty - Permin

2. Frances Cheyney 

Finishing the last block - lots of fiddly needleweaving ... good news is that my fingers and my wrists are back to ‘normal’

Frances Cheyney - final band 

3. Will finally post a more detailed update on my blog soon ....