Yet More Christmas Ornaments

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Jenna Magee

I have been trying to crank out Christmas ornaments this week. I did two over the weekend and crawled through another one and finished a 4th one tonight. Unfortunately, I was able to finish all but a 5th reindeer because I ran out of reindeer brown, er I mean, DMC 801. So that last little reindeer is waiting for me to try to run somewhere tomorrow (I guess that’s actually later today) and pick up some more floss. Bummer. It doesn’t really matter, though, because as I sit and look at the huge pile of stitched ornaments I have that I wanted to finish-finish into their final ornament form and I consider what other things I need to get done before Christmas, it’s slowly starting to sink in that there is no way this is all going to happen. And since the ornaments were an afterthought, they will be the first things dropped off of the to do list. We’ll see what miracles I can accomplish, but it will probably take me 2 solid days, at least, to get through all of the finishing I have to do.

Enough about that, though. Bring on this week’s ornaments! All of these reindeer are freebies courtesy of the lovely Sharon Bennett, of Daffycat Designs. I just love this whole series of reindeer, if you couldn’t tell.


Mistletoe Reindeer


Ribbon Reindeer


Holly Reindeer. Yes, I’ve stitched one of these already, but I wanted to do them all on exactly the same fabric, so I stitched it again.


And the original Reindeer, named Jinglebell Reindeer. I added the border used in the others to this one.

The remaining reindeer is named Stocking Reindeer and simply needs a body to go with the head, stocking and border that I’ve already stitched. Blasted DMC 801!!!

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More Christmas Ornaments

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Jenna Magee

My push to stitch a bunch of Christmas ornaments at the last minute is still proceeding, albeit at a slightly slower pace. I did finish two more this past weekend, though:

1. Christmas 2006 – Wreath by Tor Rhuann Designs

2. Christmas Star by Tor Rhuann Designs

Watch this space for more, as I already have 2 more that are in progress and 6 more kitted up.

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Update

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Jenna Magee

Many of you may have been wondering, where the heck have I been?!?!?!?

Well, work has been … work. 🙂 There has been a lot of it and it has consumed most of my life for the past year, but the huge project I was working on is now complete, thank goodness. Now I can try to re-establish some boundaries, reclaim my personal life and hopefully regain some sanity. Needless to say, I’m behind on… well… everything. I guess I have a thing for ellipses tonight, but there’s much that I’d rather leave unsaid at this point, so you’ll just have to write your own filler. I’ll just say that it’s been a very challenging year and I will be quite glad to see it go.

With that said, I’m already looking forward to 2013. I have a lot of fun things planned for the first few months, more ideas on the back burner and much planning to do. It’s all good.

As far as stitching goes, here is what I’ve been doing since I last posted a stitching update back in July:

  • Started the final PIF gift, but didn’t get very far before I put it down again. I will probably get to it in the new year.
  • Started Passione Ricamo’s Fairy Mystery SAL. I’m on steps 2/3 of the 5 available and have some serious catching up to do. Here is where I stood after completing step 1:
  • Stitched Lizzie*Kate’s Good Things:

    The fun part about this one is that it has now become a traveling pattern and is crossing the globe.
  • Stitched Teresa Wentzler’s Sun Dragon, as a purple moon dragon:

  • Started another instance of Teresa Wentzler’s Sun Dragon, this time as a turquoise moon dragon:
  • Stitched My Mark Designs’ Be Calm, in mint:
  • Framed My Mark Designs’ Be Calm, in mint:
  • Stitched My Mark Designs’ Be Calm, in blue/purple, for my cousin:
  • Framed My Mark Designs’ Be Calm, in blue/purple, for my cousin:

    I just framed it last week and packed it up Friday night, so it is winging its way across the country as I type this.
  • Started stitching a lovely little Joan Elliott design for my mother, called Water Wonderland, then realized that I don’t stand a chance of finishing it in time to have it framed for Christmas, so decided to whip up some ornaments instead.
  • Stitched Star, from Mill Hill’s Winter Greetings Charmed Ornament series of kits, for myself:
  • Sent Nora Corbett’s Sunflower Fairy away to Jill Rensel for framing. She did an absolutely fantastic job and I just got it back this week, but haven’t had a chance to take a good photo of it. As soon as I do, I will post it. In the meantime, here is the photo she sent to me before she shipped it back:
  • Started Here Comes Treble by Ink Circles, as a Christmas gift for my music teacher.
  • Stitched Lizzie*Kate’s Cross Stitcher in Residence, another traveling pattern:

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend is when I decided to try to crank out a few ornaments for my mother, which has now spilled over into trying to stitch a few for my step-dad, as well. I kitted up 6 or 7 ornaments and have already completed two:

  1. Holly Reindeer, designed by Sharon Bennett:
  2. Merry Little Christmas Ornament, designed by The Drawn Thread:

That’s enough for now. I really need to go throw some more stitches into some pieces before bed. Or work on transcribing more Adele songs. I need another day off… or two! 😀

I hope that all of my U.S. friends had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. I know that I have much to be thankful for in my own life, including any and all of you who are still reading this blog! Have a great week!

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 4 Comments

Book Review: Bride of Fae by L.K. Rigel

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Jenna Magee

Bride of Fae (Tethers #2)Bride of Fae by L.K. Rigel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even better than Give Me (the first book in the Tethers series), Bride of Fae includes such wonderful, detailed descriptions of the scenery. The changes in timeline are easier to follow than in Give Me. The costumes are vivid and colorful, beautifully suited to the world of the fae. There is more sex than in any of L.K.’s books to date, but the amount is just right and fits the circumstances. After all, this is faeworld!

Over all, L.K.’s writing just gets better and better. If you like Give Me, you will LOVE Bride of Fae.

View all my reviews

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PIF Gift #3 Received

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Jenna Magee

My third PIF gift had to make its way down under to Australia, but it made it safely and in a timely manner. The recipient for this gift was Janie Hubble, the designer who was behind The Cat’s Whiskers Design Studio and one of my favorite designers, so I felt a little bit of pressure to execute something really nice. I decided to stitch another design from The Sweetheart Tree’s Teenie Tweenies line, named Renaissance Romance, for this gift. I stitched it twice, in two of Janie’s favorite colors, pink and blue. As with the others, the finished piece measured approximately 1.5 inches, but this time I finished as a tiny biscornu pendant. Unfortunately, I didn’t think out the biscornu finish enough when I laid out the design, so I wasn’t able to get the initial in the center facing up on both sides. I would have had to stitch the one side differently to make it work. As a result, when I put the biscornu together, I just did the exact opposite of trying to get the back side lined up. Intentionally. 😆 Fortunately, I don’t think Janie minded.

Here it is as stitched:

And as finished:

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One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies – Inventory Clearance Sale – 30% Off Entire Order

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Jenna Magee

Please help me to clear inventory off of my books before I close up shop! Receive 30% off of your entire order from One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies. Just enter the coupon code ByeBye30 at checkout.

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Weekend Goals

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Jenna Magee
  • Work on laundry
  • Finish first sundress
  • Find and mark starting point on fabric for PR Fairy Mystery SAL
  • Mount fabric for PR Fairy Mystery SAL onto scroll bars
  • Clean up spare bedroom – just need to vacuum
  • Work on PIF gift #5
  • Work
  • Read
  • Eat
  • Sleep
  • Relax – this one seems to elude me!
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Official WIP Finish and Purin Update, Plus a Finished Sundress

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Jenna Magee

I have completed the stitching for part 2 of PIF gift #3 and finished the item into its final form. Since it is currently winging its way to the recipient, I cannot show the pictures or reveal any other information, but it is done.

PIF gift #4 just made it to its final destination on Friday, so I can now do the official reveal. The recipient is Belinda, the designer behind Tor Rhuann Designs and whose designs I love, so choosing and executing something for her was a little intimidating. In accordance with the colors that she said she favors, I chose the design Florin by Ink Circles. In order to fit the design in the 1.5 inch frame, I had to slightly modify the outer section of the design to shrink it and then stitched it over 1 on antique white 36 ct. linen.

Here is the stitched piece:

And finished into a pendant:

I have started PIF gift #5, which is the last one (#2 has been finished for months, but the package is waiting for me to do something else before I send it off).

In WIPocalypse news, as I remembered at the end of my update, I actually did some work on Purin the other week (maybe 2 weeks ago?). When we last saw this cuddly little creature, it looked like this:

And now it looks like this:

Beware, there is a whole lot of yellow coming. Other than the outline and the eyes, it’s ALL yellow. I’ll definitely have to rotate in and out of this one!

And finally, I have a sewing finish to show. The first sundress is finished! I ended up having to alter it on the fly quite a bit. According to the pattern envelope and my measurements, I cut a size 8. Surprise, surprise, it was WAY too big. I’ve now cut all of the pattern sizes down to 4 for the next run. I changed the bodice because I didn’t like how high it was. I changed the length of the skirt from hitting below my knees to ending several inches above my knees. It also seemed really boring, so I went out and found some sheer, dark chocolate colored ribbon and added it to the bottom and the empire waist line. I think it looks a bit better now. It’s not perfect, but I might actually wear it. 🙂

That’s it for me for now. I will be starting another big stitching project soon, as I have signed up for Passione Ricamo’s year-long Fairy Mystery SAL which started on July 1st. I have nearly all of the materials, except some beads and Petite Treasure Braid which is on order and will hopefully be here in another week or so.

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One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies Will Be Closing

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Jenna Magee

Well folks, I have come to a difficult decision. With all of the changes in my life, I am not able to pay One Star’s Light Needlework Supplies the attention it deserves. This business turned out to be much more difficult than I had ever imagined and I have realized that I will never be able to keep up, much less turn a profit. Therefore, I am going to close the business at the end of this year.

To help me clear inventory off of my books before I close up shop, I am going to have an inventory reduction sale – 30% off of your entire order. I will start the sale in about a week and a half, so watch for a notification in the coming week.

Thank you to all of you who have supported my efforts over the past 5+ years. I value each and every one of you!

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WIPocalypse Check-In — July 3, 2012

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Jenna Magee

And the WIPocalypse continues! Here is my June update with my current WIPocalypse WIP list, including status updates:

    My current WIP pile:

  1. Northern Pine Designs – Geometric II
  2. Mill Hill – Spring Weathervanes – Floral Vase
  3. Jenna Magee – Purin – Progress has been made!
  4. Just Nan – Over the Top – Grow! (Tin Topper)
  5. Lody Steward – Pagoda Pincushion
  6. Chatelaine Designs – Micro #1
  7. Lizzie*Kate – Dog Lessons For People
  8. Nora Corbett – The Sunflower Fairy

    9. Older WIPs:

  9. The Victoria Sampler – Heirloom Memories Sampler
  10. Chatelaine Designs – Tiny Rose Mandala Garden
  11. Leisure Arts – Pooh Sweet Dreams Afghan

    12. UFOs:

  12. Dimensions – Bonsai and Buddha
  13. Roz Watnemo – Flower Garden
  14. Mirabilia – Fairy Moon
  15. Mill Hill Treasured Spring Sampler Kit – Flower Basket Fantasy
  16. Jeanette Crews Designs – Computer Wizard
  17. Giraffe Pillow

Yet another month with absolutely NO progress. Very little stitching has been accomplished this past month, but more than the previous month. I have now finished all but one PIF gift, so while I have not attended to any WIPs and have, in fact, created more WIPs, I have at least done some stitching. Oh wait, I actually put some stitches into Purin. I feel better now. 😉 So, I’ve gone from absolutely no progress to a very slight amount of progress. It’s better than nothing!

Next month will be another month. We’ll see if the August update brings any WIPocalypse progress.

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