Happy Sunday crafty people and welcome to the last SAL post of 2020. I hope you all had as good a Christmas as possible. In the UK we are under increased restrictions again as there is a new variation in the virus and it seems to be even more infectious, although thankfully not more dangerous. So we changed our plans and just visited my Mum for a short while. We packed up all the trimmings of Christmas dinner to take to Mum and some home made cookies and mince pies so we all still enjoyed the feast, although not together. We were all bundled up in our jackets and took the presents outside to be opened in the fresh air before heading home to have dinner separately and then catch up later in the day via facetime. It was pretty chilly but we were treated to some live music as we could hear someone playing the bagpipes nearby. We took a socially distanced selfie to mark this unusual Christmas! I know it’s not stitching related but I thought it might be interesting to see how this pandemic is affecting people in different parts of the world.
Anyway back to the stitching! First my confession…..last time this was where I was…..
Three weeks later I haven’t made any progress I’m afraid! However I was busy doing lots of stitching and I did say I would share what I had made now that the gifts have all been received!
The first batch of projects were a set of PDF charts which I bought from Beverly Street Shop on Etsy. The set is called a Very Covid Christmas and included 3 projects. Unforunately I didn’t take a photo of the snowman, although I am stitching one for myself on navy blue aida so I will share that when it is completed! Here are the Nutcracker and the Santa ornaments. I stitched two snowmen, two Santas and one Nutcracker for gifts.
The next two projects were gifts for two close friends who have really kept us going this year with zoom catch ups. They loved them and they made them laugh which was the aim, especially this year I think as much laughter as possible is needed! In case you are easily offended I have censored some of the “language” on these stitches, unless you are Scottish you might not understand the thistle one anyway, but please be assured, these are almost terms of endearment in Scotland!
The thistle on came from Son of a Cross Stitch on Etsy and the flowery one from KyXStitch also on Etsy.
I also stitched a couple of Christmas decorations for ourselves and they are finished but not sewed up into decorations (I just ran out of steam!) The first was a beautiful free chart I came across on Pinterest. It is called Merry Cats-mas and it was designed by Terri Carl. I have picked out some red Christmas fabric to back it but I need to pick some ribbons and or trim and I might add a bell. Here it is so far….
Finally I stitched my first (but definitely not last!) Lindy Stitches design. When I spotted this project on instagram and saw the three cats I knew I had to make this one! I adapted the colours to try and represent our 3 fluffy boys, so here is the stitched project (I think I’m going to use the mint candy cane fabric to finish it off and some green pompom trim).
And here are the inspirations….
So I hope that you will forgive me cheating with all the distractions from the fact that I didn’t make any actual SAL progress!
This SAL is organised by the lovely Avis. who keeps us all on track (it’s always a surprise to me when the email comes in and I think it cannot be 3 weeks already!!) I just wanted to say a big thank you to Avis and all my fellow stitchers who really keep me motivated to stitch regularly. This year more than ever I have been grateful to have creative outlets which have kept me feeling productive and given me hours of enjoyment at home. I think I will be using these coping strategies for a while yet but I’m very hopeful for a return to more normal life sometime in 2021.
I’m looking forward to catching up with all the other blogs in this SAL group. Please give them a visit too, I’ve linked them here so you can easily find them.
Avis , Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze ,Christina, Kathy , Margaret , Cindy , Heidi , Jackie , Sunny , Hayley ,Megan , Deborah , Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne ,Connie , AJ, Laura, Cathie and Linda, and Helen
Stay safe and be gentle with yourself at this time.
Crafty hugs
Jenny (AKA the Ginger Ninja!) x
gingerninjacrafts 
