Ornies and Give away

I've been busy getting my Christmas ornaments stitched and put together for our guild's Christmas party. They are hung on trees at the party. Here's a picture from last year's party:

If you participate in the secret stitcher program for the year, it is ended with an ornament exchange also. You give your ornament to the person you sent gifts to all year and that's how they find out who their secret stitcher 'gifter' is. It's a lot of fun. I had started a scissor keeper for my secret stitcher but I don't think the colors are right for her. I'll finish it later for myself or my new secret stitcher for next year. These are the two ornaments I finished for this year's exchanges.

They are a Hands to Work pattern. I did the smaller of the two over one. Both were done on linen scraps using NPI silks. A silk ribbon and button finish them off. The larger is open so I can put something inside of it but the little one I fused shut. It was giving me fits to try and finish open so I quit fussing with it. Love steam a seam. Here is a picture of each separately.

I took a class from Ellen Chester (With My Needle) and learned quite a few stitches. They will be incorporated into a needlebook. The needlebook goes with a Huswife but I want to do it as a framed piece instead. My queen stitch started off wonky but ended up pretty nice. I decided to keep the wonky parts in as it is a learning piece for me and will show me where I started. So, here's the start of that and what the finished piece will look like.

OK, you've stuck with me this far in the post so, now is the fun

part. I am going to give away a Stacy Nash Christmas booklet, 'A Simply Early Christmas'. Welcome to Stacy Nash Primitives

I ordered it for myself but it's just not my cup of tea even though

I like her work. I'm sure someone would love to have it all to themselves and make things from it. If that would be you, please leave a comment on this post. I will draw a name on the 1st of December. Be sure I have your email address so I can let you know you won.

Last pretty days of fall

Halloween was a beautiful day and evening. Here's Evan, my grandson, dressed as Ironman.

This is his family's pumpkin display - isn't it cute?!

Here's Ryan, my son, scaring small children when they tried to get candy. Poor little children. Actually, he always lifted his mask and spoke to them.

Guess what I did today?

Yeah, that's a lot of bulbs. I'm sure glad the weather is still warm. I was sweating by the end of it all. The best part will be next spring when they are all in bloom.

Only 3 weeks to Thanksgiving. Hope you're enjoying a beautiful fall too.