Advent Calendar Blog Hop 2021 - Day 21

Welcome to day 21 of the  Advent Calendar blog hop organized by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. Each participant is given a day to share some Christmas Stitching and answer a question. Click on the link above  to view the individual days.

First up, some Christmas stitching.  These were stitched as part of Christmasits 2020.

 

The question this time is all about your Christmas tree.  

I order mine from a local high school baseball team.  Normally I order a 5-6 foot tree, but this year we ordered a 3-4 foot tree so we could set it on a table instead.  The tree usually arrives the first weekend in December and we set it up as soon as my daughter can visit to get the Christmas stuff out of the attic.  This year the tree went up on the third, but the lights didn't go on until the 10th. 

I use pretty much the same ornaments each year including any new ones that I stitched during the year.  Most of the ornaments are homemade, either by me, my daughter or one of my sisters.  I used to put an angel (again homemade) on top of the tree, but we didn't unpack that box this year so I used a star instead.

This is the reason we wanted a shorter tree.  Surprisingly, we haven't caught him there since we added the lights and ornaments have been added.

 After the lights and ornaments have been added:

 

 

 

Stitching for Families Facebook Group

I belong to a Facebook group called Canada Stitches Work Group that stitches ornaments and makes quilts for a Ronald McDonald House in Red Deer, Alberta.  Mostly because of the cost of mailing items, I haven't sent them anything, but I got talking to another member and we've decided to do the same for my local Ronald McDonald House at which I also volunteer. (I'm in the US.)

Ronald McDonald House provides place to stay, meals and support for families when their children are in  the hospital or being treated for a serious medical condition and live too far to commute.  

Right now, we're focusing on ornaments for next year, but would eventually like to branch out to include quilts, knitted items, etc.

I'd like to invite anyone who enjoys stitching and finishing Christmas ornaments to join us.  The group is called Stitching for Families (RMHCSC).

November Stitching

It's been awhile since I've posted a monthly recap.  In fact, the last one was for January.  My stitching has been mostly nonexistent and I've been dealing with a lot of  health problems.  The health problems are still with me, but the stitching has increased to almost normal so I decided to start posting again.  I will probably do a weekly recap as well.

I started five projects in November, two of them were also finishes.

My finishes are both from Durene Jones' Away in a Manger series in the 2021 Enjoy Cross Stitch at Christmas (also available on her website).  This is the entire set:

They are all being stitched on white perforated paper, using DMC floss, mostly as charted, but because I can't do the finicky backstitch, some of the backstitching had to be modified. So far, I've used the called for colors, except that Mary's head piece is stitched in 762 instead of white.

Joseph

 Started: 11/11/2021

Finished: 11/16/2021

Total Time:  9 hours 33 minutes

Mary

Started: 11/17/2021

Finished: 11/26/2021

Total Time:  8 hours 50  minutes

I also started the Red Shepherd from this series on 11/26/2021, but put it away temporarily on the 30th to work on some other projects.  This is where I am so far.

Prior to working on the Away in a Manger series, I worked on two Mill Hill projects, but gave up on both of them temporarily (I hope) because I was making too many mistakes on them.

The first is Jingle Bell Wreath from Mill Hill.  It's stitched with the materials provided in the kit.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it when I put it away and now I can't find it.  

The other project is also from Mill Hill.  It's Gingerbread Chalet, which is all beads and also stitched with the materials provided in the kit.  Here's where I left it on 11/10/2021

December Plans

 

 I will be working on the 2021 Stitchmas Advent Calendar from Amanda Dion, a free SAL on Facebook.

Depending on how that progresses, I may continue with the Away in a Manger project or  stitch a Christmas present for Kyleigh.

 

Statistics:

Days Stitched This Month = 28  (didn't stitch on 11/24 and 11/25)

Days Stitched This Year  = 191 (possible = 334)

Total Hours Stitched This Month = 34 hours and 9 minutes

Total Hours Stitched This Year = 285 hours and 14 minutes

Number of Projects Worked on This Month = 5
Number of Unique Projects Worked on This Year = 38

Number of Projects Started This Month = 5

Number of Projects Started This Year = 23
Number of Projects Finished This Month = 2

Number of Projects Finished This Year = 22