December Smalls and TUSAL and a bit of a recap

Right up front, I have the BEST brother-in-law in the world!!  He set up the most wonderful surprise for all of us by flying my son in from Vermont.  I hadn't seen him in about six years and was not expecting to see him until my nephew's wedding this summer - best Christmas present ever.

We are halfway through the twelve days of Christmas -  I hope you are enjoying yours.  Our weather is much more like the 12 Days of March, but I suppose that's not all bad.

I put together a to-do list for my two week vacation thinking I wouldn't get through even half of it - I have managed to cross seven things off the list already.  I suppose I will just have to stitch if I cross everything off the list before the end of my time off. :-)

I did a little stitching while I was at my sister's.  This is Winter Wonderland from The Silver Needle's Secret Needle Night.

These are great kits that contain everything you need to stitch the design, including needles.  If you buy the finishing kit, it too has everything you need, except glue, to finish the piece.  I hope to finish it before the end of the year.

Now that the gift is delivered, I can show you the piece I finished back in November.

This is She Feeds from The Scarlett House.  It's done on 40-count Vintage Cedar Plank by Lakeside Linens with their DMC conversion.

It's time for the final  for 2016.  Heather at Stitching Lotus hosts the Smalls SAL.  If you're interested in participating for 2017, click here to see all the "rules". Don't let that word scare you off, this is a very low stress SAL.  I had a 6-month break but managed nine small finishes this year.  You've seen my final three but I'll show it again to make it official for the check-in:

Days four, eight and twelve were finished in December.  The top photo is the complete finished piece.  I think I found a frame for it too.  Michael's had "Christmas" frames on sale for $5.99 USD.  I'm not sure what is Christmas about the frame I picked out, but for that price I'll call it Christmas.  I haven't done any measuring so not sure it will fit, but will find something to do with the frame if it doesn't.

It is also time for the final  .  Daffycat at It's Daffycat hosts the group.  It couldn't be simpler, just save all those little bits and pieces of thread or what-have-you in a container, take a picture and post.  Simple right?  Lots of people are very artsy with their photos - me?  I set my jar next to an irritated cat (this is Trouble) and hope she doesn't knock it over.

In case you're interested, Jo at Serendipitous Stitching has posted the sign-up page for .  This group provides a place for us to thank the people that have given us something stitching related or to show things we are stitching for gifts.

My last post has the majority of my 2016 recap, but I thought I would wait until closer to the end of the year for my SAL recap.  I signed up for four SALs for 2016: Gifted Gorgeousness; WIPocalypse; TUSAL; and, Smalls.  For two of them I was perfect and pretty good respectively.  For two of them, not so good:

Gifted Gorgeousness - 12/12
WIPocalypse - 9/12
Smalls - 5/12
TUSAL - 5/12

I also hermitted with IHSW twice this year.

My vague stitching plans have solidified and are listed in the WIPocalypse Project List and 2017 Stitching Plan tab.  They aren't too different than the vague ones I posted in my last post.

My plans for the next couple of days is to bobbinate all the threads for my kitted Heaven and Earth Designs projects, straighten up the craft area and stitch a bit.