Tag ornament

Husker keychain

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While visiting my mother-in-laws house, I noticed all the Husker stuff I’ve made over the years for her husband. Something else I noticed was now the coasters I made a few years ago are now out of date.

If you read my keychain project I did for people at work, I have several keychains left. This year I decided to make a Husker themed keychain, it may be little, but I think it will be appreciated and enjoyed.

Since it was so small, when the opportunity to make a glass Husker ‘N’ came up, I decided to make that too.

I also completely forgot to take photos before wrapping these. So the after present opening, I grabbed them to take a couple of photos.

Stitching

Started: November 11

Finished: November 12

Stitching time: 3 hours

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A handmade Christmas

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cross stitch ornament

I wanted last year to be another year of handmade gifts. It was just coming up with those gifts that’s always the hard part.

Last year was a very big cross stitching year. I finished two large projects for a niece and nephew. Then I went on to create a much smaller cross stitch for the most memorable nurse aide at my dad’s hospice house. At that point I was just on a needle-working hot streak. I had never completed so many projects in one year, so why not a couple more.

My godparents are my two of my mom’s siblings. As you might guess from the photos my godmother got the Favorite Aunt ornament. This came about as a derivative work of the Thank You cross stitch ornament. I didn’t want to do wood burning for this project, so I raided my mom’s ribbon collection to find something that would match well with the design and make the ornament more complete.

cross stitch ornament

My husband helped me again with the cutting of a circle, this time a bit more careful to make it more circular as I did a much better job on my end this time. After losing my dad last year adding a wood element to both of the gifts for my godparents was something I hoped would be seen as extra special. They both liked my dad and have items made by him in their homes already.

This project is only about 3 inches wide or so, while my uncle’s ended up being more like 7 inches. Of course by time I finished it, Christmas was long over. As soon as I got the wood burning done and assembled everything on his it was wrapped up. So I don’t have photos of what I made for him. I will say that he does like it and has found a place for it.

And as with everything coming from my home, there are cat furs all over it.

cross stitch ornament

Thank you to Hospice workers

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It’s been a few months now since my dad passed away. October 3rd will always be a hard day. In August my dad made the decision to go into the Josie Harper Hospice House in Omaha. It was the closest to the hospital and to my childhood home where my mom still lives.

At the time I was working on a different cross stitch project for a niece. I gave updates throughout the process of making it. Every 4 weeks to go along with Goal Day at the Side Projects Club. That project ended up being finished after he died, but the nurses and aides all admired my work.

cross stitch mounted to wood

I decided to give a little something back once I finished the other project. I had found this pattern at cross-stitching.com and was originally going to make a bunch into cards. Once I realized that it would be more time consuming than that and I wanted to get it done quickly; I had to make an adjustment.

My dad was a woodworker by hobby. It was his evening thing after work, he made many different things, even helped us make a bed base with lots of drawers. My husband has wanted to pick up this hobby as well. I assigned him to cutting out a circle, it didn’t have to be perfect. Mine sure wasn’t. (I’ve never cut out a cross stitch pattern before, all of my projects have been framed.)

Since things weren’t lining up and my part looked so strange just sitting on a piece of wood I decided to get out my brothers old wood burning kit. (Mind you this thing is at least 40 years old). Still works though. A new type of ornament was born.

The nurses aide Jo was the sweetest, most caring person I have ever met. She’s worked in hospice for years, from what I gathered at least 12 or more years. She can always be bubbly and happy, everyone is her favorite for some reason or another. I decided that Jo would be the final recipient of this project. It represents both me and my dad, through the needlework she saw me working on, to the wood as the mount. It hung on the Hospice House Christmas tree and Jo said it’s now hanging on her fridge.

This was my tribute to the difficult work the hospice workers do everyday. A little piece of me and my dad for something happy out of something so sad.

full project with ribbon