My friend, Karen, gave me a little cross stitch kit to make an ornament for our tree for Christmas. I decided to abandon my funky chicken cross stitch and do the kit instead this week. I wanted to get it done before we take the tree down and put the ornaments away. My father in law drove a little red truck and my daughter called him the Red Truck Grandpa when she was little so red trucks have a special significance in our family.
The ornament in the top right of the picture above was made for me by my friend Pat a few Christmases ago.
Here is the red truck in various stages of completion...
I also picked up one of the books I received for Christmas and read it this week, instead of the book I had already started. (I will get back to it now!). This was a gift from my daughter. It was a great Christmas holiday read.
We did not have very good weather for being outside this past week but the sun finally came out and the wind died down yesterday so we took Finn for a walk in the snow at a local conservation area. He loved it and was quite worn out last night.
Here he is, midway through shaking all the snow off his face.
My daughter brought home a couple of crochet projects including her book blanket. She read 117 books in 2025 and made a granny square for each book. The gray granny squares will go in between each month's blocks. There are 13 gray squares and 117 colourful squares for a total of 130 squares. They will be set 10x13 with crocheted sashing in white and a few borders around the entire blanket.
The gray square marks the start of the year. The squares are in order of the books she read. She found an online tutorial about joining granny squares together that she used for the white part.
She has been working on her crochet along as well. My daughter and I both like to have several projects underway at the same time...it gives us a choice of what to work on when the mood hits.
I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers on Sunday as well as Frederique and her followers tomorrow. Happy New Year everyone! I am looking forward to finishing some projects this year and starting a few new ones as well.
that is a good idea to get the Christmas stitching done right away and add to the decorations for next year. I like how your daughter attached those granny squares together - if you can find a link from her on how to do that I would love to see it.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nautikrallcrochet.com/blog-freepatterns/docksidesquaresthrow
DeleteThis is the pattern for my daughter’s book blanket. There are videos to show how to make the granny squares and how to join them together.
Such a cute red truck Christmas ornament that you finished! Your daughter's crochet granny square project is super cool!--TerryK@OnGoingProjects
ReplyDeleteYour red truck ornament is adorable, Gail! We had a red truck when we were first married, so I have cross-stitched a few of them, too. Your daughter's book blanket project is really neat, and I love how it's going together. Happy New Year reading! I just finished The Correspondent and it is so good!
ReplyDeleteThat is a very cute red truck and a nice story assisted with it. Your daughter’s crochet book blanket is going to look amazing. Happy new year! Sarah quilting by the sea
ReplyDeleteDid your daughter also use the Swish yarn as the designer did? I love your daughter's book blanket, so lovely with all the colors. Very smart of you to stitch up the ornament before putting up the Christmas decorations. You'll be ready for Christmas 2026!
ReplyDeleteSuch a sweet story re your dad and daughter, and the red truck. The cross stitch is charming. May you and your daughter have a lovely year enjoying reading many new books, stitching many new pretties, with the occasional crochet project thrown in. Your daughter's granny squares are coming along wonderfully.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a cute ornament! A special treasure for your tree!
ReplyDeleteI never thought of making anything to commemorate the books I've read. Hum, I wonder if I should do that with small quilt blocks. Our dog doesn't seem to mind the cold weather or snow. She hates her coat and won't walk with it on. The two crochet projects are beautiful. I find it interesting how you tackle the cross stitching. I assume the first pic shows colors with less stitches. Do you do the "outline" first? Lots of fun things to see this post.
ReplyDelete