The secret is revealed....

T'was the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

~ Clement Clarke Moore ~

Remember this sneak peak...

The secret stitching that I was working on last month was for the MS Lovers Blog Christmas Exchange, and I can now reveal the finished piece that was sent to Olga (Olli) in The Netherlands.

The Margaret Sherry design that I stitched was a brand new one to me.... the magazine that it came with literally arrived just as I was about to start stitching something else for this exchange - but as soon as I saw the booklet I just had to see which one I could stitch quickly for the exchange.

Mice in Holly Wreath
"Christmas Cuties" - Margaret Sherry
Free Gift - Issue 184 Cross Stitch Crazy

When I was stitching this rather cute design I decided to "bling" it up a little bit so instead of stitching the berries as red cross stitches I used little red beads in their place, but I didn't finish there.... I used gold beads instead of where the silver cross stitches were supposed to be.  The gold was a much better match for the fabric I wanted to use to "finish" the piece than the silver would have been.

So the final finish.... a Christmas hanger!

Christmas Hanger for Olli
MS Lovers Blog Christmas Exchange

I also added a few little Christmas inspired pieces in the package for Olli.... lots of little crafting bits and pieces and a Christmas blackboard and chart.

Package of goodies for Olli

My package in the exchange has arrived today... just in time for Christmas.  I will do another post shortly to show you the lovely package I received from Heather.  I also have some more lovely things to show you that Anne sent me as a winner of her giveaway - so lots of pretty pics coming up in the next couple of days!

TUSAL Update

For those of you that have been following my blog, and other blogs in the blogosphere over the last couple of years you will know all about the monthly ORT reports and you will have noticed that we are all very diligent bloggers and upload our ORT reports when the new moon comes around... (most of the time anyway).  You may now be wondering if there will be any more ORT reports for 2014.... well, I am happy to announce that Daffycat will again be hosting the Totally Useless Stitch A Long (TUSAL) throughout 2014.  If you would like to sign up and join in the fun during the year, then pop on over to Daffycat's blog and leave a comment saying that you're in!  The first 2014 report will be on or around 1st January 2014 - see you then!

Til next time, happy stitching!