Skating Santa : Before and After

One of my goals this month was to stitch on my Aunt's old unfinished Skating Santa project.

This is how it looked prior to me working on it:



Today I finished him off:



It's kinda sad in a way now that he is finished because now I only have one of my Aunt's WIPs to go (an Owl) and when that is done it's as if a part of her will be gone forever. It brought back memories of her just by opening the project wallet because the fabric still contained a hint of her cigarette smoke. I remember she started working on this project this time about two years ago, just before she fell ill with cancer. I can remember he frustration at trying to stitch the white of his beard on white glittering fabric and that's why she put him to one side.

In fact I only got around to finishing today because I've had a couple of days off work to cope with the stress and hastle of this and last weekend. Stitching is a wonderfly therapeutic tool in that respect.