my first Gifted Gorgeousness post of the year!

It's time for the first Gifted Gorgeousness update of the year.  Gifted Gorgeousness is a stitch-a-long hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, where we work on projects that were gifted to us in some way -or- that we are making as a gift for someone else.

I have been working on my new favorite project, "Dutch Sampler" by Sandy Orton.  I am using a couple of new stitches: the Small Algerian Eyelet stitch and the Double Running Stitch, which are both shown in the photo above. 

The magazine featuring the pattern is "Treasures in Needlework" Fall 1992, which was a gift at Christmas from my sweetie.  I am stitching on mushroom colored, 28 count evenweave fabric (a stocking stuffer gift at Christmas 2014 - that I had been saving for something special), and the threads were purchased with a Christmas gift card from my Mom - so all around this is a gifted project!

Here is my current progress:

and here is where I am going:

I enjoy working on this project so much - I hope I don't finish it too quickly!

Another gifted gorgeousness project I stitched on this month is my "Too Much Honey" Sampler.  This was gifted to me as a kit by a special non-stitching friend. 

I worked quite a bit on the border this month:

Here is where I left off last month:

To give you an idea of scale, the little blue blocks are 36 stitches (6 x 6) each, and each purple stripe across the bottom is made up of 560 stitches!  So I put about 2,236 cross stitches into it this month.  I actually enjoy working on the solid color blocks ... which is a nice change from some of my other projects with confetti stitching (which drives me mad!).
 
That's all I have to share this month. 
I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to!
Happy Stitching!