Throwback Thursday - 2004 (Part 3)

The Year of the Small Project continues with these late February finishes: four ornaments, one lapel pin, and a bookmark.


Woodland Christmas Snowman

Here's a continuation of Heart in Hand's Woodland Christmas series.

Because the Fiddler's Cloth I used as the ground fabric was lighter than the fabric called for in the pattern, I had to do a lot of color substitutions to make the snowman "pop" off the background, including filling the space around the snowman with light yellow half-cross-stitches. I also did some extra outlining to increase definition.

I chose a pretty Christmas fabric with a holly print for the "pillow" and a red satin ribbon for the hanger.

Woodland Christmas Candle

I made some color substitutions on this ornament, too. The candle is yellow rather than brown. Then I used DMC 108 Yellow Orange variegated floss for the flame. I also added some red seed beads for the berries that are nestled in the holly at the base of the candle. The "pillow" is a fabric that's dark red with off-white polka dots.

Woodland Christmas Reindeer

I gave the reindeer's fur some dimension by using an overdyed floss by Weeks Dye Works, 2238 Sweet Potato. The rest of the ornament is stitched with regular DMC floss. I did add a black seed bead for the reindeer's eye. The "pillow" is a brown plaid fabric. A bold choice for a Christmas ornament!

Woodland Christmas House

This is the last in the Woodland Christmas series. The entire ornament with stitch with DMC floss, but I substituted colors again. Instead of a brown house, I painted mine green. Then I substituted red seed bead for the berries in the wreath instead of using French knots. The "pillow" is made from a two-toned green fabric.

Santa-Corn

This acorn-shaped Santa was a freebie chart that I found on a cross-stitch shop's website. It's fun to see what these black & white charts look like all stitched up when you haven't seen a model. Surprise!

I stitched the Santa on perforated paper. I like his jaunty checkered hat. I then sewed the design to red felt for a backing, trimming the felt about an eighth inch from the paper to give it a nice outline. Then I added a tiny jingle bell as the hat's tassel. I finished it as a lapel pin. The finished size is about 1-3/4 inches by 2 inches.

Assisi Bookmark #1

My embroidery guild introduced me to Assisi work. This technique is usually stitched with a single color of thread, allowing the void area to form the design. For this bookmark by Dunmani Designs, I used a variegated thread, so the color gives the stitched area some movement. The dark part of the variegation surrounds the crossbars, and the lighter part of the thread surrounds the crosses. I used DMC 69 Terra Cotta for the main work, but added DMC 3777 for a solid border and the backstitching. I chose to make this bookmark on Ribband that has a scalloped edge.

I quite like that bookmark design. That would be fun to stitch again. The hiccup is that I rarely have use for bookmarks anymore since I primarily use my Kindle while reading books.