Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 9

This week we travel back to August, 2006. I finished three ornaments, one bookmark, and a quilt square.

Joy

This darling ornament designed by Lizzie*Kate ended up being more of a challenge than I'd anticipated.

First, I decided to use a scrap of fancy fabric I'd received in a grab bag. It's a white evenweave, probably 25ct Lugana, with little silver flecks in it. The pattern called for any dark colored fabric.

I picked some fibers from Gentle Art to stitch with, but ended up changing the colors quite a bit. I finally ended up with:
* Gentle Arts Sampler Thread in Pine, Cherry Wine and Gold Leaf.
* Instead of a white in the border, I used a pale blue DMC Light Effects floss.
* Then I used a DMC stranded metallic in green for "Joy."
* And added some DMC stranded metallic in gold to the star so it would twinkle, too.

I finished my Joy as a basic padded ornament. The fabric shown in the background of this photo is what I used to cover the back of the ornament.

Mini Minnie Mouse

This is another quilt square for charity. It was made into a quilt using a winter theme with the Disney characters.

At that time, I decided to use every Sunday to stitch for charity. It was one way to celebrate the Sabbath -- by using my time for others. A few of the other stitchers in my cross-stitch group joined me in this pursuit. I stitched the majority of the square on a single Sunday.

This design is from Ultimate Cross Stitch Collection from Leisure Arts.

Song

In 2006, I took part in a Lizzie*Kate 12 Blessings of Christmas stitch-along. This is the first of twelve ornaments in this set. I decided to stitch and finish them as shown on the pattern card.

I used Gentle Art Sampler Threads and Anchor floss. The special hand-dyed wools from Weeks Dye Works were fairly pricey, but are very nice quality. I also bought the little button accessories. I made the cording with some gold crochet cotton that has a pretty metallic spun in.

I kept this set of ornaments for my family and display it every year near my Christmas card display.

Bunny Bookmark

This is the felt version of the bookmark I made out of suede and posted last week.

This bunny was a freebie chart I found online by a designer named "Dawn." As charted, it was too large to fit on a bookmark. So I decided to stitch it in petit point -- one strand of floss over one thread of the linen. (I doubt I can see well enough to stitch tiny stitches like that anymore!) The bunny came out the ideal size.

The main difference between how I constructed this bookmark from how I made my suede bookmark is that the bunny is all glued together instead of being sewn together on the sewing machine. I decided to use a hot glue gun, but it could be made with a white tacky glue as well. The bit of stitching around the window is just for decoration.

I chose to use two different shades of purple felt. The lighter shade of felt is cut 1/4" smaller all around than the darker shade of felt. This way the dark fabric forms a contrasting border.

I still use this bookmark, fourteen years after I made it! Having put the bookmark together with glue worked just fine. The stitching is not at all damaged by using glue. The bookmark is still soft and pliable. It's not archive quality, but it wasn't meant to be. It's certainly held up well.

Love

This is the second of twelve ornaments in the 12 Blessings of Christmas set by Lizzie*Kate. It's part of the same set as the Song ornament shown above.

I love the tiny charms that come with each chart. They make for a sweet finishing touch.