December Week Two
Something New
Freebie

The excitement of the holidays is in the air.   It is getting colder everywhere and you might even have snow!    Are you ready for the holidays or are you behind like Mary and me?  Every year we plan to have everything done ahead of time but somehow it never works.  
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Something New:   This is when we make a new stitch to share.   We usually turn it into an ornament or a framed stitch.   Next year we will be adding some new ideas to week four.  

RJ's Something New:  I chose the pattern Kringle's Crow by Threadwork Primitives to make a new Christmas ornament.  It is such a sweet little stitch with a cute blackbird sitting on Santa's hat wishing everyone a happy holiday.   I used a pretty black fabric with holly on it. Moss green rick rack is added between the stitch and the fabric.  He has a little red collar with a tiny jingle bell.   More tiny jingle bells are added to a red and black check bow at the top.  This was a quick and fun stitch!  

My Christmas stitch!

I love how the variegated threads change colors in this stitch

Closeup of this pretty blackbird dressed for the holidays

Kringle's Crow
by Threadwork Primitives
40 ct. flax Newcastle linen
variegated threads that I had
tiny bells from the charm section of Hobby Lobby

                                                                                                                                                            

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Mary's Something New: I chose Snowy Pines from the "All Dolled Up" series by Little House Needleworks.   This is yet another stitch from this sweet ornament group.  I just had to stitch this because of my fondness for bears.    I used black rick rack to emphasize the little black bear.   I also added a black ribbon bow and a pretty snowflake charm.

My Christmas stitch!

So beary sweet!

Closeup of the snowflake charm

Snowy Pines
by Little House Needleworks
30 ct. linen
called for threads

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Free Pattern:
Here is our Christmas gift to you.    It is a beautiful cardinal stitch called Blue Christmas from New York Dreamers Needleworks. Isn't it pretty and would stitch up fairly quick too.   Enjoy!!!  

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Thank you all so much for stopping by to see us.   We love your visits and appreciate your comments so much.   Next week will be our grab bag week and we will be showing you some holiday decorating from our homes.   Hope to see you then.
                                                             Mary and RJ


             "Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone"
                                                        Charles Schultz
                              

December Week One
Styling with Stitches
Welcome

It's the most wonderful time of the year.  We are all busy shopping, baking and planning for the holidays.  But, this time of the year is also a season of Hope which is so important to many of us. May the holidays be blessed and special to all. 
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Welcome
We would like to welcome Meg who is a cross stitcher with a new blog named
Live to Stitch to the stitching community.    She is a lovely lady with a really nice blog with great stitches to view.   Please go over and say hello and enjoy her great photos.  
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Styling with Stitches
It's time for our second pillow pinafore and word play combo.   Mary made an adorable Christmas pinafore and I made the December word play.  We are excited to show you our first Christmas cross stitch projects.   They are fun to make and we hope you will give them a try too.   


RJ's Word Play
I've stitched the December word play by Brenda Gervais.   I wanted to make it a little different than just sewing it together.  There are a lot of trees on this stitch so I added a lot of tree elements to the finish.  I sewed a strip of tree fabric under the stitch and added a wool tree applique with a small jingle bell. In between the stitch and the fabric, I added some green cotton ric rac and stitched some rust bells on the bottom.  Green silk ribbon with a tree charm on the left side is used for the hanger.

This was one of the quicker word plays and a joy to stitch!   Except for the called for linen which I hated.   It came wrinkled and no matter how much I pressed it...it stayed that way.   If I made them again I would use a different linen.  

It is a rainy and very gloomy day so I took a lot of closeups of parts of the word play so you can see it.    I wish I got better photos today.    

December word play hanging on a bookcase

Closeup of top

Closeup of bottom with ric rac, rusty jingle bells and applique

Closeup of tree applique with a running stitch.  I think my trunk is kinda wide...need to fix that.

Closeup of tree charm attached to bow.  It is from Boheminan Findings on Etsy.

December Word Play
by With thy Needle and Thread
35 ct Abecedarian linen
called for overdyed threads
bells from Amazon
charm from Etsy

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Mary's Pinafore

For my first pinafore project, I stitched Letters for Santa by Brenda Gervais.  I wanted to finish the stitch a bit differently than as shown on the pattern.  So, I did not dye the linen or ticking as suggested because I wanted a more colorful pillow for my Christmas Decor. I sewed up a quick envelope pillow cover in ticking and then made my pinafore out of a red burlap runner.  I really scored buying the runner for only $2 in an after Christmas sale at Michaels.   I layered the stitch with a check fabric I had on hand and added  the pompoms as trim.  I used snowflake buttons on the back from my stash.  The burlap is held together by small Velcro ovals made for fabric.  

This pinafore easily stores away and lets me use my pillow for another project. My festive Christmas pillow makes me very happy!

Here it is...my first pinafore!

It will make it's home on my LR sofa

It attaches in the back with Velcro 

I used snowflake buttons for decoration on the back of the pinafore

Letters from Santa
by With Thy Needle and Thread
22 ct. Ariosa linen two over two
called for overdyed threads
pom pom fringe from my stash

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Hope you all enjoyed the pinafore and word play combo.  Next week we will be showing our new Christmas ornaments for this year.   We really appreciate you coming by to see us and taking the time to leave a comment especially during this busy time of the year.     Happy Stitching!           RJ and Mary

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

Charles Dickens