A Basket of Apples

In the continuing saga of stitching and finishing ornaments for a Bride's Tree for not-so-newlyweds comes this next piece. Here representing the "basket of fruit" component is this lovely basket of apples:

Basket of Apples
Better Homes & Gardens 2001 Cross Stitch Designs
Stitched over 1 on 22 ct. aida

(Please note my finishing isn't quite as, ummm, crappy, as it looks. It's much nicer in person.)

This has also been completely assembled for at least 2 years, just waiting for some appropriate cording / trim.

Two more Bride's Tree Ornaments

Way back in 2008, I started on a project to stitch a set of Bride's Tree Ornaments for DH's cousin, who was getting married on August 1. While I did manage to get the first one stitched AND finished before the wedding, the rest of them kind of fell by the wayside. I did (do) have at least some of them stitched, just not finished into an ornament, but when I decided to buckle down and finish my son's first ornament into an actual ornament BEFORE I put away the Christmas decorations this year, I decided to finish up a few other ornaments I had hanging around.

Mind you, I am not a big fan of finishing things, unless I have an idea in mind. And even then, sometimes the tedious nature of finishing hampers my progress. But I am bound and determined to finish up AND send these ornaments to DH's cousin before their second anniversary in August. Wish me luck - I think I am going to need it!

This is the "bird in a nest" ornament, a freebie available on the Waxing Moons Website.

Spring Bluebird by Waxing Moon Designs
Stitched over 1 on 18 ct. fabric with DMC threads

I finished it with a pretty piece of floral fabric on the back and a bit of store bought satin cording.

This one I am going to have a VERY hard time parting with -- it's one of my favorites:

Christmas Hearts by Just Nan
Stitched on 32 ct. Bone fabric with overdyed and DMC threads, plus beads

This is one of those ornaments I knew exactly how to finish before I even started stitching it, and it was inspired from beginning to end, not to mention a lot of fun to stitch. So much so that I'm going to stitch it at least twice more - once more in this color variation, and a second time using pink and silver instead of red and gold.

It fit PERFECTLY into a tiny wooden embroidery hoop that I sanded and painted a pretty shade of green to match the thread. I can't stress enough how much a light sanding with a fine grit sandpaper can improve the look of craft store wooden objects. After sanding, I wiped the hoop with a damp paper towel to remove the dust, let it dry, then put on a coat of sealer (available in the paint section with the acrylic paints). A couple coats of paint to get the right color, and a top coat of varnish (also available with the acrylic paints), and the hoop was finished. You can't tell here, but I only sealed, painted and varnished the outer hoop - I left the inner hoop natural wood after sanding.

I tried to be as neat as possible with the stitching, but I still wanted it covered up. I took a plain piece of neutral cotton fabric and glued it to the rim of the inner hoop, across the open area. After it dried, I trimmed off the excess and put the stitching over the top of it. And yes, I used a little fabric glue to hold my stitching in place, then trimmed off the excess stitching fabric after that dried. The painted outer hoop covers the edges nicely, and no threads peek through.

As a final touch, I wrote the name and wedding date of the happy couple on the inside hoop.

Another contribution to the Bride's Tree

Okay, okay, so I stitched this piece about 4 years ago, but I only just got around to finishing it. I always knew I wanted to make it into an ornament, but sometimes the best laid plans....

Victoria Sampler Hearts of America - Hawaii
stitched over 2 on 25 ct. evenweave fabric with DMC and specialty threads

I stitched this as a gift for my best friend and her husband who were married in Hawaii, and I thought, what better way to incorporate the "heart" into their collection than to commemorate their wedding day on a heart shaped ornament?

I used the same fabric on the back and stitched their names and the date, laced both pieces on heart shaped pieces of cardboard (what a pain! but surprisingly easier than gluing once you get the hang of it, especially for non-heart shaped pieces!). Then I stitched the two halves together, and finished the edge with some fancy gold cording (that I bought. AND attached with hot glue. The horror!)

I know it's a little after Christmas, but the recipient is my best friend, and also still has her tree up, so there's a good chance that this will be hanging on her tree in Virginia by the weekend. Woo hoo!!! And only 10 more in their set to go!!

This weekend's stitching and finishing

I did a whole bunch (for me, anyway) of stitching and finishing this weekend on some ornaments. I may have bitten off more than I can chew in the way of Bride's Tree Ornaments, seeing as how I am trying to make 3 sets, one of which needs to be completed by an August 1st wedding date. Another of the sets is for myself, so I don't have any problems backburnering that one for a little bit to make progress on the others. (And the house I picked for January is much more complicated than I originally thought.)

I did finish two house pieces into ornaments. The one on the left is for my best friend and her husband (name intentionally blurred). It's a free chart from Maryse, which I modified to include their name instead of the month. I also added the year. I originally had this set up as a padded ornament with cording, but the stitching wasn't centered, and I got so frustrated I took the ornament apart. The ornament I glued together. With hot glue. Which I will probably never do again. I ended up turning it into a little pillow ornament which is cute, but a little disappointing to me because it wasn't what I originally wanted. However, it's stitched over 1 on 25 ct. linen and I won't be stitching it again any time soon. I think it turned out okay.

The one on the right is a freebie from Chartmakers, House on a Hill. I backed the ornament with a brown calico-like fabric which turned out nice with the black cording. (Again I modified the design to change the year and the initials to those of the couple.) I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out.

I also finished an ornament for myself - a Princess ornament! This was a freebie by Lorraine Niesy I found on Cyberstitchers. I'm making three of these in different colors - one for me, one for my niece and one for my cousin. All three of us are "Princesses" (Nevermind that the 5 year old is probably the only one who should be called princess. LOL) I did mine in my favorite colors of blue and silver, added a little silver crown and some star sequins. I stitched it together with a beaded edging during the Oscars, and yes, it took me almost the whole ceremony to stitch it. This was my first time whip stitching with beads, and guess what? It's harder than it looks!!! (I hope it gets easier with practice!). One down, two to go!!

In the Category of Finished but Unfinished, the single nominee (at least the only one I can show for now) is Christmas Hearts by Just Nan. Yep, another freebie pattern. I'm trying to stitch as many ornaments as I can from the hundreds of freebies I've collected - with keeps stash buying to a minimum and accounts for all those hours of freebie hunting and organizing.

And another pattern I modified. I wasn't thrilled with the pinkish purple called for in the pattern, especially since I wanted to use red DMC Rayon thread for the hearts, so I substituted 2 shades of golden yellow DMC floss. I also used WDW Hunter and Holly for the green, and generic gold seed beads for the beading part (I modified placement of the beads.) I am IN LOVE with the Rhodes heart, and am looking forward to stitching more of them. I also found that 2 strands of the rayon made the satin stitch hearts a little fuller and much nicer. This was SUCH a fun stitch and I absolutely love the way it turned out. I'm going to finish it by framing it in a mini wooden hoop and turning it into an ornament for one of the Bride's Tree sets, but I'll definitely stitch this one again for us, probably with a slightly different color combination. (And yes, the thought of stitching it in shades of blue and silver crossed my mind!)

New Ornament

I'm working on some ornaments for the SALs I belong to, and I finished up this one over the weekend:

House on a Hill by Chartmakers
Compliments of The Silver Needle
stitched over 2 on 28 ct. Pewter with DMC threads

This is for my husband's cousin, who is getting married this August. I changed the original K & B initials to J and C for the bride and groom, and changed the date to 2008.

I've been working on some other things, but decided I wanted to do some finishing before I post pictures.

Ornament Frenzy

I've been stitching on some ornaments, partially to keep up with the 2 ornament blogs I'm on, and partially because I have a very short attention span. Ornaments are good for this because by the time I get bored with them, I'm almost finished. I've finished the stitching on a few, now I have to get to the finishing finishing.

For my Bride's Tree SAL, I'm trying to work on 2 sets of ornaments, one for me, one for my best friend and her husband. I finished stitching the one for my friend, and now I have to get a piece of fabric to put behind the stitching because the weave is kind of loose and I don't want any batting showing through. I stitched a freebie pattern, La petite maison de campagne de décembre, and changed the Decembre to the family name (blurred for privacy)

I stitched it over one on 25 ct. linen using mostly the recommended DMC threads. I did use up some Toasted Marshmallow I had left from another project for the snow, and I added a little gold star on top of the tree using metallic braid.

I'm also making a little progress on my own ornament, the 3-D Lavender house.
As you may or may not know, my DH and I are HUGE Dallas Cowboys fans, and every year, we try to add another Cowboys ornament to our growing collection. I saw this one as a design on etsy.com and thought, "Hey, I could make that", so I made up a pattern and customized it for one of my DH's favorite players, Roger Staubach. It's not finished yet - I'm stitching on plastic canvas which is sheer torture to my fingers, so I only do a little each night.

And in case you were wondering, DMC 823 perfectly matches my blue Dallas Cowboys jersey. 415 is a pretty good approximation for the silver on the jersey as well. I had so much fun designing the Cowboys one, I made one for most of the rest of the teams (I still have a tiny grudge about the Patriots. LOL) If you want one, let me know and I will send a pattern to you.

I've also been working on some Princess ornaments, based on a free pattern I found on Cyberstitchers. My 5 year old niece is very into princesses, and ever since she heard my DH refer to me as "Princess", she calls me Princess Aunt Jenn. We also have a cousin who is a "Princess" herself, so I thought it would be fun for all three of us to have our own Princess ornaments! Here are 2 so far.

The pattern calls for small stitched stars, but I substituted some sequins and seed beads instead for the one on top. I might change it up a little for the second one, I'm not sure yet.

Leading myself into temptation...

I've been looking for ideas for my Bride's Tree SAL projects, which is probably a mistake because I definitely don't need to acquire anything new. It's much like recipes for me - even though I have THOUSANDS of recipes in my possession (I'm not even kidding or exaggerating), I will usually go out and look for a new one whenever I am in the mood for something new. I've been trying to be good and work through what I already have, but it's so hard sometimes!

I went out looking for a neat house pattern to do. I saved a 3-D one from a website, but forgot to note where it was from, so until I can figure out where it came from, I don't want to post it without credit. UPDATE: I found the original house I was looking for: Les Chroniques de Frimousse

However, in my search for 3-d houses, I found this little cutie from The Nutmeg Company.


The design is stitched on fabric, which is then mounted to plastic canvas for structure. How adorable is that?? She has a ton of different houses and cottages, as well as other 3-d projects like boxes. And you have GOT to see the 3-D Windsor Castle - it will blow your mind.

The sad part for me is that the kit is £15.99, and with the weak dollar, that translates to over $32 for me, PLUS overseas shipping. Ouch! The good news is that the designer has put out a book called 3-D Cross Stitch More Than 25 Original Designs, which I was able to find on http://www.half.com/ for significantly less. It won't be the same exact cottage, but it gives instructions for the technique and I am sure I can figure out how to design one of my own, even if it's not as detailed as this one. So I went ahead and ordered the book so I would get it in time to start my January House ornament.

Bride's Tree Ornaments

When my BIL and SIL got married, my DH and I wanted to get them something really special for their first Christmas as a married couple. I scoured the internet looking for ideas and stumbled upon what's credited as a German tradition of the Bride's Tree. This is the list of ornaments and the meanings: (Note that the list contains both religious and secular meanings)

• Heart - true love, love of family
• House - shelter and/or protection
• Flower or Flower Basket - good wishes, beauty in the home
• Fruit or Fruit Basket - generosity, plenty
• Teapot or Coffeepot - hospitality
• Bird or Bird in a nest - happiness and/or joy, confidence in the shelter
• Pinecone - motherhood and/or fruitfulness, eternity
• Rose - beauty and/or affection, Virgin or Mother Mary
• Fish - Christ's blessing, fertility, Christ
• Angel or church - God's guidance in the home, God's protection, God
• St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) - giving and sharing, unselfishness and/or goodwill
• Rabbit - hope and/or faith

Since my DH's and SIL's families are both of German descent, I thought it was most appropriate, and working from the list, we collected the ornaments for their tree. Once we had them all, DH put together a customized box for them (using a photo storage box and cardstock) and I made a booklet explaining the meaning behind all the ornaments. They absolutely LOVED it and my SIL says when they take it out each year, they re-read the booklet as they hang the ornaments.

We also put together a set of ornaments for our own tree, but I've been thinking I would like to stitch up some well. Even if I don't hang them on our tree, it would make a wonderful gift. And since there are 12 ornaments in the list and 12 months in the year, I thought, "Why not put this out there as a stitch along?" Ornaments would stitch up quick and the list allows for tons of creativity in interpretation. Plus since 2008 has been dubbed the Year of Selfish Stitching, why not make a personalized set of ornaments for yourself?

I did a little preliminary research and was able to find all 12 patterns in the Better Homes and Garden's 2001 Cross Stitch Designs book. However, I've seen how amazingly creative and resourceful my fellow stitchers are, and I think this could be a great way to express that creativity. I would post the ornament theme for the month and everyone would stitch their piece, posting pictures when they complete them. Of course, I'd post the entire list on the blog in case anyone wants to work ahead or keep their eyes open for ideas, but the focus would be one one theme per month.

I've set up a blog here: Bride's Tree SAL. It doesn't look like much now, but I'll be working on it over the next few days. If you're interested in doing the SAL with me, let me know and I will add you as an author so you can post your pictures.