More ornaments - finished and sent out. Go me!

Are you tired of these yet? Me? I'm just happy to have them finished up and sent on instead of staring at me accusingly from a plastic bag on my dining room table where they waited for months to be assembled. I wish I was kidding. Or exaggerating.

Art Deco Frame by Julia Lucas Designs
JCS 2005 Christmas Ornament Issue
Stitched with DMC Pearle Cotton and DMC Thread
(Images / Name intentionally blurred for privacy)

I've gotten more use out of this edition of the magazine than any other, and out of this particular piece. This marks the fourth and fifth time I've stitched this piece, all in different colors. (You can see the wedding version I stitched for my in-laws, and two additional birth record ornaments here and here). And I have a few more partially stitched waiting to be finished up, including one for my own son. Who is two. Okay then. Moving along....

As I've mentioned before, since it's stitched on plastic canvas, it's super easy for me to stitch on it in the car when we travel, and if I've started one on the sheet of plastic, I don't even need the chart. Putting them together is a little tedious, but I've been fiddling with my methods and it gets a little easier to put them together each time.

I also love these pieces because they're SO easy to customize. I went traditional with the one for my in-laws, but experimented with the variegated pearle cotton for one of the birth record ones. For these, I chose blue for the girl (her mom is NOT a girly girl pink kind of mom) and green for the boy, and went with a nautical theme for the clip art accent to reflect the theme of the nursery. I did stitch a birth record for Alexa, but Blake's is languishing in my stitching box. I really need to get on that. He'll be .... well, let's just say I hope to get it to him before he leaves for college.

I should explain that Alexa and Blake are the children of a very dear friend of mine. We met online while we were planning our weddings (9 years ago!) She lives across the country in Colorado, and though we've never met in person, we've bonded over our similar upbringings and her friendship is one I treasure. She sent me a lovely thank you note on behalf of the kids and she was touched by the gift. It's nice when your hard work is met by such appreciation, and it's definitely motivational to finish up a few more projects that have been sitting around.

Drew's Christmas Ornament

Art Deco Frame by Julia Lucas Designs
JCS 2005 Christmas Ornament Issue
Stitched with DMC Perle Cotton (Variations 4040) and DMC Thread

Oh yes, you'll be seeing more of these. This is the version I stitched for my friend's son Drew (the recipient of the Jungle Baby Birth Record I posted about earlier). I wanted to incorporate the jungle theme into the ornament, so I used a clip art giraffe to decorate the birth information side. Luckily, the colors of the clip art tied in nicely to the variegated thread.

This is such an easy stitch, and something I can work on in the car. Since we travel to our hometown on a regular basis to see my husband's parents and grandmothers, we spend a fair amount of time in the car. It's a little difficult for me to stitch on fabric, but these are done on plastic canvas and are much easier to work on in a moving vehicle.

As you can see, I like to go with variations on a theme, and for this one, I tried out the variegated perle cotton. I like that it's a little different than the regular perle cottons I've used for other ornaments. I have several other ornaments in the works. I used an opalescent DMC thread for the accent stitching, but to assemble the ornament, I used regular DMC floss. DMC provides a color chart that lists which colors are used to make up the variegated threads so you can match a solid color floss to the variegated ones. I picked one of the colors to whipstitch the edges together. Also, I used a clear plastic canvas and trimmed it very closely so I didn't feel there was a need to whipstitch the edges of the openings.

To protect the photo and the birth information (which is printed on my color inkjet printer to regular paper), I used a regular laminating pocket I picked up at Staples (I've also seen them at Target and Walmart). This is *not* a heat set laminating pocket - just a regular one that presses together by hand. I line up the photo and the birth information in the windows, then use double sided mounting squares to stick them together. (You can find the mounting squares in the scrapbooking section. Once I get everything lined up and stuck together, I set them up in the laminating pouch and go from there. A little bit of hot glue helps me make sure the laminating pouch stays in place while I whipstitch the edges together. (Be careful not to melt the pouch). Once everything is together, I squeeze in a little more glue to hold the edges of the frame down around the picture and birth info.

The One that Started it All

Art Deco Frame by Julia Lucas Designs
JCS 2005 Christmas Ornament Issue
Stitched with DMC Pearle Cotton and DMC Metallic Thread

This is the ornament that started it all. I was flipping through the JCS 2005 Ornament issue after purchasing it on eBay a while back, and fell in love with this design. My father-in-law had been going through old family photos and scanning them onto the computer. One of the photos he scanned was from their wedding and I knew this ornament would be perfect.

As I've mentioned before, I didn't like the way the original instructions for the ornament called for doing the back, which is when I came up with the idea of making a double sided ornament. I had intended to doing their names and wedding date on the computer in a fancy font, print it out and call it a day. But on a subsequent visit to my in-laws, my mother-in-law brought out a box of loose photos and other wedding memorabilia and talked about some day putting it in an album or scrapbook. One of the items in the box was their actual wedding invitation, and I asked my father-in-law if I could make a copy of it. I *told* him that I was helping our cousin Kerri with her wedding invitations and she was interested in seeing what other family members had done, as I didn't want to explain what my real reason was and ruin the surprise.

When I got the copy home, I played around with it and made a miniature version of their wedding invitation for the back of the ornament:


Oddly enough, looking at the invitation sparked another conversation, as my father-in-law's father's name, Gerard, is misspelled on it. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal, but since my son's middle name is in honor of his great grandfather, and it's spelled with the "e" on everything from his birth certificate to his announcements to his sampler we stitched, I wanted to make sure we had it spelled correctly. So yes, it was indeed misspelled on their wedding invitations.

But wait... there's more. In another "You must be kidding me" episode, I sent the pictures to be printed at WalMart, and asked my husband to pick them up on his way home from work. He called me from the store and told me the clerk at the photo counter refused to give him the prints because it was copyrighted work and we'd need a release from the photo studio to get the print. I was absolutely furious, and went over to the store myself to speak with the manager. I explained that this wasn't actually a professional photo - it was a snapshot taken by a friend, and I could in fact produce the original snapshot if necessary. And even if it was a professional shot, the photo had been taken forty five years ago - who knew if the studio was even still in business? The manager finally relented and gave me the print, but it cost them my printing business. I now either order the prints online, or get them printed elsewhere. I won't be having any prints done at WalMart, that's for sure.

And on a happier note, the ornament was gifted to my in-laws on Christmas Eve. They were absolutely thrilled with it, and very touched that I had put something together like this for them. I'm so glad they liked it, and it's now hanging front and center on their Christmas tree.

Love is Little... and so is the amount of my blog posts

I know, I know. It's been AGES since I've posted anything and it may seem as if I have abandoned not only blogging but stitching as well. Surprisingly, I have been able to stitch, though not as much as I used to. After all, there is a teeny tiny little person that demands a whole lot of attention these days.

I am also working on what is probably the most time consuming stitching project I've ever taken on - a Stoney Creek lighthouse for Kathy. It's on the tedious side - which has convinced me to delete every single Stoney Creek pattern from my wish list. The finished result is gorgeous - wait till you see how Kathy's piece is turning out! - but I think this is a once in a lifetime experience for me.

On the more productive side, I did finish stitching and framing a gift for a friend. She got pregnant shortly after I did, so our pregnancies overlapped and we had great fun sharing stories, helpful hints and birthing stories. Her son was born in January, and I had been looking for a piece to stitch for his room. His parents didn't pick a particular theme, but focused instead on earthy shades of brown and green. Now, it may be my personal bias, but I do think this is going to look just perfect hanging in his room...

Love is Little by La D Da

Stitched over 2 on 35 ct. WDW Beige

with recommended GAST threads

I am utterly thrilled with how it came out. As soon as I saw the pattern on someone's blog, I thought it would make a wonderful piece for a baby or child's room, and filed it away. When my friend told me her color scheme for the room, and that they weren't leaning towards a theme, I knew this was the perfect piece for them. I did make my own little modifications here and there - adding in the name and birth date (GAST Dark Chocolate), and changing the little bird from the recommended gold to GAST Blueberry. You know, the Bluebird of Happiness? I did change the fabric from what was called for - I didn't like the more reddish tone with the GAST converstion, so I went with the Weeks. It was absolutely lovely to stitch on.

My husband did the framing for me - he has so much more patience for it than I do. I ordered a custom frame from http://www.pictureframes.com/ and picked up foam core that I cut to size (apparently I also need a lesson on how to cut that correctly. LOL). DH did all the stretching, pinning, adjusting, repinning, readjusting and cursing. But in the end, it was well worth it. I think the frame sets it off beautifully, and Picture Frames does really excellent work. And did I mention you can upload scans or photos of your pieces and play around with different frames and mats? I would, however, recommend ordering a set of free mat samples before ordering custom cut mats - sometimes the color on screen can differ greatly from the actual mat color.

But WAIT!! There's more!

Art Deco Frame by Julia Lucas Designs (JCS 2005 Ornament Issue)

Stitched on plastic canvas with DMC thread and pearle cotton

I also like to give a Christmas ornament as a gift for a new baby and this may well become my standard ornament gift. It whipped up in almost no time, and it's so easy to personalize. The photograph was taken by an amazingly talented photographer - Ashley Gigliotti. I designed the back of the ornament myself, adapting from the design. The original instructions called for pasting the completed frame on cardboard, but I wanted to make it more of a pocket so that both sides could be used for display.

I used Word to design the birth information, then printed it on linen paper. I sized the photo to fit in the frame and had that printed through Snapfish. Then I used a self sealing laminating pouch from Staples to ensure neither side would get damaged. It was a little fiddly to put it together, but well worth it, and a tiny bit of hot glue worked wonders for keeping things in place.

(FYI: The website is not on the actual photograph I used for the ornament - it's in this photo to protect Ashley's copyright)

This is one of several versions of the ornament I've stitched so far. These are the perfect thing to stitch in the car - I have no trouble finding the holes, and if I have one already stitched, I have no need to carry the pattern around with me - I just stitch from the finished one. You can fit three whole ornaments (front and back) on one sheet of canvas, and the personalization possibilities are endless. You'll be seeing several more of these as I complete them.

New Home Ornament

Since DH and I bought our first house in June, I wanted to make a special ornament for our tree, and this is what I came up with:

JCS 2007 Ornament Issue - Deck the Halls by Julia Lucas Designs
stitched over 2 on 32 ct. fabric with DMC and specialty threads

I know - it barely looks like the version in the magazine, which is very nice, but I really wanted to personalize this piece. The most obvious change is changing the door from green to red, and yes, I really did take my DMC color card to my front door so I could get an exact color match. Same goes for the bricks. God only knows what the neighbors thought about the crazy lady holding stuff up to various areas of her house. I also added a brass kickplate and house numbers and left off the wreath treasure.

Oh, and the bushes are a little bigger because I screwed up a little and started them higher than they should have been, so I had to make some adjustments. (Not to mention there are no bushes beside our actual front door, but I consider it creative license). And while I was at it, I changed the Welcome to our name (blurred for privacy), and added our new town and the date at the bottom. Then I laced it and a pretty piece of red fabric with gold swirls onto pieces of cardboard, stitched the two halves together, and gussied the whole thing up with some lovely store bought cording.

And as long as I am on the subject, I'd like to address Julia Lucas Design's contribution to this year's Ornament Issue. At first glance, I thought it was a misprint and they put last year's ornament in again, but upon closer inspection, I discovered that this year's ornament was a window, not a door. Which looks an awful lot like the door from the 2007 issue. I'm just sayin....