WIP Photos

To get into the mood for Thanksgiving, I have been working on a few additional ornaments for the little wrought iron tree I keep on the antique washstand in my entryway. I figure I probably won't get to do the assembly finish until Friday or Saturday on these little gems but I'll keep them up for a week or so anyway. I don't really decorate for Christmas until mid-December. I don't like rushing the whole Advent season as if it didn't even exist and have purpose.

These pieces are really quite dainty, not more than 2" tall. All the designs are from Cross Eyed Cricket's Thanksgiving Circle leaflet. I have stitched them on 36ct Silkweaver linen in a color called Shadowlands, using the recommended DMC floss, stitching one strand over two threads. I've finished the Indian brave [bringing corn] and the Pilgrim woman [holding pies]. It's too early to take a photo of the The Pilgrim man [carrying fish]. I've only done a half hour's stitching on it. I'll finish all of these as round padded board ornaments, trimmed with twisted cord. I have enjoyed stitching these rather simple designs and have decided I really will have to stitch the entire piece as charted one of these days, instead of just pulling out excerpts to use as ornaments ... it would make a lovely pillow to display on my sofa during the Thanksgiving holidays.

I have made quite a few plans for stitching during the Thanksgiving recess. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my round robin has been returned home finally ... so, I will finish up the last panel on that piece using a Prairie Schooler chart. I'll assemble the Thanksgiving ornaments. And, I'll chart and stitch the Bride's Tree SAL November ornament, an angel that I'll be making up in the Quaker style. If I have any additional time, I may do some over one frogging on the ill-fated start from last weekend, Workbasket's Quaker Sampler. After measuring and cutting the fabric so carefully, I can't believe I was so inattentive as to pick up the hoop wrong and start stitching with the wrong orientation. To avoid that problem in the future, I believe I'll prep the piece on a stretcher frame when I start again. I still haven't decided what I will do about the December Bride's Tree ornament, for which I will be using Workbasket's Quaker Santa chart ... but I'm leaning toward stitching the entire design over one on the 28ct Glasgow raw linen [in Belle Soie Cranberry, Old Crow and Icing] instead of stitching an excerpt from the chart and stitching over two on the 32ct Belfast raw linen [in Belle Soie Cranberry and Icing]. The second option would work and be the quicker [and easier] stitch but I really like the whole design and hate to truncate it.