Saturday, July 30, 2011

And A Brief Intermission

I am taking a very short break from Tracery Dragons to complete the finishing on my Chrstmas ornaments for the Hooked on Exchanging Endless Christmas Ornament Exchange: Lizzie Kate round. I checked my followers, and my partner's name didn't show up among them, so I am going to risk posting some photos. You see I stitched two ornaments and don't know which to send. I am really not a big fan of Lizzie Kate's. The only piece of hers that I have stitched is the "Housework never killed anyone ..." piece and that was more a philosophical statement than an aesthetic one. So I resorted to using freebies to do the exchange. Now, L*Ks freebies tend to look rather like mere doodles, in my opinion, the sort of thing she might knock out as a warm-up exercise for real designing. Like a singer doing scales or a dancer doing plies. So, naturally, I had to jazz them up a bit. The one with just the words Peace-Love-Joy was stitched entirely in beads to give it a little punch. I also extended the border and added some Mill Hill Treasures [hearts] since I didn't have the recommended L*K charm. And on the Cozy Christmas Wishes ornament, I added a bit of back-stitching to the cup to make it pop and I used some of my prized hand-dyed chenille to dress up the pillow finish a bit. I am happy with them now but I haven't a clue if a real L*K fan would like my fiddling about with the original charts.

So, tell me, which would you rather receive in your mail box? On Monday, I'll follow the recommendation of the majority and pop that one in the mail. I'll save the remaining ornament to use as package trim for one of this year's Christmas gifts.

5 comments:

CalamityJr said...

I like them both, but for the exchange I think I'd go with the Peace Joy Love because you've made it so unique, plus it's smaller so she can tuck it just about anywhere.

mdgtjulie said...

I like Cozy Christmas Wishes better. The bsing you did really makes it pop. Grats on the finishes; both are lovely!

pandy said...

peace joy love, I really like the beading!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Peace, Joy and Love would be my choice too.
I've seen a whole lot of charts for "Joy" ornaments just lately, maybe I'll stitch a complilation sampler from them!

Chiara said...

you know what.. you did a great job by personalizing these charts! I find them both lovely!
I never feel at ease with "tampering" with the charts.. I'm 100% sure it'd turn into a worse version of the project.. but when somebody manages to upgrade charts (like you did) it's all about thumbs up to me!
Chiara