Thanksgiving Stitching

Last month, I created what for lack of a better name I shall call album posts on the themes of Autumn and Halloween.  I thought I might do another on the theme of Thanksgiving this month.

This Indian man is from a CEC Thanksgiving Circle leaflet. The charted design is actually a sort of a wreath but I isolated the elements to make ornaments for my Thanksgiving tree.

These two ornaments came from one of my go-to reference books for small motifs, Better Homes and Gardens 2001 Cross Stitch Motifs.  From alphabets to borders to flora and fauna to holiday to kiddie stuff to country artifacts and more: I can always find something in this versatile volume.  I don't know why the Pilgrim girl and boy look so glum ... the mouths are actually straight lines ... but somehow they seem to turn downward at the ends.

This is from the CEC Thanksgiving Circle leaflet as well.  I am not really happy with the somewhat clownish appearance of this Pilgrim fellow but I did want to complete the set.

This Pilgrim matron is from the same CEC leaflet as the Pilgrim gentleman, the Indian and the turkey ... but I will always associate it with Groucho Marx because of my husband.  He was coming down the stairs and just caught a glimpse of it hanging on my entry hall table top tree ... and he asked why I had a Groucho Marx ornament hanging on the Thanksgiving tree.  I guess his "out of the corner of his eye" perception interpreted the pies as eyelids, the apron as a nose and the skirt/boots as a mustache.

And the last motif from the CEC Thanksgiving Circle is this colorful little turkey ... he's a bit more impressive in person.  In the photograph his paler plumage seems to fade into the ground fabric.

This cornucopia is also from The Better Homes and Gardens 2001 Cross Stitch Motifs.  The only thing I dislike about this book is that all the charts are color-coded.  I much prefer black & white charts, finding them much easier to read.

I can't remember if this cornucopia free chart came from the Rainbow Gallery or the Kreinik site but since it calls for specialty fibers I am fairly sure it is one of those.  It was a sweet stitch.

I have a bad habit of not always making a note of the source of free charts and trusting my memory instead.  If memory serves me correctly, this chart is from The Sisterhood.  I stitched the back of the piece in reverse.

This turkey is from the same Prairie Schooler leaflet I used for my round robin ... see the post on Autumn stitches.  

Some Prairie Schooler pumpkins.

I adapted this ornament from the Homespun Elegance monthly Sheepish designs: this would have come from the chart for November's blanket

And another Prairie Schooler Pumpkin