Tuesday Morning into Wednesday Evening

Tuesday, 10:00am:  I spent a little more time on my Whispered in the Wind Ornament.  Since I am using a small scrap of linen, I have had to make several adjustments to fit this chart on my linen.  For one thing, it will not be a full oval as charted, nor will the cardinal's head cover the upper left of the holly wreath, neither will his tail protrude from beneath the wreath.  The cardinal will be stitched over one in the center of the arch of holly wreaths.  And depending on how large the cardinal will be when stitched over one - I have yet to compute this - the bottom of the ornament will either be a branch perch or pairs of holly leaves stitched straight across the bottom.

Tuesday, 9:30pm:  I thought I'd take some time this evening to get started on assembly line ornament finishing.  I had already cut out the cardboard backings for my flat ornaments a few days ago, so this evening was spent cutting and gluing the interfacing I use to give a smooth, professional looking padding to the front and back of each ornament.  I also took the time to cut out the fabric for the backings, binding their edges with a zig zag stitch.  I hope to lace the backing fabrics into place tomorrow.  Over the years, a number of people have asked me to write a tutorial on how I finish my flat ornaments and I am using this particular finishing frenzy to take step by step photos of my process.  Now I am sure there are tutorials out there that are as good or better than my own.  I am simply responding to comments from several followers and not engaging in hubris.  Look for the tutorial some time next week.


Wednesday Morning, 8:00am:  A few backing fabrics are laced in place.  Not really photo worthy for the purposes of this post. Tonight I'll be working late, running a catechist meeting.  I doubt I'll get much done in the way of assembly and/or finishing but I will have some time Thursday morning to catch up, since I work 12:30-8:30pm on Thursdays, leaving my mornings free for equal parts housework and stitching.

I plan to spend all of Friday on finishing these ornaments and working on a few totes and pillows.  I expect to keep the sewing machine going most of the day.  I really need to get back to finishing again; my backlog is getting scary..