Stitching's Ornamental

T'is the season to make ornaments...fa la la la LA, la la la LA!

Have you been stitching any ornaments this season? Just one or two, perhaps??
When you think about it, making ornaments is the perfect way to show off your passion for needlepoint. You get the pleasure of stitching up some small treasures (using a deliciously fun assortment of luscious threads, colored canvases and clever designs, naturally); the person who receives the stitched ornament gets to admire your handiwork everytime they look at your gift -- it's a win/win situation for everybody!

And here's a spectacularly clever idea for you to try: I was talking with some stitchers at a guild meeting recently, and one of the stitchers, Zora, was telling me about her ornament projects. She was stitching ornaments from her LARGER projects. In other words, instead of working for months/years on one of those gorgeously complicated patterns with lots and lots of intricate blocks/sections, she decided to extract smaller parts of the overall design and work them up as ornaments. Is that clever or WHAT?!? Thanks for the great idea, Zora!

If you're like lots of us counted canvasworkers who amass lots of large heirloom and master-quality designs, planning to get them all stitched "SOME DAY" in the future, this is a way to start stitching them in bits and pieces right now. It's also a great way to try out color and thread combinations, before tackling the larger pieces. I immediately started thinking about that STARS OF THE MILLENIUM piece I've started (and probably won't finish until the next millenium) or all those Jean Hilton books I have (and hesitate to dive into) .... they have TERRIFIC ornament potential, don't they?

And among my own designs, there are a few that can be easily adapted to ornaments. JEWEL BOX is one of my all-time favorite designs.


I've often wanted to stitch each of the diamond-shaped boxes as separate ornaments, in a holiday palette of colors.

As my holiday present to you, I've extracted one of the boxes and graphed it as a separate ornament. Please visit the FREE PATTERNS page on my website to print out the graph. You'll have to pick your own favorite colors and threads, cut a piece of canvas and then you're good to go....

Let's start decking those halls with lots of needlepoint.... FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA!


(Hey... there's still PLENTY of time to whip something up, right? Christmas is still one whole day away! - grin.)