Mini Mystery #3

Here's another fun and easy ornament to make before Christmas. And because there's only two Mondays left before the Big Day, I'm condensing the instructions into two lessons, so you'll have another ornament finished before Christmas!

You'll need a piece of 18 ct. mono canvas, at least 6" x 6". The finished ornament is a diamond shape that measures apprx. 3.75" by 3.75" from its tips. I used the same palette of threads as the previous ornaments, namely:
- a few strands of variegated Watercolours 047 - "Camouflage"
- DMC #5 pearl cotton 890 for the dark border
- DMC #5 pearl cotton 3685 for the accent color
- Ribbon Floss 148-047, honey/copper for the gold metallic ribbon
- and this time I added a finer gold - Kreinik #8 Braid 002HL
- AND I added some 8mm round gold beads (which you should find in any local craft store)

Okay.... find the center of your canvas and make a tiny hole with the tip of your needle for a reference point.

From that center point, create a diamond-shaped eyelet with 1 ply of your variegated Watercolours, going in EVERY OTHER HOLE, like the graph on the left:

Note that your first vertical stitch will go over 8 canvas threads, and as you proceed around the diamond shape, going in every other hole, you should go DOWN into the center hole. And as you are going through the hole, try enlarging it with your needle or by pulling on your thread when you are on the underside of the eyelet - because you'll be putting lots of stitches into that center hole and it will help to get it as large as you can.

Then, after you have your variegated stitches done, cut a piece of the finer gold Kreinik #8 Braid and stitch around the eyelet again, but this time going in every other "vacant" hole, as shown in the graph on the right side above. And then your eyelet should end up looking something like this, step-by-step:

Now create a sort of "nine patch" of those eyelets, using this graph:

Once you've got all your eyelets stitched you can move on to fill in the four remaining diamond openings. For that you'll need to use 1 strand of your #5 pearl cotton bright accent color. And you'll start by creating this star foundation shape between your eyelets, using the graph on the left:

After you have the star foundation stitched, go back and add the gold stitches with 1 strand of Ribbon Floss, as shown in the graph on the right above. And then your stars should look something like this, step-by-step:

And the overall graph for both types of eyelet motifs looks like this:

Pretty fancy looking for just a basic eyelet, huh? Notice how different the two types of eyelets look, depending on which threads you use and how you mix up the stitches... Now you could easily make an ornament with just ONE of those two eyelet motifs, and create a pattern by just alternating the thread colors from diamond to diamond... It's amazing what you can do with just a few basic stitches and lots of threads to play with!!

Anyway, I'll finish this little cutie next Monday, when we'll do two small borders and add lots of beads for maximum sparkle effect -- see you then...