Mini Mystery Monday, January pt. 3

Just a few more stitches and we'll be done with this month's mystery piece, so let's get started!

All that remains to be done is fill in the area between the zig zag rows.  Here's the next graph for you to follow, showing three possible options:

And again, you can see that I've selected three different filling stitches you can choose from.

Option A is the simplest; lay whichever thread you want (the fatter metallic ribbon is a good choice), then couch it down with a few straight stitches done with the thin #8 Braid metallic, or even your dark pearl cotton color.

Option B is another fast and easy filling; just lay a trio of diagonal stitches in the zig zag space and cover the intersections with a metallic straight stitch.

Option C is the more complex filling, but it's not hard; it's a wonky, "stretched" cross stitch that fills the space and is then tied down at the middle with a small metallic stitch.  Here's what that Stretched Tied Cross looks like up close:

It's a strange stitch in that it's three stitches covering a four-holed area, but somehow it works.  It looks especially good using the fatter metallic ribbon, tied down with the #8 Braid.  The fatter ribbon thread covers a multitude of sins, so if you get your stitches in the wrong holes it's OKAY... the stitches cover the space just fine, no matter where your three long stitches are placed.

After you fill all your zig zag rows, all that's left to do is add some beads. Again, you can decide how many or what type of beads you want on your piece.  As the larger graph above shows, I've placed beads at the points where the snowflake/star tips touch.  If you stitched the Eyelet Stars, you can also add larger beads in those holes, to alternate with smaller beads at the star intersections.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this Mini Mystery piece.  It's a very versatile ornament and would be fun to stitch in lots of different colors and threads.  Please experiment with different stitch combinations as well.... I'll bet you'll come up with lots of great ornaments using this one design!