I was home on my own on Friday night, and decided to try out a little craft. It was one of those nights where I had two loads of laundry to fold and a movie to watch.
(As a side note, it was WWJD (What Would Jesus Do? with John Schneider and Adam Gregory . . . got it from the library. . . and was quite impressed with its message, just FYI. Good to watch . . . not raving about the acting or anything like that, but a good movie to still watch and I am not regretting it. I liked Fireproof a lot too, for that same reason. So. . .that is my take.)
I had wanted to make a tree skirt for my Christmas tree--knowing full well I should start that NOW if I wanted to get it done by the time we set up the tree! I had this great idea, but wanted to test out the stitching before doing it on the final project. . .so I decided to make a little Christmas ornament. I got this idea from here. (BTW--adorable blog!) I was going to make it look EXACTLY the same! When I was looking for my felt, it turned out my "white" was actually a white with apple green polka dots! Hmmm. . .what to do.
I did a little google search for Christmas colour trends, and found this fantastic photo. I loved all the bright colours. . .not sure I would ever try it in my own house, but loved the colours together . . . which gave me the confidence to keep trying my little softie.
(image from here)
I chose a deep magenta-kind of purple embroidery floss. Then I put the two star shapes together and started my stitching. Blanket stitching, I believe it is called.
Okay, okay. I got too excited! Back up to the beginning. This is what you want to do first: Get a star pattern. Cut out two. Choose embroidery floss and get a needle.
THEN, start stitching! I tried to get some close-up photos to show you my stitching. You just do your regular go in the back and come out the front stitching . . .
. . .except that when you are ready to go in the back you need to thread it through your loop.
That will "hook" the top and make that nice line along the outer edge of your piece of felt.
(And for some reason, I want to do this stitching around about 10 stars on my Christmas tree skirt!!! What am I thinking?!!?)
At about this point, I decided to get some of my "stuffing" (quilting batting for me) to make it poofy and soft.
Once it is full, I finished stitching around the last point of my star, made a loop for hanging. And there you go--a star.
However, I added a little star button (just lighter than my embroidery floss) and the extra floss in a bow. I placed it just off to the side of the centre of my ornament (although it is kinda hard to see from the picture.
I think I will have a bunch of nights like this if I am going to finish up that tree skirt idea of mine. . .
anyone want to come for a crafting/coffee/cookies night?
Happy crafting!
