Erica's Stitches

I finished round 2 of Christmas Ornaments getting to use a lot of different threads . They are simple squares - scraps of leftover linen - backed with felt. I enjoy playing with different color combinations.  Some are subtle. And others are bolder.  All with the same pattern. Don't ask me which ones I like best. Next, I'm going to give most of them away.  And then start round 3.  Finish up some ornaments that I didn't finish last year. Like the pattern?  It's  for sale at patternsonline.com.

It turns out to be a good thing that I had an unquilted quilt top laying around. I decided it would make a good early Christmas gift to be delivered at Thanksgiving.  Otherwise a quilt would have been impossible. So, I put everything else aside and quilted like crazy and I've got it done with half of the weekend left. Now, on to other projects.

I've finished the first batch of ornaments for the year.  They are all from this year's Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue.  Usually I pick one or two to stitch.  This year I went overboard and did four. This one turned out too big to be an ornament.  At 35 count it was an ornament.  At 28 count it isn't.  I wasn't paying attention to the instructions, just using materials I have on hand and it got bigger and bigger.  I was thinking of leaving the border off but then I looked in my frame collection and found the perfect frame.  I actually increased the border size to make the stitching fit into the frame better.  The border as designed isn't even so I figured no one would notice if I made it even less even.  One of the snowflakes is supposed to be asymmetrical but I didn't notice in time and I made it symmetrical.  Oops. Then I ran out of the brown floss. Double oops.  I could have found a close DMC and finished the last two stitches but I left it as is.