Monday, February 14, 2022

2022 Stocking Ornament Club

I decided to participate in this year's ornament club hosted by Crazy Annie's Stitchin. The club is a 12 Days of Christmas stocking series designed by Annie Belcher of Annie Beez Folk Art exclusively for Crazy Annie's. I've already received and stitched the first two installments. Here are my finishes on them.

January 29 - Partridge in a Pear Tree stitched on black 27 ct. Linda evenweave fabric using the called for DMC fibers and Mill Hill beads.

The stocking size is a bit larger scale than will actually work with my smaller slimline tree. I've decided instead of having them finished into ornaments, I want to have them finished into stocking-shaped pillows to do into a dough bowl. I think they'll be super cute as pillows, too.

February 14 - Partridge in a Pear Tree (adaptation) stitched on charcoal 36 ct linen using the called for DMC and the petite version of the called for Mill Hill Beads. 

I thought it would be interesting to see how these ornaments would look stitched on a higher count fabric which might help the size issue for my tree which I mentioned above. While I still think it's pretty, I just don't think the colors "pop" nearly as well on the charcoal linen as they do on the black fabric. I did try to find some 36 count black linen, but wasn't able to locate any at the time I was shopping for it. In the end, I've decided to just stick with the 27 ct. Linda and have them finished into pillows. For this one, I decided to leave the top portion of the branch off and will just finish it as a round ornament.

February 13 - Two Turtle Doves stitched on black 27 ct. Linda evenweave fabric using the called for DMC fibers and Mill Hill beads.

I technically finished this one before the 36 ct. version of the first stocking because I was waiting on the petite beads to finish the 36 ct version. However, I decided to keep the two versions of the first stocking next to each other in this blog post just because they were different versions of the same chart.

I really loved stitching this second stocking. It's difficult to see in the photograph, but the two doves are stitched in a combination of Ecru and DMC 644, but the colors are flipped in each of the doves. On one, the wing is Ecru and the body is 644. On the other dove, it's just the opposite. It really helps them stand out from one another and is much easier to see in person than in the photo.

As I mentioned above, these ornaments are exclusive to Crazy Annie's. Initially Annie said this would be an open club where stitchers could join at any time during the year. However, the club ended up being FAR more popular than expected, so she has decided to limit the club to a maximum of 400 members. If you are interested, there are still a couple of spots available. You can find all the information in the club's Facebook group

UPDATE (24 Feb 2022 11:16am PT): Per Annie, the club is now basically full. The only way that someone can get in now would be if an existing club member cancels and they take over their spot. She said this does happen quite frequently, so there is still a chance someone can get in. If you are interested in that option, send an email to Annie at crazyanniesstitchin at Gmail with STOCKING ORNAMENTS in the subject line letting them know you are interested and they will add them to the wait list.

I'm really glad I signed up for this club! I'm definitely looking forward to the March installment of Three French Hens. 


Multiple 2022 Finishes

 I've been remiss in posting my finishes on my blog. I have been posting them on Instagram (IG) as I've been completing them. If you want real time finish photos, I suggest following me on IG. Here are four of my six finishes so far for 2022. I'll put the other two finishes in a separate post since they are part of a club series I'm doing this year.

January 21 - My first finish of the year was a big one! I completely Jessie Watson c. 1816 by Hands Across the Sea Samplers. This piece was stitched on 36 ct. Winter Moon linen using the silk conversion from Vikki Clayton. 

January 29 - I can't believe I let this small sit in my WIPs for so long before finally finishing it. This is Ode to the Ort No. 2 from Brenda Gervais of With They Needle & Thread. It was n exclusive limited edition kit available at the 2019 Nashville Market. It's stitched over one on 28 ct Mushroom Lugana.

February 2 - This finish was for the Winter Cross Stitch Camp hosted by Sheri of Colorado Cross Stitcher. The design is 'Tis Green by La-D-Da. It appeared in the July/August 2010 ornament preview issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. I stitched it on 32 ct. Limestone Lugana using a Sulky Blendable 12 wt cotton in Forever Green.

February 11 - This is another project that had just been languishing in my WIP pile for far too long. This is Spring Home by Shannon Christine Designs. I stitched it on 32 ct. Vintage Country Mocha using the called for DMC.

That's it for this post. As I mentioned at the start, I'll be putting up another post showing the two other finishes I've had so far this year that are part of an ornament club I'm participating in this year. So far, I'm absolutely LOVING that club, so be looking for that post very soon.