This past weekend, for whatever reason, I was all about getting into the Christmas spirit. Maybe it was the cooler temps that got me thinking about my most favorite season ever. Or that July isn't over yet, so I could technically still celebrate Christmas in July.
But then again, I don't ever really need a reason to be in the Christmas spirit.
I'm a sucker for all things Christmas, especially Christmas stitching and paper. I'm already hoarding cute Christmas paper for my December Daily album.
Ahem.
I went up to my third floor on the hunt for a new pattern to stitch (I keep them as far away from my stitching area as possible so I don't have 457 projects started and none finished), and remembered that I have almost all of the Red Ladies series from Nora Corbett. I've done two of her larger designs (she has many), Royal Holiday and Sabrina, but this is the first of her smaller graphs that I've done. I might even be done before Christmas.
Well, this one, anyway, not the entire series. Although that's something to shoot for....
I always forget how much longer it takes to stitch on 40 ct fabric, since the squares are so small....until I pick up 32 ct fabric, and fly through the stitches....
I decided for this series, since they're all Christmas themed, that the fabric also needed to be festive. So, I'm stitching at least 3-4 of these lovely ladies on Crystal Legacy from Picture This Plus. I love their fabrics and most of them can be ordered in crystal if you want that opalescent look to spice up your stitching without changing any of the fibers. I've said before, changing the fabric is the easiest way to change the entire look of a pattern, and this adds sparkle to a Christmas piece without me having to resort to using Kreinik threads.
Let's not even go there about Kreiniks......
Have any of you started your Christmas stitching yet??
PS - for another example of choosing a different fabric than what the model was stitched on, check out my Skeleton Crew - I get requests all the time for my floss color changes from my LNS (they're now on my Fabric & Floss page), but the biggest difference in what I did was with the fabric I chose - it changed the entire piece.