Stitchy Stars Ornaments

Quilt blocks are one of my favorite things to cross stitch because they’re so easy. And when done individually, they’re super easy to have one in my purse so that I can stitch anytime I’m waiting unexpectedly.

I fell in love with these cute quilt blocks from Lori Holt. The pattern book is called Stitchy Stars and it’s available HERE. I’m sure it’s available other places as well, but I really like shopping at 123stitch.com. Their shipping is only $3.49 no matter what size order you have, and their prices are really reasonable, especially for their DMC floss.

After making several of these tiny quilt blocks, and adapting some of them from the original sticky star pattern, I turned them into little Christmas ornaments. With their cream colored background, they will look great on a Christmas tree. And if you don’t stuff them, but rather just mount them on a piece of salt with a piece of ribbon, you can easily mail them without any additional postage.

The way I finished mine was to simply cut the 8 o’clock a little bit bigger and then fry three rows on each side and then sew them onto the felt. 

Once you start making stitch quilt blocks, it’s really easy to leave the original pattern and come up with your own Designs and colors. It’s a whole lot of fun, And I love having something in my purse at all times to be able to stitch. It’s a win-win!

Thanks so much for stopping by my little blog, and have a wonderful day!

Christmas (or Not) BINGO Challenge #9

Here we are just 115 days away from Christmas! This year has flown by, and I'm glad to have made another creation to help celebrate when the 25th of December does arrive.

This piece was created especially for the September/October Christmas BINGO Challenge. I used the column "N" and the elements I used were "No Stamping," "Red" and "Layering."

I started out with the idea that I would use "Gemstones" as my third element, and even bought some gem-like red beads to go around the edges of this piece. I bought some special beading needles too. They're super-skinny needles that a tiny bead can pass through. The funny thing is, the eye of the needle is so small that I couldn't thread it! I'm going to have to talk to them at the cross stitch store about which thread to use for that. So I switched it up a bow for a layered look.

It worked out well though because when I went to my ribbon box I found the perfect wired pom-pom ribbon to go with it. Like the thread, which is Turkish Red by Weeks Dye Works, it to is variegated with bright red and darker red. A perfect match!

You can see the floss variegation a bit better in this close-up picture on the left. It's especially evident on the right hand side of the M and on the top of the S. This was my first time using Weeks Dye Works floss, and while I enjoy the mottled look, I had to run to two different faraway stores to finish the piece. Using DMC would have been much easier and in my opinion, it would have looked just as good.

My pattern was a freebie that I found at a lovely site called Kincavel Krosses. The post is from 2011, but I really think this piece is so timeless. I did, however, find a couple of very minor errors in it. I've included my humble changes in a photo below. I didn't catch the G until afterwards. Ironically, the G was the first letter I stitched, but after looking back I would have made an extra row so that there would only be one space on the top of it.

Other than that, it's a great pattern that can be stitched in any color. I chose red not only because of this challenge, but because I can use it for both Christmas displaying and Valentine's Day as well.

Framing the piece was also something that was a newbie for me. I ordered a custom size frame from a place called Art To Frames. It was my first time ordering there and I was super happy with the selection, ease of ordering and how quickly it was shipped. (And they didn't compensate me in any was for this endorsement! ) By not including glass, the price was what I felt was very inexpensive. Here's what I ordered and my price:

We would love to have you join us over at Christmas (or Not) BINGO Challenges this time! We are an all-crafts challenge and you can create something simple or something more complex. As long as you choose one column (up and down only) and use at least two of the elements (the third one can be a free space) you can participate. It's so much fun doing these challenges, and if you're like me, you'll never know what you'll wind up with!

Lastly, as promised, here are the two changes that I would make if I were to do this pattern again. One I caught, the other I didn't. Even without making these changes, this is a great piece that will look great for decades to come!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope to see you over at Christmas (or Not) BINGO Challenges!