i made about six million of these, it felt like! there was another design that i was doing as well, so 4 in total, but after the first few batches, i stuck with the two on the left because they were my favourite. i put one in each of the xmas cards i sent.
all of the icicles i stitched were white, but i decided to toss these ones into the dyepot while i was dying bottle brush trees, and they turned out great! i wanted to make pink icicles for a friend, but i didn't really want to have to switch out threads and wind a pink bobbin and all.
for the same friend, i wanted to make a cupcake ornament. emblibrary.com had a set of xmas themed cupcakes, and i knew one of them would be perfect. i switched out the colours a bit, and stitched it onto bright pink felt.
i also made a few baby's first christmas ornaments for friends that had babies in 2009, though i totally didn't have the energy for the ridiculous sets i made last year!
if you're looking closely, you'll see that i removed the word "baby" from this year's set. i stitched out a few test ones, and really disliked how the words looked, the font was too small, and the letters weren't very clear. i decided to use a larger font, which meant that i didn't have as much space. as a bonus though, that means the ornaments can be used for things like a first christmas together, or first christmas in a new house, all depending on what picture you put in them!
i also changed the stitch density a bit, especially for the satin stitched ornament "hanger", and i think it looks a lot better. and i slipped the ends of the ribbon hanger in when i sewed the back on, so i didn't have to worry about the grommet and ribbon like on last years,
stitching them out, i started thinking about in the hoop projects, and i think i'm going to try redesigning them again next year.
and then more freestanding lace!
i made this set of snowflakes for someone who's helped me out a lot in the past few years. we have totally different styles, but i knew she'd like these.
while my machine was stitching away independently, i made this wreath for the awesome batgirl (aka lori).
i knew she really liked wreaths with yarn, because i've seen her admire them in the past!
i wanted to make a wreath that was less "christmas" and more just "winter". i had a bunch of yarn scraps in shades of blue, so i pulled out all of the ones that were kind of icy in tone. i started wrapping yarn around styrofoam balls, so that they'd look like yarn balls but use less yarn to make (and be lighter), and then wrapped some natural coloured white/cream wool around a styrofoam wreath.
it needed some flash, so i found a silver pear pick at micheals that was kind of a pewter tone, less cheap silver. i wanted to pull that into the wreath itself a bit more, so i added some silver thread that has sequins wound into it every foot or so, and then i spraypainted the entire thing with a "metallic finish" spray, just adding a bit of a glint from certain angles.
this is it with a flash, still in my spraypainting box.
and the more accurate colours, hanging on my door.
i like it. i wound a bunch of styrofoam balls, and bought a pick, all in shades of blue and teal for a wreath for myself, but unsurprisingly, i didn't get it finished. maybe next year, now that it's half done!
