My first Flat Ornament finish

I am super duper proud to introduce you to my latest finish. This is my first finish of 2016. My first FFO for 2016. My first time making a cord and tassel. My first cross stitch finished as a flat ornament.

The pattern is from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and is called Legendary Friends. I stitched this up for a friend’s birthday (She picked out the pattern herself). Without further ado, here it is…

Et Voila!

And the back

THE STITCHING

This piece is done 2 over 2 on 32 count evenweave from Silkweaver – a gorgeous fabric that I thoroughly enjoyed. I did, of course, make some changes to the pattern.

• For starters I swapped out the recommended fabric, a deep blue opal, for a lighter fabric. My gal, C, is a bright and bubbly person and the minute I pulled out this fabric I knew this was The One for her.
• I did make it a horse rather than a unicorn as originally charted. The pastel My-Little-Pony girliness of this design was already a flying leap out of my comfort zone and I am convinced C chose this pattern just to torture me. So you will excuse me if my mind simply refused to allow the addition of a unicorn to the mix. Minus the horn, this stays firmly grounded in reality as an actual horse. Albeit a horse with a rainbow mane and tail. Meh… Nothing a little hair dye can’t fix.
• I personalized the piece by adding the month and year to commemorate the birthday and added her name as well (the censored portion you see in the picture).
• I did leave out some of the scattered stars that were charted in the original design as I didn’t want it to get too crowded.
• I stitched up the moon using some Madeira metallic that I had in my stash. Madeira, by the way, was a dream to work with. I found it much better than Kreinik, the only other metallic I have used in the past. It didn’t unravel as easily and while I would hardly use the word ‘glide’, it did slip through the fabric without too much hassle.

Madeira Metallic Moon

FINISHING CROSS STITCH AS A FLAT ORNAMENT

Since I would have to snail mail this piece to my friend, I opted to finish it as a flat ornament. I LOVED the process of putting this finish together. I felt positively craft-y (?!) doing it and I went to bed that night with a happy heart.

Not too bad for a first attempt, eh?

I started by making cord for the very first time. I am so grateful to Pinwheel Ponders for her brilliant step by step instructions.

I did struggle with getting the length of floss just right. My first attempt was using 84 inches of variegated perle cotton floss. That wound up (pun unintended) being way too thin and way too short for my border which would require at least 14 inches of twisted cord. It did not go to waste though as I used it as the hangar for the ornament.

Love the subtle orange-pink variegation of the Anchor Perle

The second time around I used 6 strands of regular embroidery floss and started with nearly 168 inches of floss. That worked out perfectly and I ended up with more than enough for my border, the knot and tassel with plenty of cord left over. If anyone has any wisdom to impart on how much floss you should actually start with to get a desired length of cord I’d really appreciate it.

My first cord

I was able to finish this ornament thanks to the wonderful instructions available out there on the web. My gratitude goes out to all bloggers/Youtubers who take the trouble of posting detailed tutorials for beginners like me. And in the spirit of passing on the good deed, if anyone would like more details on how exactly I put this together, drop me a comment or an email and I would be happy to help in any way I can.

Until next time!