NeedleAndFork's Year Round Ornaments Update 12/31/14

[calico]

I absolutely adore each and everyone of your lovely ornaments! I only managed to do 2 this year but have so many I want to make. Your thread really inspires me to try and get some more done. I really like the look of the bolder backstitch as it makes the design pop! Great sparklies, too!

[NeedleAndFork]

I absolutely adore each and everyone of your lovely ornaments! I only managed to do 2 this year but have so many I want to make. Your thread really inspires me to try and get some more done. I really like the look of the bolder backstitch as it makes the design pop! Great sparklies, too!

Join me in stitching one a month in 2014! Most ornaments I find are about 2 - 3 days of stitching plus some more time to finish them. It's an easy way to get several done throughout the year, whether for your own tree or to have a stash ready to give as christmas presents!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Beautiful ornaments (absolutely the snowman with the mini tree and string of stars), and thank you for describing how you put them together. For the few I've done I tend to do the backstitch/whipstitch finish, but it is quite time-consuming and of course takes twice the fabric -- your method sounds a lot quicker and you can use pretty backing fabrics!

One question, you said "Before turning it, I iron the bottom seam open" but how do you iron open a seam that hasn't been stitched yet? (sorry if I'm being dense...)

[Rose]

Those look great!!!!!!! And a good start!!!!!!!!!

[NeedleAndFork]

One question, you said "Before turning it, I iron the bottom seam open" but how do you iron open a seam that hasn't been stitched yet? (sorry if I'm being dense...)

I stitch part of the seam on the bottom - I'll usually start about 1/3 of the way in, stitch to the corner then all the way around, and then stitch 1/3 of the seam on the other side, leaving the middle 1/3 open. This gives you enough sewn area to be able to iron the seam open.

I'll take pictures of the process on the next one I assemble, though I'll be machine sewing it rather than hand. I gave it a try last night to make sure I could stitch between the same 2 threads for the entire length of an ornament and while it was tricky, I almost managed it with just one shift over to the next row. I think I'll add a basting stitch all the way around the ornament 1 thread out from where I want to sew to use as a guide so I can make sure I'm stitching in the right spot, otherwise I have no way of telling if my stitching moves over a spot. A basting stitch shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to do and is a good idea anyway as I can use that to figure out where exactly I want the sewing line to go.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Thanks, that would be really helpful!

[Mrsmoocow]

Love the red Christmas tree ornament

[NeedleAndFork]

Finished in the nick of time....

The blackwork one I started above...



I love closeup detail on blackwork, so I couldn't resist. This one also shows how I signed each of my ornaments. I have the year and my initials on each of them.



Another Santa one.. I actually ended up not doing the entire pattern - he had more beard below the sign, but it was already so big that I just left it off. I also didn't stitch the white background on the sign itself. I was running out of time!



A Fab Reilly humbug... I actually didn't enjoy making this one as much as I thought I would. I think it was all the gold floss, it was such a pain to use! I did this one first actually and wasn't going to give it away, but I was one short and decided to include it. The 'hanger' is a double strand of white floss threaded with gold seed beads.



The rest are of ornaments I already showed above, but that weren't sewn up yet when I posted them..





(I really think this one is my favorite.. I love the old world look to it!)



This one is a mess.. I didn't do a good job of finishing it at all as my idea didn't quite pan out, and I hate to give it in this condition, but I'm outta time to do anything about it! I do see in the picture that the edge of the fleece could use a quick trim to make it straighter. I'll make sure to do that much atleast!



This little guy turned out cuter than I expected when finished up this way! I just sewed up the excess fabric in the back so it was a tube, back stitched the top closed with a ribbon tucked into the opening,stuffed him from the bottom with fiberfill and sewed the bottom closed too. Then I fringed the excess fabric. I know I say I don't like fringe, but this is one case where I think it works (unlike the one above that is just a mess!)

[NeedleAndFork]

Oh, I almost forgot... the pic of all of them together so you can get an idea of scale of each one relative to each other..



And for fun, this isn't an ornament, but it's part of this christmas's gift giving...



A bookmark that I copied from picture someone posted of theirs. The pattern isn't available anywhere so I bluffed my way through it. It will go to a friend who loves to read and write, tucked into a pretty little journal.

[karen4bells]

Beautiful work!!! really love the blackwork!!

[kiwirach]

what wonderful ornaments

after being inspired by loads of ornaments on the net, i plan to make one a month next year as well. some will be for me!, and others will be gifts.

[Rose]

Those are all awesome finishes!!!!!!!

[rcperryls]

Beautiful ornaments! The blackwork is stunning and the others are lovely.

Carole

[NeedleAndFork]

I'm going to have to take a picture of the Be Jolly one with the person I made it for - it looks so much like him!

The person I gave the blackwork one to asked me if she could pay me to make a couple more for her.. her grandmother did a lot of surface embroidery and she thinks she would love the ornaments, so I'm making her a couple of them.. thankfully blackwork is reasonably fast. I can easily knock them out while I"m on vacation and use the extra cash to buy more stash!

[Lulu22]

Beautiful ornaments they look amazing its inspired me to do some myself next year

[perftangel]

They alll look so nice! I love your finishing on them! I need to work on my skills...

[Oriettait]

They are awesome! I love the picture with them all

[TracyG]

I adore all of those and I especially love how you've finished each and every one of them! Well done and Merry Christmas!!

[NeedleAndFork]

I just realized that I was in such a rush when it came to finishing these off that I never shared how I gift wrapped them. I wanted to make sure to do that because I think they turned out so cute, and it's an easy way to do so!



I bought a yard of burlap and then cut it into strips - because the burlap skews easily, the cut I got was not even close to being on grain, so rather than try to straighten the edges before cutting strips, I cut perpendicular to the selvedge, trimmed off the crooked parts and cut in half, so each strip was about 16" x 8". Folded in half, zigzagged down the two sides and turned the bag so seams were on the inside. A bit of ribbon to tie it up and I was done! Very cheap too - a yard of burlap (of which I used about half for 9 ornaments) was $3, and the ribbon was from the 50 cent rack. This was definately the way to go, rather than buying giftbags for each one.

[charmagne_capalad]

Super lovely projects! .. Am planning to do the same for Christmas 2014! Thanks for the inspiration! Happy holidays!