Tis The Season

Almost every year I make Christmas ornaments and, since I am still recovering from the marathon stitching event this summer,  I was looking for a design this year that wouldn't require a lot of handwork. As I was pondering this problem, there on my cutting table were some perle cotton leftover ends from my current project that had piled themselves into a pleasing entanglement. So I pulled out my bag of thread ends (yes, I save the ends) and began to experiment. And here is my first attempt:

I created a square from my hand-dyes and then piled thread onto a doubled piece of Mistyfuse and trimmed a bit of the excess off around the shape. Then I held the iron on it extra long, hoping the extra fusible would burn away and held my breath as I removed the parchment paper that protected my iron. Most of the extra fusible was gone and I was able to remove the few curled pieces left with tweezers. Then I peeled the shape off the backing and ironed it to the fabric square. I did tack the design down at a few points with invisible thread and, as a finish, added a bead as a focal point.

This is a little bigger, more complicated design but I worried that the fusible on the back would not be enough to hold the layers. So I tried adding a layer of fusible on top as well but again ironing it enough so that it was not visible on the top threads. It took several attempts but the fusible haze was finally gone and the top threads still were held together. This one was double sided as well.

I made several more, some to sell at the Open Studio weekend and some to give as family gifts--the reason I could not post this until after Christmas day since at least one of the recipients looks at this blog sometimes.

Merry Creative Christmas! And may we each find joy amid all the surprises the New Year will bring us!

Linking to Off the Wall Fridays.