May Stitch Along update #1

 My daughter-in-law's stocking is progressing nicely. This is where it was on the last update:

 You can see that I have added many snowflakes, more branches and the last woodland creature...the owl.

 

I did not enjoy stitching those snowflakes one bit. Not only are the larger ones very fiddly, but it is difficult to determine their placement.

 At least one large snowflake is placed one stitch up from where it is supposed to be, but I will be the only one who knows which one. The larger snow flakes all have French knots. The pattern calls for the French knots to be made with one strand of floss and two twists around the needle. I experimented with other amounts as these knots went right through the fabric. The knots on the snowflake to the right of the bear are made with two strands of floss and two twists.

 They ended up too large, but I am leaving it as is as it doesn't stand out too much and I am afraid I would snip the fabric if I tried to remove them.

I settled on using one strand of floss and 3 twists around the needle for the multitude of French knots that I finally finished on Thursday. 

On Wednesday I decided to sit down and chart my daughter-in-law's name and determine how I want to add it to the top. I didn't feel like making any more French knots. The pattern does not include a name, but all the rest of our family stockings are personalized. First I looked through my many cross-stitch magazines and pattern books to find an alphabet font that I liked. I charted 4 on cross-stitch graph paper and then asked Hubby's opinion. Thankfully, we agreed on the one that we liked best. 

Because the top of the charted stocking ends in a whole lot of snowflakes, I decided that some kind of border was necessary. I went with a simple two stitch zig-zag that I think is perfect. It is not over powering for this fairly delicate looking stocking. I decided to stitch it in the brightest green, as that seems to be the dominant color. I will add a second border above the name also.

I am stitching the name in the next darker green. I usually use red for the names, but there isn't a true red floss in this chart and I really like sticking with the greens. 

I may add two birds on each side of the name, but I want to stitch it with the two borders before I decide they are needed. I would just turn each bird a quarter turn inward and stitch them that way.

Once all this stitching is completed, I will add the yellow beads that form the garland and some large red sequins as ornaments. The pattern calls for red buttons as the ornaments, but I realized that I have sequins leftover from a long ago project that are just slightly smaller than the recommended button size. I think I like the idea of sequins better any way.

Hopefully I will have a stitching happy dance for the next posting. I may even have the stocking assembled......or maybe not.

Thank you to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks and sending us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, MaryMargaret, Cindy

Thanks for stopping by!