Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Oh, Christmas Tree!

I always forget how many Christmas patterns I have designed over the years! I try to do one a year, so by now I have quite a few in my collection. Here are some of my favorites...



















This one is my Christmas Tree 2004.
I wanted to do something really different, so I first stitched the tree outline, then filled it in with assorted stitch patterns that reminded me of ornaments and tinsel. It ended up looking very modern and elegant. Yet it also reminds me of those trees people would make out of old costume jewelry. So I consider it a modern, yet retro type of tree. How neat is that?!?

I originally stitched this tree on green 24 ct. Congress Cloth, so the design was approx. 8.5" x 8.5". Then I got to wondering how it would look on 18 ct canvas...sooo I just HAD to stitch it again on 18 ct green mono canvas. And it looked equally lovely - just a lot bigger! (approx. 11" x 11").


And here's another type of Christmas tree. I call it my Christmas Forest.
It's actually a blackwork design - with each tree having a different blackwork pattern inside. Even I've been surprised by how popular this pattern has been. I keep selling it year after year. And that makes me happy, knowing that so many people are creating blackwork forests of their own! It's stitched on a 25 ct. Lugana even weave fabric, with lots of sparkle added, with green and gold Kreinik threads, and of course, a few star sequins and jewels to hang in the sky.

And here's another favorite of mine: Christmas Village.


It's a magical place - it sort of suggests Santa's village... or maybe an old-fashioned town nestled in a snowy valley. Anyway, it's surrounded in lots of fun borders and ribbons that I think are very fun to stitch up. I especially enjoyed stitching the candy cane border and the pine boughs & ornament border - both add a very festive touch!
This piece is stitched on 24 ct. white Congress Cloth, and it's finished size is 10.25" x 10.25" (on 18 ct canvas the size would be 14" x 14").

1 comment:

Jocelyn in NZ said...

Oh Laura, how much I enjoyed seeing yourpost this morning! I am in the midst of stitching your 2004 Christmas Tree, so it was just wonderful to see it there, and to be able to click on it and see it close up as well. I am really enjoying stitching it, though I am doing it in different threads because many of the ones you mentioned are not available here. So I am doing all the red and green in DMC, using a mixture of floss, Light Effects and rayon, and the gold is a Madeira metallic.

Thanks for such a great project to do!
Jocelyn in New Zealand.