Not Even Halfway Finished

I don't think I realized how big this tree skirt actually will be until I unrolled it last night to check on my current progress. Wow! It is much bigger than I thought and I am not even halfway finished. I do love the way it looks thought and that's even without all the silver braid for the ornaments and ribbon and blending filament for the snowflakes that goes with it.

A friend of mine said the tree skirt is  ambitious. She may be right. As I told her, I hope, as Gram always said, my eyes aren't too big for my stomach.

It is pretty though and I'm determined to get it done this year. Now I wonder if I'll get anything else done since I'm stitching this. Time will tell.

It's good to stretch a bit outside your comfort zone to reach a little bit more skill, experience, and ambition. Other large tasks will be less daunting.

Happy stitching.

On an Asian Roll

Since I was already here and couldn't get the previous post to give me any more space, I'm putting the update for the Japanese Maiden here.

This is where I stopped to work on Xmas stockings. I love this design and I can't wait until it's finished, framed, and ready to hang. I'm keeping this one for myself.

Here's a closeup of the new details. Still have the outside to work on, but it's getting there and I'm really happy with what is coming from the threads. I'm so glad I decided to do this one. It's beautiful.

Happy stitching.

HalloXmas Stocking

I pondered this idea for a while before I finally came up with a way to make it work. That is making a Xmas stocking with a zombie theme. I wanted something that was still Christmasy and adding zombie elements.

This is the first stocking and the way I worked around the problem. Xmas tree with large ornaments depicting acts of zombie horror. What could be better? I hope.

 I've begun the outside elements. More branches and ornament hangers will be added. Snowflakes will be stitched on and inside each lovely looking ornament will be some sort of zombie horror. The perfect marriage of horror and sweet. Don't you think?

I used one of Dimension Gold's stocking patterns for the basis of my Xmas theme. It's coming along nicely. I have deleted some of the elements obviously, like the inside of the ornaments, which were holiday scenes, and will add the scenes -- or decomposing body parts -- of my design. This was actually fun.

Still haven't decided which one of my evil ideas I'll use for the other HalloXmas stocking, but I'm getting there. I haven't drawn anything in years and I've never designed a cross stitch pattern from scratch. I'm doing it in stages so I don't get design lash. Like whiplash only messier.

Happy stitching.