Incoherent Scribblings

My First Ornament

Yesterday I decided what to stitch for my Halloween exchange, but before I start it I decided that I should probably think about how to finish it in case extra fabric was needed for finishing. I have not yet decided what to finish my Halloween exchange as, but one thing that I had thought about was as an ornament.

Of course, since I had never made an ornament before I thought I should look through my WTF pieces (that isn’t what you think… it means “Waiting To be Finished” ;)) for something to use as an “ornament guinea pig.” I found my candidate in a small piece that I stitched in April of 2004 that I call “Baskat.”

Using Karen V.’s instructions for finishing a piece using a whipped backstitching edge, I spent this afternoon making “Baskat” into an ornament. The whipped backstitch edging method itself is quite easy; however, since I am a sew-sew seamstress at best (ha ha) it took me all afternoon to whip it up.

I suspected my biggest challenge would come in the second step when I had to backstitch a border the same size as the border around the front piece on the back piece, and I was correct. I carefully counted the backstitches on the front piece’s border twice, but somehow I still managed to get off by two stitches on the back piece! I don’t know why this sort of thing happens to me, but it almost always does… sometimes I am surprised that I can do counted cross stitch at all!

Once I got that all straightened out though the ornament went together smoothly (albeit a little bit slowly) and I found it quite fun to make. I am not yet sure if I will finish my Halloween exchange into an ornament, but I can definitely see myself making more ornaments in the future!