Needlework, Finishing, Designing, Quilting, Some Discoveries and Adventures in Stitching from Windy Ridge Designs

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Gift of Stitching - Prairie Schooler Ornament Complete


I loved, loved, loved the PS ornament in the November 2009 issue of GOS! Could not wait to stitch it up. But had to be a little different. Mine is stitched on Wichelt, 28 count, Country French Cappucino linen. I like to call this color Hot Cocoa myself, but it is what it is. And, I used overdyed threads in place of the recommended DMC. Replacements are as follows: The white is Crescent Colours Snowball; 646 (chimney smoke) is Weeks Confederate Grey; 738 (windows and jingle bells on harness) is Crescent Finley Gold; 815 is GA Cranberry; 895 (trees) I used two colors of green to give better dimension to them. One I used is Crescent Steamed Broccoli and the other is Weeks Lucky. 927 (icy blue in the snow) is Weeks Morris Blue. Not sure, but that color may be discontinued - I just pulled it out of my stash and love it for its icy blueness. I wanted to be different on the harness, deer's eye and door so I used a peacocky-turquoise from Needle Necessities that I had on hand. For the reindeer itself, which was supposed to be 3371 I used Crescent Bramble Bush. Ooooh - forgot to mention - I've done five of these and I'm so bad a counting that I haven't done one of them completely correct yet!

As far as finishing, it is on a small piece of foam core. The pearls are Darice pearl headed florist pins. The backing is Weeks overdyed felted wool in "Merlot" and the hanger is a piece of matching satin ribbon. Could not be simpler.

Like I said, I have stitched five of these and as I ran out of Bramble Bush after three of them, I used other overdyes for the deer instead. One was Crescent Cocoa Bean and the other was Weeks Sassy Brass. Neither of these worked as well as Bramble Bush, so I've ordered more of that. A good replacement for 3371 is Swamp Water (made by Weeks?) if you want to go that dark. I also changed up the eye, harness, door combo and did two of them with Crescent Rainy Day. This color was too dark. Doing it again, I would try different colors in the midrange.

I have also ordered this year's PS santa as well as the sampler Christmas Eve. I'm thinking about doing that one big - using my Country Mocha Tula and Caron Watercolors threads.

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