The December Sewing Room

Second Post of the Day

My sewing room in December looks very different than it does the other months of the year. As soon as Thanksgiving is over, the 18th century patterns are tucked away, out comes the embroidery machine, and I begin making Christmas gifts.

 This is a difficult pattern, but one of my favorites. 

Here is a sample piece from when I was learning to make it and experimenting with colors.

Doesn't it look a lot like Hagen Renaker's mini Clydesdale Stallion? (Photo from Google Images - I can't find the pics of my own!)

With 40,000 stitches and 22 color changes, the Clydesdale pattern is labor intensive.

I've been asked if I would sell these aprons, but the rule of thumb for selling your embroidery is to charge $1 per 1,000 stitches, and I'm not sure people would pay that much. So, I just make this design for gifts.

And, for me! Although my visiting family has been known to borrow it. Haha!

Another thing I'm embroidering this Christmas are these bell ornaments. Bells are one of my favorite holiday symbols.

This embroidery technique is called free standing lace. Those heavy outlines are very, very closely spaced stitches and as a result, the stitch count is high for these, too. (20,000 each.) But, there are no color changes so they are easier to make than the Clydesdale.

I make them two at a time and have sixteen made thus far. I'll free them from their backing, press them, and then add ribbon hangers. 

When you know you are going to do a large project with a color, you don't buy a spool of thread, you buy a large cone of it. There are 5,000 meters (5,468 yards) of thread on that new cone. That's three miles of embroidery thread!

Today's project is to start work on a Christmas tea towel for Belle using the Clydesdale pattern. In between color changes, I will press the lace ornaments and add their ribbons.

I may run some errands, too. We have another winter storm coming in tonight and then again on Saturday. Temps are in the 40s so things have melted enough for me to be able to get outside and use my walker without too much trouble.

Busy day ahead! 

The Other Ornaments

 Second post of the day and a non horsey one, too.

For those who were interested in the ornaments I have been making my kiddos and their children. I have made others for Christmas Day that are not posted here but I don't want to show them as several of my children read this blog.

Denver Daughter Sarah's family.

Mountain Mama Jessica's.

Beach Son Kyle and his crew.

Teacher Daughter Lisa - this doesn't show the two unicorns and Baby Yoda that I made for her boyfriend and his daughters.

Local Son Curt got a Baby Yoda for all the guys in the family, and then for Vanessa and Pony Pal Mila, I took my pattern for a gingerbread horse ornament and turned it into unicorns.

Music City Son Cole's family are real outdoor and animal lovers. 

After doing the felts, I moved on to free standing lace. 

Teacher Daughter Lisa's class read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol together and then had a Victorian Era Christmas party (her principal played the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge.) I made each of her students and "Mr. Scrooge"  lace Christmas tree ornaments.

For my two blind friends, I always try to give them tactile gifts. I made several of this snowflake for them.

This bell is pretty in colors.

Or all in white. I haven't put a ribbon on it yet - I think I will use a sparkly silver or gold ribbon. It's for a friend who is battling brain cancer and she got some really good news this week. Since historically bells have been used to share good news, I made her a bell.

I don't visualize how colors will look together very well (a real drawback when I participate in NaMoPaiMo) so it helps me to experiment.

All in all, I have made over 150 ornaments. I think I am done, but then I thought that a couple of days ago and ended up making two more since then!