beach tote Christmas ornament

Diane Dwyer of Canvas Connection has a series of beach tote canvases to be made into Christmas ornaments. I decided to do the one with a palm tree for its appropriateness for Florida.

I did the background in my "go-to" stitch, the mosaic, in silk 'n ivory. I did the remaining stitching in Neon Rays Plus. The straps are done in the fern stitch. I had to look in 2 stitch books to find the name of the fern
stitch--I do a stitch from memory and then for this blog have to scramble to find its name!

The fronds and trunk of the palm tree are the long/short split stitch. It is a wonderful stitch for flower petals, animal fur, and Santa's beard. I enjoy introducing the long/short split stitch to people. Too often, they want stitches to be regular. The long/short split stitch soon ends that thinking!!

The bottom of the tote bag is done in the t-stitch (also called the woven stitch), a marvelous stitch to cover territory with texture without needing dense coverage.

My ornament finisher backed the ornament in ecru ultrasuede with an oval bottom and ribbons for the straps. She also attached the two small metal "findings" that came with the canvas.