2012 limited edition ornament

Every summer Needle Nicely issues a limited edition Christmas ornament kit.  The cylindrical ornament by Ruth Schmuff that I stitched several weeks ago gave me this year's idea.  I had Trubey design a cylindrical snowflake ornament.  Since many of my customers don't like exposed canvas, I'm stitching the background in basketweave using a medium green Medici yarn from the shop's stash.  While I sold most of the small skeins of medici on ebay, I kept the hanks.  I like the khaki medici for belt backgrounds and I still have some of that tucked away for customers.

 

Trubey painted the snowflakes in a pale lavendar that I could cover with whatever color I wanted.  I decided to use the new Kreinik  holographic metallic 002L. 

As I've mentioned before, I prefer to do the background first of a design like this (or a saying) so that then I can hopscotch around doing the design.  I don't have to worry about pulling my gold through when I'm stitching my green by doing my gold last.  Of course, after I started with my green, I realized my home light isn't good enough for me to see the pale lavendar.  I've been taking the canvas to the shop to stitch the gold.
One thing I've noticed about the gold holographic--it ravels quite a bit.  I wait until about an inch and a half have unraveled and then I tie a knot in the loose strands.  A tight knot barely pops when you pull it through the canvas.  That keeps it from raveling (unraveling--makes me think of George Carlin's flammable/inflammable bit).  You could also use clear nail polish or Fray-check.

This has provided a nice change of pace.  As you can see, I've been stitching it "in my hand".  That makes it go much faster, but also causes it to be slightly askew.  

I hope Michael's or Joanne's has a good coupon in tomorrow's paper--I need to buy 50 tassels for these kits and one tassel for Ruth's ornament.  I forgot all about them when the last coupons came out (Duh!). 

Edit:  Had to come back to correct the spelling of Ruth Schmuff's last name.  Glad I caught it.