Here I am, publicly talking about cross stitch again, which I think means my crafting shame has decreased a bit. I’ve been eyeing some of the cross stitch Christmas ornament kits that are around for awhile now. Cross stitched ornaments appeal to me because they have a purpose, and because I have fewer aesthetic objections when it comes to Christmas decorations. Frankly, I much prefer an anything-goes Christmas decor to a more sanitized, monochrome Martha Stewart approach. At Christmas time, I embrace a whole host of things that I otherwise dislike, including Frank Sinatra, claymation, and glitter. One of my life goals is to own a miniature Christmas village, complete with little figurines ice skating on a frozen pond made of cellophane. I’ve even found myself wishing I had a really good Christmas sweater.
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I’m coveting this mini village. Photo by Rept0n1x, via Wikimedia.
Anyway, as I was contemplating the purchase of an ornament kit, I rediscovered a set of small cross stitch kits I’ve had sitting around in a drawer for awhile. These are the kinds of cross stitch kits you can buy at places like Michaels or JoAnns for a couple of dollars. Aidan bought me the sock monkey kit last year (you can get the same one here), and I think I picked up the tree and Santa kits for $.99 at JoAnns a couple of years ago (they’re also available online). I’ve always been confused about what to do with these little 2” designs—how many of these little things do you need hanging on your wall? But then I saw someone who was stringing ribbon through the tab on the plastic frame and hanging them as Christmas ornaments, and I realized I was being obtuse. So it goes.
So I stitched these up and got them ready to hang on the tree. I just popped the Christmas tree and the sock monkey into the plastic frames they came in and put a ring of hot glue around the back to secure them. The Santa ended up not fitting in the frame he came with because of where I backstitched the year, so I used a little 3.5” embroidery hoop I had sitting around to frame him. After the design was secure in the hoop, I trimmed off most of the excess fabric, used a hot glue gun to glue the remaining fabric to the hoop, and then glued a piece of white felt to the back of the hoop to hide the back of the cross stitch.
The Santa was totally worth the five minutes of extra work because he’s my favorite. Why is he hugging a Christmas tree? I have no idea, but I want to kiss his little cheeks.
Sweet Alchemy 