Christmas Decorations - In progress

I know it is really early for Christmas stuff, but the amount of these I have to make before then means I have had to start early!!



The pattern comes from "CrossStitcher" (Christmas issue, September 2011). These are the two patterns given for these Christmas decorations, done on 28count evenweave. This is my first ever go at using evenweave, and it definitely takes some getting used to!! It took a while to get used to the idea that two squares on evenweave work as one square when cross-stitching! My mum still doesn't understand how I can see what I'm doing.

These decorations are inspired by traditional Nordic decorations, and I love the combination of the thick cross-stitches and the thin backstitches. To make the stitched evenweave into a decoration, they are backed with fabric (I've used red to go with the stitches, but I've got green thread and fabric on standby once I run out!) and then stuffed with padding and given a ribbon loop to hang them on the Christmas tree. My first attempt turned out like this...



It came out quite well for a first attempt. I'm a bit annoyed that it didn't come out as a proper circle, but I'll just tell people I'm going for that rustic look! :D :D Hopefully, the more I do, the better I'll get. Once I've done some more, I'll post an update with some more pictures of how they turned out. Fingers crossed they go ok!!