Ornament of the Month - May

This month things are a bit hectic so I decided not to wait till I'd done the garland ornament before posting about it, but to do it straight away. May's birthstone of the month is Emerald - a lovely colour to use and very easy to find the right colours for! I was inspired this month by the "gingerbread" trimmings that Victorian houses have along the roof lines - it's so pretty and always reminds me of Christmas. I decided to add this to the border of the ornament to mimic that feel. I was going to do 4 Christmas trees in the middle but it ended up looking more like a flower - I found I loved the way this looked though, so I decided to keep it. The backstitching is meant to represent the very fragile wispy leaf fronds some flowers have.


I had to order some seed beads for this as I wasn't entirely happy with the many greens I already had, they just didn't have the exact shade of emerald I was looking for, most were just too dark.

I have learned my lesson (for now) with all the backstitching last month so this month has a lot less, the backstitching fans amongst you won't be so happy but people (like me hehe) that don't like it so much will breathe a sigh of relief!

Both designs are stitched on 16ct antique white Aida with 3 colours of DMC - pattern can be found here: Ornament of the Month - May - The hanging loops are made with craft thread. The beads along the edges are size 11 TOHO Silver lined Green Emerald (TR-11-36) seed beads that I loved using as they can be stitched with a size 28 tapestry needle.

I shall post the garland finish as soon as I have completed it.