Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - December

Welcome to the twelfth and last Ornament of the Month for 2019! I hope you  have enjoyed this year's patterns, even if the construction was a bit of a challenge if you chose to make it with the hole. I'm sorry this is late but I really wanted the ornament to be fully finished and I was so close to making it that I pushed on, then stuff happened and now here it is... a bit more than an hour late but still here on a Friday! This month the theme is snow and ice very fitting colours for people in the northern hemisphere this close to Christmas and hopefully a cooling thought for those who are down south suffering from heat and bush fires (if only I could send you our rain!). If you aren't in an area that's on fire I'm very glad you are not and hope it stays that way!

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - November

Welcome to the eleventh Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is Amethyst, although I know I did an amethyst back in 2015 this one is a very different colour, and especially a different pattern so I decided it would be ok. Just one more pattern left for this year, I wonder if you can guess what it will be?

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - October

Welcome to the slightly late (but still on Friday for me) tenth Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is pumpkin - October really called for a nice orange and the one used in the pattern reminds me the most of pumpkins. Today's post is, as mentioned slightly late. I was trying to get the ornament finish finished before making the post but oldest came home early and wanted to get the apple jam made this evening rather than waiting till tomorrow. Since he rarely wants to do stuff with me I decided not to say no as its good time spent together and it's nice to just chop apples together and talk. We got 3 and 3/4 jars of jam from this batch - and we will be making strawberry apple jam tomorrow!

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - September

Welcome to the ninth Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is Sun - not really a colour but with Autumn on its way in the northern hemisphere, and Spring on the way in the southern hemisphere we all need that last/first bit of sun while it's still nice. Today I stitched for the first time since July 2nd - just backstitch and beading but it was good to do *something* for a change.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - August

Welcome to the eighth Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is Jade - this month's pattern is fairly simple and is a lot of fun to do too! I was not able to add beads or complete it due to the infection in my finger and the antibiotics that I'm still taking (last one on Sunday - yay!) that are making me nauseous. This will of course also affect other SAL's later this month but I hope to catch up before too long as soon as my finger is prepared to do what it's supposed to do: work normally.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - July

Welcome to the seventh Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is ruby - a LOT easier to stitch than last month's colour! It's been pretty hot here lately, so hot that stitching became impossible as I couldn't hold my needle without it slipping between my fingers. I haven't managed to stitch everything I wanted for this month but as I warned previously this might be the case this month anyway due to me taking some time off.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - June

Welcome to the sixth Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is silver - it's a lovely colour for sparkle and gives a subtle stitching pattern on the ornament itself. Making this ornament was a saga in itself as you can read below.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - May

Welcome to the fifth Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is Dragonfly wings! I can hear you wondering why I'd pick this as a colour but I've always loved how iridescent they are and they remind me of fairy wings too. The pattern I designed has lots of delicate backstitch to reflect this.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - April

Welcome to the fourth Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is Chocolate! This month is Easter for those who celebrate it, which is why I chose this month to give the pattern. Chocolate and Christmas just go together in happy harmony.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - March

Welcome to the third Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is gold! Gold isn't a metal everyone likes to wear but almost everyone carries some around with them every day without seeing it! It's used in mobile phones and most of us have at least one in the house, if not more.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - February

Welcome to the second Ornament of the Month for 2019! This month's colour is Sapphire! I love the stone so much - ever since I was little it's been my favourite stone for jewellery - I couldn't resist using this colour early on in the year.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - January

Welcome to the first Ornament of the Month for 2019! This year is going to be fun and will give you the ability to customise your ornament if you choose. As mentioned in the overview post this year the theme is sparkle. I also said that the pattern would be square... with a difference. This month's colour is copper.

Ornament of the Month 2019

I wasn't going to do an overview post for this SAL as it's been ongoing for a while but then I decided it would be a good idea for people new to the SAL to have a place to start if they want to join in, so here it is! When I first started this SAL back in 2015 I wanted to make an ornament a month for an entire year so at the end of it I'd have twelve ornaments for my Christmas tree. I chose birthstones as my theme and then discovered that which stones they are depends on where you live. So instead of just picking one and leaving it at that for every month that had more I made more patterns! In the end I'd made 19 patterns which I tried to stitch twice every month - which I didn't always manage.

Fob a Month - 6

It's a day late but unfortunately I had not finished stitching this in time to take photo's in daylight and I've been rather busy today. This month's Fob a Month was inspired by the sewing box my bf gave me last month while we were on holiday together.

It's a handy little box that can carry all I need and fits into my travel bag as well as my handbag. As it has no accessories I decided to make them myself to make the box just that bit more functional for how I would like to use it. Of course I started with the fob and decided to share that this month as part of my Fob a Month project. I also designed a pincushion and a scissor case for the scissors. I haven't yet decided how to deal with the ORTS but I'm sure that once I have the other pieces made that will become clear.

What isn't so clear in the photo's is that the green fabric has white polka dots on it and that's where my pattern inspiration came from. The fob is double sided with one side having the inverse colours to the other.

I will be sharing the patterns I have already designed with you as soon as I have completed stitching them. If you wish to make the fob, pincushion and scissor case as a matching set you will need a piece of 18ct Aida or 32ct linen of  at least 10" x 15" or 7,5" x 20" - you need to start pretty close to the edge to make sure you have enough fabric left for the rest. You need a 1/4" seam allowance for each piece so the sections must be stitched at least 1/2" away from each other using the back stitch lines as the counting point.

The fob is 1 7/8" square. 34 stitches square.

What you need to make the example above:

• 1 piece of  3 1/2"x 7" 18ct Aida or 32ct linen if you are ONLY stitching the fob - otherwise see above for the amount needed.
• DMC 3347 and 3348
• Your stuffing of choice
• DMC 3347 for the cord and tassel
• Green seed beads
• 2 small crystal bicones

You can download the pdf pattern here: Fob a Month - 6

Instructions: Fold the fabric in half before starting - on each half you will stitch either the back or the front at least 1/4" away from the centre line so you have 1/4" seam allowance for each side. Once the cross stitching is done do the back stitch outlines.

Press the completed stitching from the back to make sure there are no creases. Then cut the pieces out 1/4" away from the back stitch lines.

Place the 2 pieces wrong sides together and fold the seam lines between the layers and whip stitch the 2 sides together only going through the back stitch lines, the same as you would for a biscornu, adding a green bead every other stitch, remembering to add the cord and tassel at opposite corners. (Believe me if you do forget things either get pretty complicated or you end up ripping out a whole load of stitches)

When you are about 1" away from the starting point take a moment to add some stuffing, you want it plump but not too plump. Then finish sewing the last bit of seam.

Last of all sew the 2 beads in the centre of each side using a single thread to stitch them in place by going through each side's bead, then through to the other side and repeating that 2 or 3 times for each bead.

I hope you enjoy this pattern, please do share a link to yours if you make it!