Sunday 29 October 2017

Zodiac SAL

The month is almost over, but finally I get to present you my first editin of Jo's new Zodiac SAL! I apologize for taking so long, but first I had no idea what to do, then I had one idea, then I had another idea, then the first idea exploded (in the sense that it became more and more elaborate!) and then I still had to stitch all of it. And life (or rather, work) has been really busy those past few weeks, which is also why I haven't posted anything else in a while...you get the drift, but here I am.

My first idea - you know, the one that blew up - was to finally finish-finish the birthstone ornaments my friend Magical designed and that I stitched up over the last two years or so. At first, I wanted to just put a pretty fabric on the back, maybe doing flat ornaments or something - but it just didn't look right, the fabric was too stiff, and then I really liked the garland finish Magical had done with hers...so back to the drawing board I went, and then I came finally up with an idea what I could put on the back for a regular pillow-ornament finish. And then I thought I could stitch up the missing ornaments as well - there are some months with more than one birth stone and I only stitched on ornament for each month so far.

So for October, I stitched the back for the 'Pink Tourmaline' ornament, and then also the front and back of the 'Opal' ornament, and I finished both of them using beads from my stash and a braid of the three DMC colours used in each ornament, doing a short and a long loop so I can use them both in a garland or on their own:







My second idea also bases on Magical's patterns - what can I say, I do love her work! You might already know that my friend Ashley made a series of patterns based on Hannah Alexaner's Mucha Disney Princesses, and Magical made a series of fob or ornament patterns, going with the colour theme and style of each princess, to help her promote pattern sales. I had that vague idea of mapping the princesses to the zodiac signs, so I asked a freiend of mine who knows both her disney and her zodiac, and together we came to a mapping we both agreed with. For Libra, we chose Jasmine - I think she's even one of the few princesses that has an official birthdate - and I think she really fits nicely. Her ornament was a super pretty oriental star - I stitched the front with a lot of beads and kreinik, and then I did the backstitch again for the back because it was sooo pretty and I wanted to feature it a bit more, and then I nearly knotted my fingers doing a slightly shapped ornament, and my first ever selfmade cording. I only stuffed it a little bit because I did not want to disort the shape too much, but it's still a bit big and arkward as a fob, so I'll just use it as an ornament.






You know I don't usually do a lot of smalls, and even less finish-finishing, so working on these was very interesting and also a lot of fun this month, and I am quite proud of myself! I already started on the ornaments for November, so hopefully I won't be as late as this month.



9 comments:

Pamela said...

These are stunning. Well done!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Thank you for taking part in the Zodiac SAL, I love the idea of the Disney Princesses having a star sign, so clever! I look forward to seeing which Princess goes with which sign.
Have you got a link to Magical's ornie patterns?

Suz said...

Very nice finishing!

Mii Stitch said...

Great small finishes :)

Bethan said...

Such beautiful small finishes! I love Disney, so can't wait to see your SAL progress x

Tiffstitch said...

Beautiful work on everything!

Brigitte said...

Wow, diese kleinen Hänger sind dir wirklich gelungen. Und die Idee, sie für den Zodiac SAL zu nehmen ist großartig.

Magical Mystery said...

You did such an amazing job with the ornaments! The loop idea is incredibly inventive :D They are stunning :D

Magical Mystery said...

You can find the ornament patterns here: https://sites.google.com/site/nccinternationalheadquarters/ornament-of-the-month---sal