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.