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Friday, December 9, 2011

On The 9th Day of Christmas...

Good morning everyone!   

As always, before we give you the post for the day, the winner of yesterday's Joyous Home Journal is ~ Krista!  Congratulations! 


Email us at ripe4harvest@msn.com so we can get the Christmas Journal to you!

Fleecy Tea Time Ornaments 
 I love making ornaments out of fleece... they have such a fuzzy, homey look to them.  Not to mention how simple they are to make and they always come out so pretty!  This is a good ornament for your girls who are beginners with embroidery.  You can embellish the ornaments with very basic embroidery stitches or just cut out the shapes and then blanket stitch two layers together all around the edges.
 
I chose to do a very simple Poinsettia flower design with Lazy Daisies and Colonial Knots.  I'm not sure how close I came to a Poinsettia flower, but you can call them Christmas Flowers if you like!  

First, you need a shape for the teapot template.  You can use a variety of things for this.  If you are artistic, you can draw one, but other options include:  Tracing a tea pot shape from a book, a free one from the internet, a free coloring page on the internet, and cookie cutters are wonderful for ornament shapes!  
Let's start with cutting out the fabric.  You do not need a lot of fleece for these!  You need two layers for each ornament.

1.  Trace your template design on plain white copy paper and cut out.  Pin the template on to your fleece (another wonderful thing about fleece is it looks the same on both sides!) and cut it out with a small, sharp pair of scissors.  I have found that our embroidery scissors are wonderful for cutting these out! 



To cut out both layers so they are identical, lay the first fleece cut out on top of another layer of  fleece,  pin and then cut it out. 

Ready for embroidery!  
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You only need to embroider one side of the ornament, but there is no rule saying that you can't do both sides if you like.  I used a size 5 embroidery needle and DMC embroidery floss.  Thread your needle with two strands of the thread and knot the end. 


As I said before, I used a basic Lazy Daisy stitch and the Colonial Knot.  Let's start with the Colonial Knot!  
This is the best knot you could ever learn how to do.  The first time I did this knot was the last time I ever even thought about using a French Knot.  French Knots can be difficult to get right and are quick to come undone; this is very simple and comes out just about perfect every time!  Practice on scrap fabric though before you begin on your ornament if you need to.
 1.  Come up from the back of the fabric to the front.  Wrap the thread around the needle as shown:  From the left over the needle to the right and then underneath the needle back to the left again.  


2.  Now from the left again, wrap the thread over the needle to the right and hold it there.  


3.  Insert the needle close to where you came up and begin pulling the thread snug to the needle.


4.  Keep pulling until snug to the needle, but not so tight you can't pull the needle through.


5.  Pull the needle all the way through and watch the loop close down snugly to form your knot!


Finished!


I covered the whole top of my ornament with knots, but you can do as many or as few as you like!


Now on to the flowers with the Lazy Daisy!  This is usually one of the first embroidery stitches you will learn if you are a beginner and I'm sure a lot of you already know how to do this one.  
1.  Come up from the back of the fleece to the front.  Insert the needle again close to where you came up and run the needle under the fabric and bring back up a short distance from where you inserted it (however long you want the stitch, or in this case, petal to be).  Loop the thread around the needle as shown.


Pull through until a loop is formed, but don't pull too tight.  Insert the needle at the front of the loop and pull through. 

Bring the needle back up near the center of the flower and repeat the steps to from another petal.


Stitch five petals and finish the flower with 3-4 Colonial Knots in the center.


Stitch three flowers, or more if you like!  

With green thread, come up close to each flower and use the Lazy Daisy stitch to add leaves all around the flowers.

Tie off all of the your threads neatly in the back.  Now, put the two fleece layers together.  You are ready to Blanket stitch them together!


1.  Thread and knot the needle the as you did before.  Bring the needle up at the edge between the two layers (this will hide the knot).
 

2.  Insert the needle to the right of where you brought it up as about 1/4" away from the edge and the thread looped around the needle as shown.


3.  Pull through until snug but not too tight.


Insert the needle again to the right of the previous stitch and repeat all the way around the ornament.


 When you run out of thread, just take the needle down between the layers, but not all the way through.  This will keep your knots hidden and not hanging out on the back.  Start again the same way you first began.  Go all the way around and don't forget to stitch the inside of the handle.   


To thread the top of the ornament with ribbon, you need a size 18 or 20 Chenille needle.  Thread the needle with a few inches of silk ribbon (or a sheer Organza) ribbon and run it through the top of the ornament and pull through.  Tie the ribbon into a bow, and hang on your tree!  Quite lovely...


Have a blessed Friday! 
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Joyous Home Journal Giveaway Details!


 For the remaining posts of this event, everyday we are going to be giving away the Christmas 2011 Joyous Home Journal!  On the last day we will have an extra gift to give along with the journal!

We are keeping the daily giveaway as simple as possible. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment to that day's blog post and say that you want to be entered in the giveaway - one comment equals one entry. You can earn one additional entry by posting about the daily 12 Days of Christmas blog post on your blog, Facebook (add us, Theresa Powers or Jessica Munday, as friends on Facebook for verification) or twitter. Each day we will draw a winner and announce the winner the following day before the next daily post!

23 comments:

Danielle said...

Great idea!

Laura said...

Love this idea! We've been looking for ornaments ideas this year and my girls have just started learning to embroidery. Thanks!!

We are also enjoying the Christmas Journal!! Thank you

aklongs said...

Love the ornament! Please enter me in your giveaway. Thank you.

Rebecca Knox said...

What a lovely ornament! Am bookmarking this one for next year! Thank you!

Lilyofthevalley - Tanya said...

Sweet! :)

Joy said...

I'd love to be entered! Thank you!

Marci Kay said...

Thanks for another cute project!
Please enter me for the giveaway.
Thanks and have a great day!
Marci Kay

Kari said...

Thank you so much for the lovely idea & the thorough tutorial on some embroidery stitches. I have embroidery on the agenda for my 12 yo daughter this winter, but the idea is a little daunting since it's been, like, 100 years since I've embroidered! Also, thank you again for the wonderful giveaway you're offering.

Unpolished Patriot said...

Hey, looks like a lot of fun! I am thinking of enlarging this idea for a hot pad type thing too!

Please enter me into the drawing :)

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Another great project idea. Thanks for sharing these. :-)

SSparks said...

Cute idea! Thanks! Please enter me in today's drawing.

Stephanie

Gary Phelps said...

Please enter me and ... PICK ME PICK ME..yes it's pick me again! I have a neighbor who is a sister in Christ and right now she is sending her 7 children here because she is brining number 8 blessing very soon..so we might just make this a mamma gift for being such an awesome mamma!

Jessie said...

Would like to be entered into the contest! Am enjoying the different ideas you ladies are bringing forward every day!

Unknown said...

What a cute ornament, my girls would love to make these!

Danielle Hull said...

We'd love to win a copy at our house! Thanks and blessings!

LisaFL said...

I love tea, so this will make a great addition to the tree! Thanks again. Please enter me in the contest.

Shannon Wallace said...

Very cute! Thank you for the very thorough step-by-step instructions! I would have had no clue where to begin, but I think I might just be able to do it now. :)

Jeanette said...

I love felt ornaments....this one is too cute!

Nicole said...

How cute! Are these directions available as a PDF file? I will keep looking for that.

Please enter me in your giveaway. :-)

Unknown said...

No PDFs on the projects, just the posts. Enjoy!

Rice said...

What a cute ornament - would go great with a gift of tea and a cup or a tea cozy. . .
Please enter me!

Linda said...

Love this ornament. Every year in August my friend's church holds a tea oarty as a fund raiser. This would make a great favor and they have plenty of time for next year's party to make them. As a favor a slit could be cut in the back since fabric does not fray and put in a tea bag. Please enter me in giveaway.

Unknown said...

@Linda That's a wonderful idea! Thank you for sharing!

This giveaway is no longer current, but if you would like to enter today's giveaway go to this post - http://www.joyousnotions.com/2013/12/the-five-days-of-christmas-day-two.html

~ Jessica

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