Do you love Shiny Christmas Ornaments?

Me too!

I could look at my grandmothers Christmas tree for a very long time. Hunting and hunting for all of the shiny brite ornaments I could find. Beautiful, vibrant colors. Amazing shapes. Sparkly texture. Beautiful and fragile.

I have a few of those ornaments, still. As I rearranged some things last winter I came across them and decided to leave them out for a while. Then they ended up on my design table....if you are creative, you know what happened next.

They never knew what hit them. I sat there just looking at them and sketching....then some watercolor... Now how do I get that sparkly texture? Before long the sketch was transferred to my computer drawing program. From there it turned into an embroidery design. I have resisted putting my embroidery into hoops. Not a snooty response, just one knowing that a lot of time and effort goes into each piece and I would hate for it not to last like heirlooms of the past.

I've designed my hoops a little differently so that they last and become future heirlooms. You may ask, "well how did you do that?" ....shhhhhh

VIDEO! Embroidery 101 - Straight or Running Stitch

The first video is done! For such a short video there were a lot of takes!

This first lesson will be easy peasy....you will be covering everything with straight stitches in a matter of moments.

The straight stitches that I have shown you are even and evenly spaced. For another interesting look you may want to vary the stitch length or spacing.

I am working my stitches on yellow felt with black thread so that you can easily see the method. If you are using a less stable fabric to handle you will want to hoop the fabric to keep it taunt. The picture here shows you a couple of styles of hoops. I prefer the metal, with spring and cork, since it holds that fabric securely. However, this is a vintage type hoop and is not readily available at craft store. But, if you stop by any Goodwill you may be able to find these.

In the next lesson I'm going to talk about embroidery thread. In this example I am using a DMC 6 ply thread that I have divided into three strands so that you can easily see the stitching. Depending on the detail that I want I may only use one strand for a delicate look, or all six strands for a more pronounced look.

Let's get started!