Stitching The Magic And Sparkle

My Advent Picture was finally finished on the evening of Boxing Day. I am thrilled with it!

It is 40cm [16"] square and includes

• 16 animals
• 17 trees/branches/bushes
• 3 cottages
• 15 lanterns
• 38 little berries
• a drum and a cello
• a magic wand, fairy wings and crown

Yes, it was a lot of stitching! I stuck very carefully to the instructions and everything fitted into place.

I did cheat lightly - I discovered my hole punch would produce accurate perfect little red circles - just slightly smaller than the template in the book. But I knew I could not cut out 38 by hand so neatly!

The photograph does not show the silver stitching very clearly - you can see the tinsel on the largest tree, and the silver thread holding Christmas Fairy Mouse to the overhead lantern string. But each lantern has a silvery filament The owl King, the goose, the fox and the squirrel have silvery decorations, and every lantern has a silver filament. The three bizarre hedgehogs on the yule log have silvery prickles. There are silver stars inthe sky, and dots of fairy dust under the wand. And silvery lines across the moon and the snowdrifts.

It was indeed a labour of love. 

I took the advice about cutting shapes carefully and not wasting felt [to ensure you had enough for every motif] in fact I would say that I was so parsimonious that I have 50% of the felt left over, as well as plenty of thread. No, I am not going to make a second picture!

The book suggests turning the piece a wall hanging or cushion cover. In order to preserve it from dust, or rough handling, I plan to put it in a frame.I may embroider my initials and the date before i do [perhaps bottom right, under the somnolent badger?] Liz is happy with it too - it was such a generous gift, I would never have bought it for myself.

Final comments - if you are thinking of buying one, do be aware that there is a lot of work involved. "Allow 30-60 minutes stitching per day" is a very fair estimate. I am an experienced, relatively competent embroiderer, and I had to unpick two pieces and redo them. 

I found the silver thread quite difficult to work with, it was twisty and difficult to manage, but everything else worked fine.

There was plenty of felt and threads - a friend at church has been doing a sampler kit from somewhere else, and has borrowed from my Stash as there was not enough yarn in some shades for her to complete. This kit has generous resources included, the felt was good quality and pleasant to work with, and the threads were pukka DMC yarns. 

So yes, you do get your money's worth. My thanks again to Liz - this was a 2022 Christmas gift which continues to bring delight. Once it is framed, I can imagine bringing it out year on year and talking with the children about the different animals.