Happy New Year!

Can you believe that we are already half way through January? I sure can't... Life has been so busy (in a very, very, very good way) for the last couple of weeks that I simply didn't have the time to take pictures of my finished Christmas ornaments together on our tree. Luckily our tree is still up, and as today I am taking pictures of some pendants I've been working on, I decided to take the opportunity to shoot those ornies, too.

Wishing you all a year filled with love and joy, with good health and lots of creativity!

Hardanger Ornaments - Readers's Creations

As much as I would have liked to finish Christmas Joy and share it with you before the Holidays, my cold (yes, I am at it again) proved to be stronger than my desire and ability to stitch. Today I managed to do all the baking, so maybe tomorrow I'll give stitching another try. No promises, though...
Until then I am proud to share with you the beautiful ornaments stitched by my dear readers.

Tatiana's work:

Martina's work:

Victoria's work:

I just love seeing all the different interpretations, thank you, ladies!

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Stocking Ornament

After the "summer break" yesterday, I was a very good girl and finished up the Hardanger Stocking Ornament.

There are no red beads on the golden side, because I simply ran out of them... Oh, well, these ornaments were not a planned thing, so I am glad the beads lasted as long as they did. 

My friend said that if she didn't know that I had designed this with red beads, she wouldn't even miss them :)

Christmas Joy is coming soon and I can't wait to put up our Christmas tree already!

Happy creating, Everyone!

Snowflake Ornament

As the majority of the ladies participating in my little game wished, let me introduce to you the finished Snowflake Ornament.

It wasn't the easiest one to make and I sure had my moments of frustration while whip stitching the two sides together, but where would we all be without challenges and in the end I am happy with the result.

So happy, in fact, that I have entered it into a competition for handmade Christmas decorations, reason for which I have made the collage bellow. More about the contest in a later post.

Happy creating, Everyone!

Help Me Out And Win My Heart - Christmas Giveaway

As my "ornament cloth" is getting closer and closer to the moment when it will turn into a butterfly seven Christmas tree ornaments, I found myself wondering which one to finish first... A bell and a heart have already been finished before starting the "cloth", so one of the other three would be more fun to continue with: the snowflake, the stocking or poor little no.4, for which I couldn't come up with a name...

So here's what I thought: why not ask YOU to help me decide and make this a fun Christmas giveaway? Are you in? Great! Let's play!

Which of the three ornaments would you like to see finished first: snowflake, stocking or no.4?
And as I think that no.4 is too pretty to be called a number, what name would you give to this ornie?

Leave a comment to this post answering one or both of the two questions above for one or two chances to win my two sided hardanger heart ornament.

Hurry up and leave your comment until December 10, midnight (CET) and I will draw a name on the 11th, so that I can post the ornament as soon as possible, hoping that it will reach its destination by Christmas, wherever the winner of the giveaway may reside.

Spread the word if you would like, and when you leave your comment make sure it links back to a working email address so I can get back to you.

Thank you for your help and good luck, Everyone!

Christmas Ornaments - Readers' Creations

Creating the Hardanger Christmas Ornament patterns was great fun in itself, but seeing them embroidered by you, dear old and new friends, is such a wonderful feeling, I can't even describe it in words. It feels like we all became part of each other's joyful preparations for Christmas :)

Milena from Italy created this lovely ornament using a simplified version of my snowflake ornament on blue felt:

Rita from Hungary chose to embroider the heart, creating this pretty ornament:

Manka, also from Hungary, finished a complete two sided ornament, using the heart ornament pattern:

Congratulations, ladies, for your beautiful creations and thank you sooo much for sharing these photos with me!

Wishing Everyone a happy weekend,

Progress on Hardanger Christmas Ornaments

My "ornament cloth" is getting busier and busier by the minute and it is looking great, if I may say so myself.

Some of the ornaments are ready for beading, some of them are waiting for the courier to bring some more Kreinik braid, and until he arrives I am stitching the first kloster blocks of the last heart.

Let me say a  big Thank You again for all your kind emails about the patterns, and tutorials! I am so glad that you liked them and found them helpful, and receiving photos of your finished ornaments makes me happy beyond words. I will be sharing some of those photos with all of you during the weekend.

Until then, have fun, Everyone!

All Together - Ornaments in Progress

In an attempt to save my hardanger fabric, I am working on the entire set of Christmas ornaments at the same time, finding a place for all of them and then some, on a strip of fabric that was left from another project.

The snowflake, stocking, no.4 and a smaller heart are already in place, while the heart, bell and maybe even a little angel, are still to be added. Just stopped to work on the Algerian eyelets, to break the monotony a little bit.

It does take longer to finish them this way, but when they are finished...

they are all finished at the same time :)

Wishing Everyone a happy day,

Finishing The Hardanger Ornaments - Part 2

In my previous post I have shown you how I cut out my hardanger ornaments, let's now continue with the lining and sewing the ornament together:

I love using satin to line hardanger pillows and ornaments for the way it shines through and emphasizes the woven parts. And red satin for Christmas tree ornaments is just perfect, don't you think? I also pull the stitches of my Algerian eyelets so tight for the red to shine through those, too.

The two sides of the ornament have been embroidered and cut out. If needed, even washed and ironed, face down, between two white towels.

For the lining I cut two pieces of red satin, two pieces of Vliesofix fusible paperback web and one piece of batting. Well, not exactly batting as you know it: I am using a piece of a white floor cleaning cloth, no laughing, please, it perfectly serves the purpose and it is new, of course.

To make the lining sandwich, I iron the Vliesofix pieces to the backs of the satin pieces, remove the paper backs and then iron the satin pieces to both sides of the "batting".

Then, I make a pattern to cut my lining sandwich into the shape of the hardanger pieces. I put one of them on a piece of paper and with a pencil I make markings through every Algerian eyelet and also trace lightly around the shape. I usually do this with a mechanical pencil to keep the embroidery clean.

 Then, guided by the traced outline and the hole marks, I trace my pattern about 2-3 mm away from the hole marks. For each ornament I leave one set of holes free, with no lining under it, because that will be the hole where the ribbon will go.

I cut out my pattern and place it over the hardanger piece, to make sure that it covers all the Algerian eyelets (except the one left for the ribbon) but it isn't going over the bottom half of the buttonhole stitches, either. If necessary, I adjust the pattern.

Then, using the pattern I cut the lining sandwich into shape,

and check the size again. I place the lining on the back of one of the hardanger pieces, 

and than place the other hardanger piece on top, face up, of course. I make sure that all three layers are in place, hold them together

and whip stitch the hardanger pieces together by going through the corresponding loops of every buttonhole stitch with DMC perlé no.12.

Mission accomplished:

To finish, I pull some red ribbon through the holes I have left without lining, tie a bow and my ornament is ready for Christmas, or any other occasion :)

I really hope that you have enjoyed the Hardanger Christmas Ornaments series and that you have found this tutorial helpful.