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| Melissa Shirley's "Scottish Santa" |
I started stitching on Melissa Shirley's "Scottish Santa" at Christmas. I think this series is discontinued but he was fun to work on. Also at Christmas I bought one of Planet Earth's self-finishing ornament holders. Scottish Santa is almost four inches around. The Planet Earth ornaments come in two sizes: one to hold designs three inches in diameter and one that is for ornaments that are four inches in diameter. Both sides are identical except for the dimensions. They are well made of good quality leather. The bow is removable-- if you aren't a bow person just slide it off the loop. Here you can see the colors currently available.
Because Scottish Santa wasn't quite four inches around, I had to add three rows of background all the way around. It pays to copy both the ornament holder and the finished piece and compare them. That's how I knew I needed to add three more rows along the outside edge to make Scottish Santa big enough to fit.
Planet Earth includes a card of instructions with each ornament holder. You can see it in the photo below.
You'll need scissors to cut out your design and to score the waxed paper that covers the sticky middle of the ornament holder so you can peel the paper away from the sticky center. Tweezers come in handy to get all the paper from under the leather lip of the ornament holder. I also use a butter knife to lift the leather edge, then help push the needlepoint under the lip. I also use my fingernail to push the needlepoint down and under but you'll need something flat and blunt like a butter knife.
In the above photo you see my tools and the waxy paper that's been removed plus the bits around the perimeter I need to pull out with the tweezers. You don't have to expose the sticky stuff--you can insert your ornament without sticking it down--but it'll be puffed up a bit and for anything that will be handled a lot you probably need the safety of the glue to hold it in position.
Be careful about beads and sequins. They can't be too close to the edge or you might damage them trying to pry the lip up with your blunt butterknife and shoving the outside edge of the needlepoint under the lip. In the above photo, one sequin is really close to the edge. My background was tent stitches, which are very sturdy. I wouldn't use a tender thread or a stitch easily damaged for the background if you plan to insert the finished piece in a self-finishing item.
I really like how Scottish Santa looks. Kudos to Planet Earth for a nice ornament holder!
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and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright February 11, 2023 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.
