Showing posts with label santa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label santa. Show all posts

Sunday, January 11, 2026

Ho Ho Ho (Toni Gerdes) UPDATED

Brenda's Needlepoint Studio jut finished "Ho Ho Ho," a fun project from Toni Gerdes did with the Shining Needle Society.

You can get the stitchable buttons from Toni herself.

UPDATE:  The Sun City Stitcher is also working on Ho Ho Ho.


Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright November 11, 2025 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Monday, December 15, 2025

Christmas with Santa Balloon (Janet Zigler Casey)

Brenda is working on another Janet Zigler Casey Santa Claus.   This is called "Santa Balloon."

Santa himself is stitched.

And the beaded basket is made and attached.  Fun!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright September 27, 2025 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Monday, November 17, 2025

Santa's Pup (Fall Mystery at Bedecked and Beadazzled)

Dog and Christmas lovers will swoon over the newest mystery class at Bedecked and Beadazzled--Margaret King's "Santa's Pup."

As Ruth works her magic in her mystery class and posts updates, I'll add them to this so you can see all the fun in one place.  Merry Christmas, doggie!

Here is Ruth's first lesson.  The dog and the border are involved.

The puppy has a magnificent bow!  And the background dots sparkle.

The final touch is something I've never seen before.  That's what Ruth provides--the unexpected!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright October 13, 2025 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Friday, October 17, 2025

Santa's Beard in Twisted Lazy Daisy Stitches

Melissa at The Wool and The Floss demonstrates creating Santa's beard and eyebrows with twisted lazy daisy stitches.  

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright August 7, 2025 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Background versus Foreground

Suzanne of Hugs and Stitches tackles a fun Raymond Crawford Santa and comes up with a clever way to differentiate Santa's hat from the background.

It turned out great, Suzanne!  You really made the hat prominent, even though it's the same colors as the background.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright March 22, 2022 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Sunday, September 19, 2021

Making Santa's New Ride Dimensional

NeedlePaint.com has two new Santa designs, both dimensional.  One is a blue station wagon, the other is a red truck.  Peggy explains how the station wagon was stitched and shows how she finishes these items (NeedlePaint sells printed designs, kits and does finishing) which is quite interesting.  

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright August 19, 2021 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Friday, April 16, 2021

NeedlePaint's Masked Santa, with Free Stitch Guide

NeedlePaint.com has a new employee, Caroline, who introduces herself a bit in this fun blog posting.  

Caroline has done a free stitch guide for the company's masked Santa.  Isn't it cute?!

You can order the canvas from them if you are interested.  Santa is printed, not hand painted, just so you know.   People say that the NeedlePaint canvases are very well done.  You shouldn't have too much trouble knowing what color goes where on this.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright March 22, 2021 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Woodstock for Christmas Santa Hat

Background Done!


I finished the background for my Woodstock Christmas ornament! Hurrah! I like how it looks in the dark Christmas green.  Of course I may have to adjust the shade of brown I choose for the guitar but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, right?

Speaking of getting to it, now that the background is finished, I need to decide what to do next.  I'm pretty sure I want to bead the ornament hanging from the guitar, so that needs to be last.  I find it easier to wait until everything else is done to add beads because threads catch on them.  Since that's going to be last, I think it makes sense to work the remaining parts of the ornament from the top down.  That will keep my hands off areas I've stitched.  Well, except for the background, of course.  I will be careful, however.

That means I will do the Santa's cap next.  I think it makes sense to do the fur on the cap first, then the red part of the Santa hat.  With that decided, I turned the canvas upside down to reach the area easily and worked the white fur with Planet Earth Wool in French knots.  I'd not used this wool before and it is quite nice.  It's a soft thread that is 90% merino wool mixed with 10% nylon, with a light twist, making it a bit thicker than Caron's Impressions.  Once I'd finished the trim around the face and the ball on the end of the cap, I used regular red Very Velvet and a size 18 needle to do long slanting stitches \ \ \ to create the rest of the headgear.


The Bird has A Cap!

The next area I'll work will be the bird itself as I work my way down toward the bottom of the canvas.  Stay tuned!

I am adding each week's progress report to a tab on the Chilly Hollow Stitch Guides blog.  If you want to catch up on what you missed or just re-read everything, it's all there.  Click on the Magic Carpet photo on the right side of this blog and you'll go straight there.  Click on the Magic Carpet photo there to return to Blog's home page.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 11, 2019 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Monday, January 29, 2018

Secret Santa Visits Enriched Stitch

You'll love seeing the ornament exchange pieces that Enriched Stitch's staff gave each other.  Each is cuter than the next and all were chosen with the recipient's interests in mind.
http://astheneedleturns.com/secret-santa-stitching/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright January 4, 2018 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Pepperpot Skin Again

Seeing Stars Santa with Pepperpot Face

Last November I showed off my new set of Pepperpot Silk skeins in various skin tones.
http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2015/11/pepperpot-skins.html

I finally got around to stitching a face with it.  Above is Leigh Design's Seeing Stars Santa from her Seashore Santa series.  As you can see, my tent stitches aren't totally even in this extreme closeup but if your stitch tension is tighter than mine and you really like Pepperpot Silk, the colors are lovely and good matches to certain skin tones.  I normally use 2 plies of silk floss for faces so I am not used to pulling threads tight as you can see.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp835x.html

I used Pepperpot's "Baked Alaska" for Santa's skin and "Cotton Candy" for his pink cheeks.  Cotton Candy isn't one of the skin tone set; Baked Alaska is.  Pepperpot Silks come in a huge range of tans so I think you could pick darker shades for the person you are stitching if they are not particularly fair.
http://www.planetearthfiber.com/index.php/needlepoint-fiber/pepper-pot-silk

This is a thread well worth adding to your stash.  I like my Santa's face and will use this again the next time I stitch a person.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright April 26, 2016 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

A Beard for Christmas

This time of the year all the great holiday ornaments folks have displayed will tempt us to purchase a Santa canvas to stitch for the 2016 holidays.  Then we are faced with the task of coming up with a great beard stitch. One of the beard masters is Janet Zigler Casey, who teaches a very popular line of holiday ornaments.  I thought you'd like to see all her beards.  Click on each thumbnail portrait to get a better look.
http://www.jzcdesigns.com/christmas.htm

If you stitch a lot of Santa Clauses and don't already own Diana Bosworth's little booklet Beards I Have Known, put it on your Christmas wish list.  It is full of great ideas for stitches and threads to make fabulous beards.
http://www.nimbleneedlenj.com/product/needlepoint-stitch-reference-book-beards-that-i-have-known-by-diana-bosworth/

Diana herself is another beard expert.  Check out the Petei Santas at the French Knot in Texas, most of which Diana stitched!
http://www.thefrenchknot.com/x-petei.htm

Merry Christmas, Santa!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright December 7, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

The Kirk and Bradley Kits from Needlepoint.com

The two retreat kits that Needlepoint.com will offer at their early October 2015 retreat will be available to purchase after the retreat is over.  Both are by Kirk and Bradley and currently exclusives to the shop.  You can see the Christmas set and learn a bit about it in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxF2cHW6RTs&feature=player_embedded

The Haunted House with its Advent Calendar-style windows comes with lots of smaller canvases to pick and choose from.  You can see it in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBLBprjekfE

You can see more photos of the two sets and learn about the retreat on Needlepoint.com's website.
http://www.needlepoint.com

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright August 26, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Pat and Leigh Do Christmas

Pat at the Needleart Nut blog stitched two Christmas rounds recently, one a pair of Rebecca Wood snowmen and one a Melissa Shirley portrait of Santa. She sent them off to Leigh Schafer for finishing and just got them back. They are darling! 
 http://needleartnut.blogspot.com/2015/08/back-from-finisher.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright August 14, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Peg's Santa Had Dandruff

Melita is stitching Peg Dunayer's Triangle Santa Ornament from the November-December 2007 Needlepoint Now magazine as a stash buster project.  She's run into a thread coverage problem but solved it very cleverly.
http://melitastitches4fun.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/triangle-santa-ornament-by-peg-dunayer/

Peg's website is currently down as Peg moves it to a new home, but keep checking back for more delights from her clever mind.  It's definitely worth a visit!
http://www.pegdunayer.com

Sadly, the issue of NP Now that Peg's clever Santa instructions are in is no longer available for purchase from the magazine, but there's always eBay!
http://www.needlepointnow.com/back-issues/2007-issues/nov-dec-2007/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright July 12, 2014 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

And the Award for Best New Stitcher Goes To....

The Award For Best New Stitcher goes this week to Suzanne's daughter. Wait'll you see her first piece of needlepoint!   Suzanne, you two are an inspiration to the rest of us.  So let's all go teach someone, ok?
http://suzannehicks.blogspot.com/2014/07/whats-santa-got-cookin.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright July 6, 2014 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Friday, February 28, 2014

Finishing Friday: Santas and Cats

Ridgewood's customers have been on a Santa stitching spree!  I particularly like the beard and other details on the golden double-sided Santa, but they are all very nice indeed.
http://ridgewoodneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2014/02/blog-post_15.html

Check out this custom cat design form NeedlePaint!  (The coat of arms is very classy but that cat is amazing!)
http://www.needlepaint.com/blog/2014/02/18/fantastic-finished-needlepoint-projects-coat-of-arms-and-a-cat/

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright February 15, 2014 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Brenda Stofft Store Exclusive

Hingham Square Needlepoint worked with Brenda Stofft on this custom Christmas tree skirt, posted on the shop's Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=423718274428519&set=gm.606934872717008&type=1&theater

They talked Brenda into creating a shop exclusive called Sugar and Spice Mrs. Santa which is available to be made into a stand up or tree topper, but doesn't have the side peppermint candy garlands.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=424256614374685&set=gm.607589242651571&type=1&theater

Contact the shop to order.
http://hinghamsquareneedlepoint.com

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright 2014 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Santa Faces (Not Blue Russian)

I promised when I started blog-stitching the Northern Light Santa that I would talk about things that would work on other Russian Santas in the series. So this morning I want to talk about faces a little more, especially faces for the other three Santas in this series.  Take a careful look at the faces of all the series.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp833x.html

The Holly Hills and Forever Green Santas face the viewer directly.  The Birdland Santa's face is turned slightly, but only slightly.  This makes all three good candidates for brick stitch over two faces, although if it were me, I'd do this on Birdland Santa because his face is larger.  You do need some space for the Over Two length, after all.  If you find brick stitches too large, basketweave is the way to go for these Santas except for their eyebrows and the black eyeliner area.  That probably should be done with one ply of a thread in stem stitches or perhaps a few straight stitches on top of the area after the basketweave is done.  I always use silk flosses when I can for faces but silk perle is just as nice and of course cotton flosses and perles are almost as good, just without the shine that silk gives a face.

Here is a diagram of Brick Stitch Over Two.  This is one of my favorite ways to attach beads so the diagram shows beads as well as just the plain Brick Stitch Over Two.  A bonus!


Next Monday I will be ready to talk background for my Blue Russian.   Hopefully folks will have their Santas by now and can start stitching faces and assembling threads for the rest of their canvas.


Questions?  Email me at chillyhollow@hotmail.com and I'll get back to you within a day or so.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright 2013 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

There's White...

There's white...and then there is WHITE. Anne shows how various shades of color look together as she chooses whites for her Amanda Lawford Santa hair and fur trim. Click on the little photo for a much better look at her thread choices and their various shades of white.
http://thecapestitcher.blogspot.com/2013/11/raising-some-eyebrows.html 

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright 2013 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Following the Links

China Santa with Fortune Cookie Ornaments on Tree

Katheryn posted her Christmas ornament and stocking canvases to show off the painted names she had added to personalize her Christmas designs.
http://bootsandbeads.blogspot.com/2012/09/canvas-painting.html

I followed her link to NOLA Ornaments, which is the site for Annie Smith and Sheila Dial.
http://nolaornaments.point2pointdesign.com

I like the little New Orleans ornaments but for me, the real winners here are the Santas of the World ornaments by Sheila Dial.   They start here.
http://nolaornaments.point2pointdesign.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2&sort=20a&page=2

Sheila has an Etsy store, in case you are interested in adding to your Santa or New Orleans collection.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/sheilamaloneydial?ref=seller_info

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com