Hardanger holly ornament finished!

My 9-day stay-at-home vacation got off to a good start - I actually finished another project! Granted, there wasn't a whole lot left to do and it stitched up fast, but I'm still happy that I've finished another thing in my pile. I've stitched a little more on the other Christmas ornament from the post below and I've started on a Mill Hill bead ornament I picked up at my LNS.

Of course, now that the JCS Halloween issue is here, I have plenty more small projects I want to start... :)

Latest stitching

As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been stitching on some Christmas ornaments to try to take my mind of the incredible heat we've been suffering through here in central Texas for the past two months (actually, it started getting hotter than average back in April).

First up is a progress image of the Blue Ribbon Designs ornament that I started a week or so ago:



As you can see, the fabric is a loose weave, so you're seeing the light coming through the window behind it. I haven't gotten too far on it because I decided to finally start this little hardanger ornament that I bought in kit form sometime in the past year or so:



I got pretty far on it so I should be able to finish it this week. This is a "no cut" hardanger design that I picked up from Nordic Needle. I experimented with hardanger for the first time a few years ago, but I still need to get some really good scissors for cut work. So when I saw a kit that didn't require cutting, I snapped it up!

Quick update

I realized that I never got around to posting the latest progress on the Heritage Stitchcraft Dragon, or the first hardanger piece, so here they are!



I haven't stitched on this one in a week or so, since I decided to take a break and work on a Halloween freebie. I'm almost done with the freebie, so I'll post a photo when the stitching is all done.



And here is the first hardanger piece I've ever attempted. The pattern and instructions were from New Stitches magazine (Issue 5, I think... definitely one of the very early ones). I did it with the pearl cotton that I had on hand, so that's why it's done is rust colors instead of the traditional white-on-white. It's not great, and I definitely need some better scissors for doing the cut work (the ones I have are great for some stitching stuff, just not that!), but it was fun to try. I'll be trying some more in the future, that's for sure!