Santa's Toys

When I started stitching the toys on Joan Thomasson's Celebration Santa, I just jumped right in. I very quickly realized that I'd be stitching over some of the details and going back to fill them in - with no knowledge of what I was going to be detailing.

It was then that I remembered one of the golden rules of stitching painted canvases: Make a copy first! I don't know why I didn't think of it initially. I regularly read the blog of Jane of Chilly Hollow (painted canvas stitcher extraordinare), and she always makes a copy of her canvases before stitching. Well, better late than never, and I figure a photo is just as good as a copy. So, with just the blue of the doll's dress stitched, this is the "before" picture.

The toys were mostly stitched in basketweave, with a few french knots for eyes, straight stitches for the horse's mane and tail, and backstitches for details as needed. I didn't do the doll's mouth yet. I'll catch that when I'm stitching Santa's coat.

I made one change from the stitch guide: rather than stitching the doll's hair in orderly rows of french knots, I gave her "sausage curls" in bullion knots. These were fun (yes, I actually enjoy the challenge of bullions), worked up quickly, and give a bit of dimension.

I also stitched the drum, which worked up quickly compared to all of the basketweave. It just uses satin stitches for the triangles and some couched metallic for the rim.

I love the way the toys came out, and I'm very glad I stitched them before stitching the brown of Santa's bag or the red of his coat. Now I can do those large areas without worrying that I'm stitching over a detail needed to bring the toys to life!

Thank you Jane, for your advice! I have other things to thank you and others for, but that's another post!

**********************************
Pregnancy ticker: 28 weeks, 3 days.
Santa's keeping me occupied, so I'm not going crazy (or overdoing it) yet!