I finally got the holiday decorations out, and I put the Janet Zickler Casey Santas on the console in the living room, amongst the Snowbabies.
The holly cone that Mom designed is on the dining room table sitting on the table runner she made. Which is also sitting along side some of the candy dishes she has painted me. Since we rarely use the dining room table for meals, it will be safely displayed through the season!
Now, the front and back get glued all around the outside edges and I use clip clothespins to hold it together, and let the glue dry again.
When it is dry, and I allowed that overnight, I started with the glue pins and the cording and went all around the outside of the piece.
Last, I stitched the ribbon piece to the back of the piece to hold the frame upright. This takes a little fuss time of pinning it, standing it up to make sure it is level, and then finally stitching it in place.
See, that wasn't so hard, was it?
He is pretty cute! We like him and look forward to the next Santa!
Having grabbed the scissors, I cut the canvas piece piece allowing a fold back section all the way around. See, he is pretty close to the copy. Then, I cut a hard piece of cardboard to match the paper one on the bottom right.
Next I cut a piece of my quilt bat, which I think is called angel bat, as it is pretty thin. It goes on top of the finished piece which is now laying face down. On top of that I have put the hard back cardboard cut out. Everybody with me, so far?
Now, I grab my special stash of sewing pins--the ones that have glue hardened on them, used only for finishing--and have started applying a little of Ailene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue. Now grab a pin and push it into place folding the canvas edges to the back. I pin about every 1/4 inch or so. Even though it is is quick dry we have to wait for the glue to dry!
He is all stitched! I even have the four rows all around the outside ready for the finishing. I think he is a bit devilish, don't you?
This is what the Peluche actually looks like on the card and then I pulled a single strand out so you can see how it looks. In order to get the moustache to lay all in the direction I intended, I started at the bottom and laid the thread to the top and then back to the bottom again. It then looks like a real moustache!
Yes, here he is. I added his moustache using the Peluche in a Slanted Gobelin stitch in towards his face. This is a strongly napped fiber and care must be taken to thread up so that the stitch creates the fluff you are looking for. Then if you look closely, you will see I also Satin stitched in his lips.
Step six in the Santa Heart is to use Petite Very Velvet and stitch it in a Double Stitch variation. Then, red glass seed beads are added into the empty spaces. Janet recommended that the beads be double stitched, and I concur. I did a cross stitch x thru the beads which enabled me to ensure that the beads were sitting properly in the empty space.
Then, the hat and the pompom are stitched in Artic Rays. The area is padded horizontal using the trame' method and then covered vertically for the padded effect.
As always, Janet gives very clear instructions with detailed diagrams, which are very easy to follow.
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And, here is where I am so far:
First, I used DMC floss and padded the nose vertically and horizontally. Lastly, the third layer was added vertically again in Satin Stitch. Next, the eyes were worked using white DMC floss, Black Fyre Werks, and DMC black for the eyelash illusion. Step three was to work the face using DMC flosses in basketweave. Eyebrows were added using Designers Dream Wool and Stem stitching them in place. Last, again using Designers Dream wool, he has hair!
Don't you just love the twinkle in his eye already?
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