
Thanks so much for the comments on my last couple of posts. I still can’t believe that I never posted about the guild holiday parties from last year! And I definitely appreciate you all stopping in to visit my blog. I know it’s been sorely neglected this year. I’ve enjoyed doing the video podcasts and will definitely continue to do them, but I am also going to get back to doing written posts with the 8 billion photos you’re accustomed to more regularly this coming year. And in case you are following my blog through a reader like Bloglovin’, I’m not sure how the videos show up there so you may need to click through to the blog in order to see it. Here’s the latest one, in case you missed it.
Anyway, back to the stitching! So, the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild had their annual holiday party on the 1st and it was a lot of fun, as usual. There was a lot of great food and I enjoyed visiting with my fellow stitchers and friends. The best part though is seeing what everyone stitched for the annual ornament exchange. I was racking my brain trying to figure out what I was going to stitch when I came across a post by Sharon on Instagram of her finished Gold Crown ornament by Rosewood Manor in this year’s JCS Ornament issue. I instantly fell in love with it and decided it would be a perfect choice for the Tudor Rose crowd. I used Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid that I had in my stash from one of my Chatelaine Designs pieces and some red Mill Hill beads. The design actually calls for several different colored beads – red, green, blue, purple. But, I liked it with just the red. So, the ornament stitched up super fast on some 32ct Buttercream linen by Silkweaver and then I just had to figure out how to finish it. You may know that cording is not my favorite thing in the world, so I had the brilliant idea that doing a beaded edging would be pretty and relatively quick to do. You see where this is going, right? So the afternoon of the party I sat down to do this beaded edging and hours later I was still trying to finish it. I love the way it turned out but OMG it took forever! The beaded edge took way longer to do than the stitching even! But, I was happy with it. I will definitely be stitching another one to keep. I might cut back on the bead overload though, LOL.
So, off I went to the party and here are some of the beauties others stitched that came past me as we were passing ornaments around the table. I thought this one was very sweet. Love the jingle bells at the top.

And here’s the back using coverlet fabric – love it!

Loved this big strawberry bunch!

This one was stitched by my friend, Kim, and was probably my favorite. It’s stitched on 52/60 count linen and it’s a portion of a Long Dog sampler. Isn’t it the most darling thing? And it’s tiny! Excuse my shadow on it. I seriously need one of these in my life.

This one is so sweet too. I am in love with the embroidered branch and flowers at the bottom. So creative!

And here is the ornament I came home with…a beautifully stitched needlepoint angel.

Loved this finishing technique – way simpler than a billion beads!

And another cute one – finished like a gift tag! That green bauble trim is killing me, it’s so cute!

And here are all of them together. You can see how tiny those little reindeer are in comparison. So many talented stitchers!

I hope you enjoyed this little peek at our exchange. I’ll be sharing the EGA holiday party and exchange soon!
I am grateful for inspiration from talented stitchers!
We had our guild party recently, too. Love your crown ornament and all the life’s from your guild members are beautiful. The strawberries are amazing!
Love seeing all the ornaments. Thanks for sharing. Happy stitching…..