Advent Calendar

Finished Piece

You will want to add the year, your name, and the hours needed to complete the project. It will be unobtrusive if worked on one line directly at the hem.

Then it’s off to the cooking pot for boiling.

Afterwards the light brown of the scorching was gone and, with some rubbing, all the blue lines also disappeared.

After starching and intense ironing, my wreath turned out pretty. Unfortunately, such a big and white cloth is difficult to photograph, and I am not an expert; but one can get an impression of its beauty.

I started the project late. It was already 23 October when I got the finished design enabling me to begin. And I wanted to have it ready by the end of November so to be able to start sharing it with you at the beginning of December. I’m happy that I was able to finish it in time. Many hours lay in between – 118 in all! Some of these hours were spent considering and removing stitching that didn’t quite work, but most of the hours were pleasantly spent doing fun stitching. I am really pleased with the result.

The heaven with all its angels and stars,

the different stars,

the tall angel,

shepherds

and sheep,

the wise men – all turned out to my full satisfaction.

Do you want to own a similarly unique piece for decorating your home during the Christmas time? No problem! The design can be found here. And with all my descriptions in the previous articles, it should be no problem for you to finish your own beautiful project.

Merry Christmas!

Maria and Baby Jesus

Not much of baby Jesus is seen. The embroidery starts with the facial outline. For the halo a double row of Chain stitches (coton à broder No. 20) was wrapped.

Up from there rays, alternating long and short, were embroidered with Wide Stem stitches.

Next the facial outline of Maria (2 strands of 6-ply stranded cotton) was worked.

The top of Maria´s dress is partly covered by the halo. So thread withdrawal is difficult. I decided on Wave stitches as the filling pattern and worked it over four fabric threads in the height.

Next is to outline the dress with Slanting Wide Stem stitches (coton à broder No. 16).

For the bottom part of the dress, I withdrew threads leave 3, cut 1, because it is easier to embroider.

This area of the dress was also filled with Wave stitches.

For the coat I first thought of a Diagonal Cross stitch filling. But looking to the back side of Joseph´s shirt, I discovered by chance a wonderful filling pattern for Maria´s coat – the back side of Honeycomb Darning stitches!
So thread withdrawal was done in one direction only and, at the bottom edge, staggered to the withdrawn threads of the dress.

The stitches can also be worked from the front; in that case the working direction is from left to right.

Thus an elegant and unobtrusive pattern was created for Maria´s coat.

Joseph

The embroidery starts with the hair and the beard. It is worked with Stem stitches (2 strands of 6-ply stranded cotton). Next the facial outline

and the outline of the hand were embroidered.

Then I outlined only the outside lines of the skirt to enable a continuous filling pattern. Thread withdrawing was done only vertically and stopped before reaching the beard.

Honeycomb Darning stitches (coton à broder No. 20) were worked

always leaving a small area free between the pattern and the beard.

The marked lines of the unworked outlines are clearly visible through the pattern;

so working them afterwards is no problem.

To establish a girdle, threads were slid

under one row of Honeycomb Darning stitches.

The trousers got a Limet grid,

and Four-Sided stitches (coton à broder No. 20) were worked as filling pattern.

Manger

The manger was outlined with Wide Stem stitches (coton à broder No. 16).

Thread withdrawing was done in one direction only – leaving 4, cutting 1.

Satin stitch bars were worked (coton à broder No. 20) – at the bottom of the manger where it meets the legs, there is a wider row of stitches.

Working Satin stitches vertically also enables one to precisely fill the pointed sections between the straw.

Straw and Trusses of Straw

The outlines of all sections covered with straw were worked with Slanting Wide Stem stitches (coton à broder No. 16) – the blanket,

the right,

and the left trusses of straw at the bottom.

In my earlier piece I worked the straw with Bullion Knots (Early Schwalm Whitework).

This time I worked Wide Stem stitches (coton à broder No. 16)

in lines of three, four, or sometimes more stitches.

The placement of the lines was determined by the orientation of the outlines.