Gingerbread Lane | ||||||||||||||
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I was excited to stitch this ornament. I'd bought an old leaflet just for this ornament! I saw an image of it online and simply loved it. I watched eBay for the leaflet for months. I was thrilled to win the auction and happy to start the project. The problem came when I picked the fabric. The ornaments in this leaflet are very large — too big for my tree. So I wanted to stitch the ornament on a small count fabric. I also did not want to have to buy new fabric just for an ornament, so I went to my stash. I found this 22ct dark brown Hardanger cloth. Ugh! I'd never stitched on Hardanger cloth before ... and may never do it again! At least, not for a cross-stitch chart like this. First, I had to alter the color pallet a bit because my brown was darker than that called for in the pattern. That was not a big deal. Then I started stitching. Two strands over one was just too thick. I took those stitches out and started over using one strand over one thread/intersection. Even though I've done over-one stitching before, I really had a hard time with this. Careful as I was, I had a lot of trouble with the first leg of the cross slipping and hiding in the fabric fibers. This piece has some spots of intense stitching, and other spots where the fabric acts as the gingerbread house color. So I got off on my counting a bit and had to compensate. By the time I realized that the peppermint candy over the door was one stitch off, I just gave up. I left it. I've made real gingerbread houses before. I know that sometimes the candies slip in the icing and things don't come out perfectly centered. So I figured that's what happened here — the icing made the candy slip! There were so many minor problems with this ornament that I just could not push through to finish it in time for Christmas 2007. I did finally get the stitching done before the end of the year. But by then, I was so tired of the ornament that I put it aside until the third week of January. This darn ornament gave me fits in the finishing process, too. I could not for the life of me get the gingerbread house centered on my circle. But ... it's not too horrible. I guess the icing made the whole ornament slip and slide on the cardboard, right? ;) Finally, finally, finally, the ornaments are done.
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