Calendar for January, February, and March

March 13, 2010, 9:19 am
Filed under: Calendar, Melita's Adaptations

I should have started posting these monthly needlepoint calendars back in January when I first started blogging. I’ve been using this same calendar since 2006. How’s it possible I kept on using it year after year? Keep on reading!!

In 2005, I received a 12-month calendar (published by Accord Publishing LTD) as a Christmas gift from a co-worker. I attempted to stitch one month ahead of time the first year so each month would be ready to display & was late only 2 months of the 12. Then, I created a 2006 calendar as a Christmas gift for family, friends, & co-workers. I spent a small fortune in color ink jet & high quality paper that year but everyone loved them. Each subsequent year, I have taken a Word document, made 12 tables the exact size of the bottom half of the calendar, enter dates in the appropriate cells, cut, & tape them on the bottom half. It works out great!

The calendar came with the color photo of what it should look like, canvas for each, charted directions, needle, & a coordinating paper matte suitable for framing each month’s piece – everything except the thread. Each was primarily cross-stitch with a few other simple stitches designed by Kam Snyder & Barbara Stark. However, it may come as no surprise when I say I stitched most of them with different stitches (probably from The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christensen or Stitches for Effect by Suzanne Howren & Beth Robertson) because I no longer desired to do cross-stitch. And, in a few instances, I made up a new design for a month.

January (photos for pattern & needlepoint, respectively): I don’t know all the stitches I used in the top half of the cup even with the aid of a magnifying glass. In the bottom of the cup, there is a pattern of large and small crosses along with Rhodes & leaf stitches. I think the steam is a stem stitch, the black background is Upright Crosses & the inner border is Smyrna Crosses & the outer border is a Six-trip Herringbone.

February (photos for pattern & needlepoint, respectively): In place of the cross-stitch, I used a small Jessica, Woven Trellis Variation, and Kris Cross Hungarian. In place of the Smyrna Cross border, I used a Wheat Stitch.

March (photos for pattern & needlepoint, respectively): This was one of the radical diversions I took from the pattern & used a Looped Turkey Work for the sheep. The flowers are a Star Octagon with a green leaf stitch. The sheep turned out a little bigger than perhaps his little legs can hold! But, he’s cute & furry like a sheep. The background may be a darning pattern. Again, the inner border is Smyrna Crosses & the outer border is a Six-trip Herringbone.