Melitastitches4fun's Blog

I held off posting this until the traditional start of the holiday season, the day after Thanksgiving!

At our October ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter meeting, Heather discussed the Waffle and Amadeus. I’d already made the Waffle into an ornament.

The Amadeus is only tricky where the two join together for the first 5 stitches in the North, South, East, and West. I have to pull the thread off to the side, find the hole, and then pull it taut.

I worked the Amadeus motif using Kreinik #12 Braid 421 Azalea and 5982 Forest Green with DMC #8 Blanc for the Alternating Continental background. A large gold bead filled in the center using a cross stitch through the bead to hold it upright without wobbling. The cording is DMC #5 666 red and 701 green (6 strands each).

A couple of people in my chapter wanted to see what I had learned from my finishing class. So, I brought everything to our October Stitch-in (wow-a month ago tomorrow). Most everything fits appropriately in my lovely A Place for Everything, a ByAnnie and by Linda bag. The tools are in another holder. I found my glue gun and brought it. I bought a Mighty Travel Iron by Dritz. My big iron is too big for these ornaments. A few bottled waters (Evian, which is easy to find, and Ocean, which we had in the fridge) are soft enough to use in the iron. The last time I bought a gallon of distilled water, it leaked. I got 1/8″ thick foam board from Ebay before learning that the Framing Dept at Michael’s have the thin boards. The 3/8″ board is out in the aisle. Thanks to Michael’s for their 40% off coupons, I got a nice price on Friskar’s nip scissors. Lots to bring.

I finished the Amadeus into a diamond. And, it was done in about 3 hours. I am getting faster.

I forgot I’d brought along a 3″, 4″, and 5″ circle template from mommymadethat (.com) for any rounds. Molly has some great templates (free) on her website. But, Nanda’s circle was very round. So, marking the shape with a pencil worked out fine.

The cording with Kreinik didn’t turn out nearly as tight as with the drill. I did sew it into place to reinforce the top at the loop and went around adding a couple of stitches to connect the cording to the front and back on each side.

No Black Friday shopping here. We’re busy at home cleaning, resting, decorating, resting, and more decorating over the course of today while listening to holiday music and will be all ready for Christmas!