Joy from the Cabochons Series by Susan Portra

June 9, 2025, 10:24 pm
Filed under: Other People's Designs, Susan Portra, The Cabochons, Joy

The first design from the Cabochons Series by Susan Portra is Joy (Love is the 5th that I stitched first).

Initially, I didn’t find Rhapsody R13, which is what it called for. The one I did acquire doesn’t have the tag on it but is really pretty. It has dark burgundy rather than purple running through it with the mint green and royal blue that was called for. I lucked out that the recommended Fyre Werks and Tiara go really well with this Rhapsody. Rhapsody is used in each design in the series and is a discontinued Rainbow Gallery thread.

I ended substituting 3 other threads from my stash:

DMC Floss 796 for the royal blue Anchor Floss 123.

Pepper Pot Silk Beet 20 for the dark purple Neon Rays N09. I thought Neon Rays was an odd choice for a single row of tent stitches anyway. And, this color is perfect with this Rhapsody.
Vineyard Silk Classic Aruba C-077 for Anchor Perle 187. The thread gets couched into place by Fyre Werks, and these 2 threads look great together.

This is stitched on a lovely aqua canvas.

Before I started it, and thanks to Jacqui C from New Jersey Needle Artists Chapter, I got Rhapsody R13 and R18 and Fyre Werks F42. I like the one I have better than R13 in this heart, but I like R13 better than R04 in Hope (4th in the series). And, I like R18 better than R24 in Charity (2nd in the series). Now I have 2 extra cards if I find instructions for the missing 11th and 12th designs in the series. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed! If anybody knows what they are named or look like, please let me know.

Here Joy is stitched. It’s almost 5.5″ wide x 6″ tall.

I couldn’t use the Vineyard Silk C-077 for the cording because the skein had been cut. The length was just short of what I needed and it didn’t twist nicely. So, my stash came through! I had a partial skein of Twinkle 300 Malachite that works great. And, I had Splendor S880 to attach the cording to the canvas. Looks great.

I bought Loops and Threads, a 100% cotton fabric from Michael’s. It worked great on my ornament back. It comes in a wide variety of plain and patterns. FYI: Michael’s also had bolts of fabric. But, not being a fabric person, I didn’t really look them over. These small packs are $1.99 and big enough to get a few ornaments out of it.

I did the running stitch about 1/2″ inside the edge, gathered the fabric, laced it up to stay in place. I cut it large enough to create some padding but it wasn’t enough so I used wool felt for more padding. I sewed the cord on (no glue). I attached the short loop to to Craftex. This time, I tucked the long piece of cording up inside next to the loop and ran the cord across the back of the loop, attached the cording all around the ornament, and passed in front of the loop and tucked it in next to the other side of the loop. I said I never do the same thing twice!