"January"
by Catherine Coleman
Catherine is a talented charted canvaswork designer. This piece, called "January", was still available at Stitcher's Paradise at the time of this writing. I've worked several of her designs and always learn something new as I work each one. She layers the stitches in a unique way with interesting threads and stitch orientations.
I finished this ornament with a hard, flat back and a padded front. The model was finished as a kissing ball ornament with a styrofoam form inside but I find that those take up a lot of space in storage. Since I need more space for more ornaments I like to finish most of mine flat. However, while I was stretching the canvas around the matboard form the blending filament used for the beading popped and *pop* *pop* *pop* off came a bunch of beads. I rebeaded it with a stronger thread but note to self - blending filament for beading does not work if the piece is going to need to be blocked or stretched later. Had I matched the model and finished it as a kissing ball it would not have been an issue. Oops!