I've been struggling.
About the holidays, no less. You know, Christmas stuff.
Yes I know it's just the beginning of summer, but I'm behind. Really, I am!
Every year, I put a hand-made ornament in my holiday cards. A few years ago, I started making them one per week, starting in January or February to avoid the last minute stressy-crunch at year end.
I have an idea for this year's creation. I've been experimenting with it since January.
Problem is, I need about 30-40 'somethings' for my cards. And this idea really needs a process. Making one at a time is fussy and time-consuming, and un-fun.
This week, I feel that I may be onto a 'process.' Here's what I'm doing. . .
Once a week, I'm stitching at least one star motif, using a cool wrapping technique for the stitched border.

After some trial and error, I've got a stack of about 12 stitched stars. I pull out two threads of the stitchery fabric about 5 threads away from the edge of the stitching, creating a gap in the weave.
Then I fold in the corners and raw edges onto the wrong side, so the line created by the thread-gap lines up with the diagonal fold (indicated by the red marks on the photo on the right, below).


The bobbins are nicely suited for 8+ yards of floss like DMC, but as you can see below, my favorite 12-weight hand-dyed perle cotton threads from ArtFabric fit on a Your Nest Floss Bobbin, too. Each ArtFabrik skein has a whopping 130 yards! I do have to wind carefully, especially toward the end of the skein, to get it all on the bobbin, but it can be done! . . . And stacked neatly in their own special box of treasures, so they're ready for my next project.
Then I used Iron 'n Fuse thread by Wonderfil on a square of Stiff Stuff Interfacing by Lazy Girl Designs.
With cotton thread in the bobbin, I sew a wide zig zag around the edge of each interfacing square. The interfacing is cut 1-7/8" square to match the design area of the stitched star. Basically, I chain-zig zagged.


I suppose I could have used fusible interfacing or batting, but the Stiff Stuff adds just enough body without too much fluff. And I only wanted fusible material around the edge on one side of the interfacing. The fusible thread and Stiff Stuff worked perfectly!
I placed the interfacing on top of a 2-3/4" square of fabric - just enough to wrap around the edge of the interfacing, fused the fabric onto the fusible zig zags.
Originally, I attempted to fold the backing similarly to how I folded the stitched star fabric. That left me with sloppy, un-crisp corners.
So, I opted more for a triangular fold at the corner - like how you might wrap paper on a gift box, tucking in the corner. That gave me a sharper point at the corner and allowed me to bury the raw edges.


Time to pair up the backings and stitched fronts, wrong sides together.
Using some Clover clips to hold the corners neatly folded, I secured each backing/stitchy combination and made a stack.


This stack is ready for hand-stitched finishing steps.
Finally, I feel like I'm getting somewhere. . . . I'll share more progress in a future article. For now, I might need to add to my stack!
And maybe invest in more clips!
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