Brenda's Needlepoint Studio: Santa Sea Shell

November 22, 2024--Another Santa designed by Janet Zickler Case is complete. This one is called Sea Shell Santa and I found the perfect button in my embellishments stash to use at the end of his hat.

I was able to switch from YLI Ribbon to RG Fyre Werks Metallic Ribbon called white pearl. It has a bit more of a red sheen to it, but at least it lays flat over the padding and has lots of shimmer. I also did not use cotton cording (the kind used to make piping) to pad the moustache. Instead, I used 3 layers of cotton pearl #3. That brought it up nicely.

Santa Sea Shell Completed

October 29, 2024--I'm now working on another Janet Zickler Casey design called Sea Shell Santa from 2004. It's easy enough to do but the YLI Metallic Ribbon Floss called for to stitch the beard is giving me issues. I have some ribbon wound on long plastic supports, but not enough to do the beard (see photo 2 below). So, I dug through my stash and found some of the same brand and color ribbon, but this time tightly wound on a spool. This one has problems. Evidently it was wound too tightly without care to be sure it laid "flat" around the spool, so it comes off the spool looking crooked, twisted, etc. Most definitely not flat (see photo 3). After stitching a few sections of the beard, I tore it out and reordered the YLI ribbon not wound on spools. However, there's a long delay, so this project needs to sit for a while.

Note: the red threads on both sides of the mouth are "tacking" stitches which will be covered up by the moustache thread.

PS: I kind of like the beard as it now looks with the DMC Perle 3 padding stitches. Maybe I'll just keep it or add another layer of the perle, but stitch it horizontally.