Crompton - Christmas Cross Stitch

Stitch for Christmas

Country Christmas Decorations

The charming folk-art projects shown opposite are full of peaceful charm and are perfect for creating your own unique country-style Christmas. The charts are on pages 42/43.

Stitch counts

Heart Garland 36h 37w (each heart); Peace, Joy and Love Angels 43h 28w (each angel)

Finished design sizes

Heart Garland (each heart) 6.5 6.5cm (2 2in);

Angels (each) 7.8 5cm (3 2in) Stitch the designs over one block of 14-count cream Aida using two strands of stranded cotton (floss) for cross stitch and French knots and one strand for backstitch.

Heart Garland: Stitch a heart in each colourway (using the alternate thread codes on the chart), leaving 5cm (2in) between each heart. Use the alphabet on page 98 to write your own message. See page 23 for creating the hearts and making up the garland.

Angels: Stitch an angel in each colourway. The designs are made up in three ways as a card, a gift bag and a decoration see page 23 for making up.

It is impossible to resist some of the fabulous fabrics and threads now available especially at Christmas time, when there are many colours specially designed for festive stitching. Because most of the designs in this book are small and quick to stitch, they will give you the perfect excuse to experiment with different fabrics and threads.

Fabrics dont have to be just white and cream: try red or green and see the simplest design come to life. Black may seem a strange choice at Christmas but what a glorious atmosphere it creates in the Nativity Sampler on page 19. At this time of year fabrics shot through with gold or silver are so much more interesting than plain equivalents. Many of the charts use white to depict snow so stitch them on icy blue for a wintry feel, or on deep blue for a night sky to highlight stars or snowflakes (see the sampler idea on page 18).

Use the background fabric to echo the chart theme the Advent Calendar (page 17) is stitched on a sage green to follow the Shaker theme. Antique rose or grey blue could also have been used as these colours appear in the chart. Gather thread colours together to get an overall idea of the colour theme. More contemporary designs, such as the stocking and mitten garlands on page 25, would look better stitched on a crisp green or mustard gold, while the Victorian designs (pages 64/65) require more opulent colours. Make sure that colours used around the outside of the design arent too close to the background colour or they will disappear.

Threads, threads and more threads the variety now is simply irresistible. Stranded cottons in every colour under the sun, smooth silks, glittering metallics, gleaming blending filaments, beautifully coloured variegated threads all are hard to resist, so dont try! The designs in this book use DMC stranded cotton and some also use DMC Light Effects, a range of metallic threads ideal for bringing a festive glitter to a variety of projects, such as the Christmas carol designs on pages 26/27 and the Christmas trees on pages 58/59.

Seek out other thread ranges that may include thicker metallic threads to be used on their own; compare them with the shade in the chart key to get a good colour match. There are also space-dyed variegated threads in festive shades that can be used to stitch a border of a line of stitches; the colour will change stitch by stitch to add extra colour to a design.