Now that I’ve completed the Strawberry Fayre etui (which has taken me almost all of this year to complete – I started it at the end of January 2018!!), I am feeling the need to do some ‘easy ‘stitching’ for a while. So, a quick cross stitch project like this ‘Spirit of Holiday Baking’ fits the bill perfectly, as it’s festive, and doesn’t take long to make, so it should be finished in time for Christmas.
This is a cross stitch 3D ‘angel’ type design, by Brooke Nolan of Brooke’s Books. Brooke sells an amazing range of charts for all kinds of things – many 3D, which I love to stitch. I got a set of 14 chart packs of her gorgeous figures for Christmas last year (the Christmas pixie sent good ‘prompting’ emails to my husband, in plenty of time 🙂 )
This is the haul that I got:
I’ve decided to make the one in the centre first. It has the ‘gingerbread’ theme that I like to do at Christmas. For the past few years I have been making Thea Dueck’s little buildings from her Gingerbread Village range, but this year I fancied a change.
The design is to be stitched on 14 count perforated paper – this is more like thin cardboard, and is actually quite robust. It comes in lots of colours, although for this design I only need the brown one, which is a warm gingerbready colour, fortunately!
The chart pack lists DMC thread suggestions, but I converted these to Anchor colours, as I already have a full set of Anchor threads in my stash which I use in the dollhouse needlepoint kits that I produce. I used a size 24 tapestry needle for the stitching.
Here’s my materials, ready to start (the chart itself I have coloured in with coloured pencils, as my brain can read that better than when it’s just in black and white symbols).
I taped masking tape around the edge of the perforated paper to stop the thread from catching on the rough edges. I don’t need any kind of frame for this, so I’ll just hold it in my hand to stitch.
The instructions said to use three strands of stranded cotton when stitching. I tried a tiny sample area, and immediately decided that two strands would be OK- I really don’t like stitching with an odd number of strands for embroidery, as it means I can’t double the thread through the needle and knot it, which I prefer.
The completed figure will be about 7.5 inches high, so it’s important to start at one end of the chart, not the centre, so that the design will fit on the paper properly – this is stitched on a half sheet of the perforated paper, which is only just a bit over 8.5 inches top to bottom. When allowing a bit for the masking tape border, that doesn’t leave much leeway!
When it’s completed, I’ll have the scary task of cutting it out right up to the stitching (cutting along the next row of holes from the stitches), but for now, it’s just easy cross stitch, which makes a drastic change from the previous project!
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Janet Granger's Blog 
I try to keep some Mill Hill ornament kits for just this reason – simple & quick! I stitch two of each of the Sandra Cozzolino Santa’s; one on 14ct plastic canvas as my daughter collects them too (helpfully she’ll buy the odd one to!). Two threads is fine IMO on either.
Yes, it’s good to have something simple in your stash as well as the complicated things 🙂
I seen the Fairy Godmother finished on a flosstube channel and it was beautiful finished.
They are very innovative designs – I love them!
I have always loved this collection but my one experience stitching on perforated paper was not a good one, so I’ve been reluctant to try again. I guess these would be “light stitching” after Strawberry Fayre – gorgeous finish by the way, I’ve really enjoyed following your progress – but they seem a little complicated to me with all the little embellishments 😊
So far, I’m surprised how sturdy the perforated ‘paper’ is – much stronger than I’d thought it would be. But I haven’t assembled one of these before, so I’ll have to see how that goes.