This year the holiday season has really caught up on me so in between cooking and wrapping gifts I am attempting to write a few sentences that make sense and wish all my readers Happy Holidays! Please imagine me seated in my twirly chair, coffee in one hand, my other hand raised, with a big silly grin on my face and as I twirl around I am waving to everyone — North, South, East, and West. I have been online for over 20 years but I still take a childish delight in knowing people from all around the globe visit Pintangle. I am sending my best wishes to everyone, no matter what faith or religion you follow — have a wonderful safe healthy and happy holiday.
I have a little gift for my readers which you will find here. This design is free. I know the software asks who you are, but it is not a sign up for my newsletter and you get this freebie sort of situation. I also don’t store the data. So it is really free and can be used for hand embroidery, or if you enjoy appliqué you can use them for that too.
My idea is to embroider the outlines of the shapes in either stem stitch, chain stitch or any outline stitch of your choice. Once the linear elements are done, fill the coloured areas fairly densely with stitching of your choice. If you like textured dense embroidery, you can really go for it and fill across the coloured area of the design with stitches. Since it is Christmas, if you want add as much beading and sequins as you want! Or if you are not into such a textured style, you could use sprinkle isolated stitches such as seed stitch across the coloured area. Other stitches you can use include freeform cross-stitch, or a scatter of French knots.
Other free resources on Pintangle
Apart from the Stitch dictionary where you can find lots of stitching ideas for this pattern, which I still occasionally add a stitch to, check out the list of tutorials that you can find on the site. There are also free modules in my stitchers’ worksheets that cover the basic stitches. They are completely free, and none of my stuff asks you to subscribe, or join this or that. They are a simple giveaway.
Take a Stitch Tuesdays TAST
Congratulations to everyone who has completed TAST this year and thank you for the many mornings I sat at my computer, coffee in hand looking at your stitching and smiling at your achievements. As always TAST this year has been fun. I love seeing what people do with it each year. To be honest, the reason I keep running TAST is that I love it. TAST will start again on January 7. Anyone can join in. There is no sign-up. If you want to know more about the challenge you can see the guidelines on the TAST FAQ page.
Anyway, its back to the gift wrapping. I hope all your needles are easily threaded, no one steals your scissors for cutting paper, and your thread is knot and tangle-free.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Have you seen my Stitchers Templates?
Create your own designs with Sharon’s easy-to-use stitchers templates. Combine shapes to create hundreds of patterns and designs to embroider. It is the ultimate mix-and-match fun for stitchers of all skill levels. I created them to be as versatile as possible. I include four multi-patterned templates in each set. You will find them easy to use, totally clear to help you position them on your work, and they are nice and compact to fit in your sewing box. Each set comes with an e-book filled with patterns and designs that you can create and use as a jumping-off spot for your own designs. They are available now in our shop here!
Happy stitching!
