Last Minute Gifties

Well, it's almost Christmas Eve, and I'm totally done with presents! I bought a few and made a few, like the one below.



I haven't done any embroidery in years, so this was a really fun and gratifying project. I simply cut out two layers of my shapes, and did any stitching that went through one layer only, like the hearts or the bird's eyes and wings. Then I layered them, placed the ribbon for the hanger, and used my machine to sew it into place. At that point, I trimmed up the edges to make them flush, and I was ready to stitch them together. For the star I went with the can't-go-wrong running stitch, and I trotted out blanket stitch for the bird. Blanket stitch was a little trickier, had to look it up first to remind myself, first. I really love the look of the stitching on the felt, so I'm pretty sure I'll be making more of these for my own tree!