Stitch-Mas in July: Featuring Beverly McCullough

Today marks two weeks of holiday stitching with our very first advent style stitch-along, Stitch-Mas in July, and we’re having so much fun!

The patterns are all easily stitch-able and perfect to finish into a full sampler or as individual ornaments, gift tags, cards, and more! We’ve loved seeing all of your feedback and hope that you’re having as much fun with all of this as we are!

Merry Stitch-mas is the perfect companion for all of this holiday stitching. This brand new collection of 7 vibrant and festive colors of our luscious 6-strand divisible floss is presented in a custom designed pack and is available now via your favorite local quilt shop!

We’re pleased to feature our second guest designer, Beverly (Bev) McCullough of Flamingo Toes! We’ve long been admirers of Bev’s work, coveting her artfully embroidered hoops and her custom stitched kicks. Her blog is beautifully arranged, featuring everything from craft projects to embroidery, quilts to pillows, home organization tips to sewing ideas for kids… there is truly a little something for every crafty person out there and the content is all delivered with Bev’s sweet style, friendly demeanor, and bright and crisp imagery.

Beverly was kind enough to chart up a mini cross-stitched snowflake hoop ornament. It fits perfectly with her style, uses a classic red & white, and is finished in the sweetest little pom-pom adorned hoop. Don’t you just love the contrast with the black background? What colors will you use to stitch this one up?

Thank you, Bev!!

(psssst. We recently launch Bev’s debut Aurifil Thread collection right here and it just so happens to have some other fabulous floss colors included!!)

I just love Christmas in July projects! It’s so fun to get a little taste of Christmas when it’s hot and muggy outside – and it’s so nice to have a few new projects all made up heading into the holidays!!

Today I’m sharing this sweet Quilt Star Snowflake ornament. I love making handmade ornaments, especially stitched ornaments. In fact I do a DIY Ornament week every year – you can see them all here! This ornament combines my love of stitching and quilting with the snowflake design that incorporates a quilt star in the center.

Stitched Ornaments also make fabulous gifts, gift toppers and they’ll make you the star of an ornament exchange!

Materials:

Aurifloss 2021, 2250
Black Aida – 14 count -5” square
3” embroidery hoop
Cross Stitch Needle

Materials for Finishing:

12” ribbon for hanging
10” pom pom trim for edge
Hot Glue
3” felt circle

Instructions:

Place your Aida fabric in the embroidery hoop, making sure the grid of the fabric is lined up horizontally and vertically in the hoop. (You don’t want the grid crooked in the hoop when you hang it.)
Cross stitch using three strands of Aurifloss, according to your preferred method, using the cross stitch guide.
After finishing, make sure your fabric is tight in the hoop. Trim the fabric to about ½” outside the wooden rim, then hot glue the edge of the fabric on the back side of the hoop. Tuck the end into the inside of the back of the hoop and glue down. You don’t want the cut edge of the fabric to touch the back side of the stitched fabric because it can cause a distortion in the front of the hoop since the Aida is so thick.
If using, glue your pom pom or other trim to the back side of the wood hoop rings so the trim extends out from the hoop.
Glue a 3” wool blend felt circle in place over the back of the hoop, covering up the glued edge of the trim. This makes it look nice and tidy on the back side when you’re hanging it on your tree.
Thread a ribbon through the opening below the screw of the embroidery hoop, then bring the ribbon ends together. Tie the ends together in a small knot and trim the edges so they look nice.
Hang up and admire your cute new ornament!

So fun!! Thank you, Bev!

Stitching along with us throughout the month of July? Be sure to tag your images so we can see what you’re up to! @aurifilthread, #aurifil, and #stitchmasinjuly

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PATTERNS