A new little finish

I stitched this Santa for my youngest sister.  I have made her an ornament for each Christmas since 1984, and this will be the 2012 ornament.  The Santa design is from The Faces of Santa Afghan chart in LA's Christmas Keepsakes hardcover book (1990), the second book in the Christmas Remembered series.  Although the designer is not directly credited, I believe it to be Carol Emmer. I stitched this design on a piece of fine linen I bought (as my first non-Aida fabric purchase) in 1985.  I now remember why it's still sitting in my fabris stash - this linen is a devil to stitch on!  I usually love stitching on linen, but this particular piece is so loosely woven (despite the 32 count) that it got the better of me several times.  The rest of the (fairly large) piece of fabric is going straight back to the bottom of the fabric pile!

I have all five of the stitched Santa Faces from this chart, courtesy of a Round Robin many years ago. I made them up as diamond puff ornaments, and they are part of my Christmas display each year. If you click on this pic to enlarge it, you'll be able to see them - the five white puffy diamond shaped ornaments towards the top of the linen press door at the back of the pic.

My next two projects will be Santas as well - tiny Santa stockings for my niece Ciara and her fiancee Johnny.  Too many Santas is never enough for me!