Good morning, and welcome to November, my friends!
Today I’ve got some exciting news for you – we’ve got kits coming out on Wednesday! YAY! (I love it when a plan comes together.)
Besides the materials kit for the upcoming stitch-along for Twinkle, Twinkle (more below on that), I’ve brought it some other cute, crafty Christmas kits that we’re also putting in stock this week, so I’ll show you those first and tell you a little about them.
And then I’ll let you know the details on the release of the materials kit for Twinkle, Twinkle – when and what you can expect.
Let us commence the chatter…
I decided to bring in some more craft ornament kits for this year, for folks looking for fun, quick Christmas craft embroidery kits that work well for gifts, for family DIY nights, for your own little cozy inside stitch time now that the days are shorter and colder…
I thought these embroidered wood ornament kits were pretty cute!
Years ago, I wrote about the concept of embroidered wood ornaments, here. The little snowflake ornament you see in that article is a bit more rustic, a bit closer to nature, since it is worked on a drilled disk sliced from a birch tree branch in my sister’s backyard.
The concept, though, is pretty much the same. Drill a pattern of stitch holes into wood, and add a touch of color and whimsy by embroidering the wooden ornament.
Anna and I decided to give these craft kits a try, and we thought they were pretty cute!
These are charming and fun, and I love them for family, friend, social group craft nights, and the like – as well as just sit-in-front-of-a-good-movie-and-do-something-with-your-hands nights.
When I first saw the collection, I thought of them for youth projects, too. And sure enough, crafty teens and pre-teens enjoy them! They’re small and quick enough to give a satisfactory finish.
They’re packaged really cute, too, in labeled boxes…
…with everything you need – wooden foundation, floss, needle, ribbon for hanging, and instructions – tucked inside.
Cute and fun!
Some of the kits are single ornaments, and some of the kits are sets. For example, there’s a Nutcracker-esque soldier and ballerina set, a set of five snowflake ornaments, and a set of three wreaths. All the others are single ornaments.
Just a caveat: these are not “high-end embroidery kits” – they are exactly what they look like: craft kits. They’re the type of craft kit you’d find in a boutique shop that has a section of cute crafty kits for gifts.
The thread in the kits is combination of DMC skeins and craft thread. The instructions are not exactly like the instructions you’d receive from, say, a dedicated needlework designer. They are basic, and they’re printed pretty small. But anyone who has even rudimentary embroidery or sewing skills can figure out how these work. Some back stitch, some chain stitch, some cross stitch, some colonial knots…
And of course, you can always do your own thing!
One thing we noticed as we stitched ours is that the laser etching of the wood does cause a little darkening of some of the threads, but this didn’t detract from the overall finished effect of our little ornaments. I’m excited to add these cute things to our ornament tree in the studio! They’ve already garnered a lot of interest and chatter from studio visitors who’ve fallen in love with them.
So those will be on the website this week – live on Wednesday morning, which is when I’m launching our…
Twinkle, Twinkle Materials Kits!
Oh hurray! We’re ready to launch Twinkle, Twinkle, this year’s Christmas ornament stitch-along here on Needle ‘n Thread. I wrote a little bit about it here, if you want to read more about it.
This Wednesday, November 5th, I’ll give you more details about the project, the stitch-along, and the materials kit (in short, everything you need to know).
But for now, I’ll give you the release date and time for the kit:
The kits will be live in the shop on this Wednesday, November 5, at 10:00 AM CST (central standard time – I’m in Kansas).
This is the star with the embroidery complete. The finished ornament – with it’s pretty scalloped beaded edge and hanger – will be revealed on Wednesday!
We’ll start shipping the materials kits out to you on Wednesday afternoon, and the stitch-along itself will begin next week. The first installment is the intro and set-up, so we won’t be stitching until the following week, which gives everyone plenty of time to receive their materials kits.
Look for the blog post Wednesday morning that launches the kit! I’ll have all the new listings up on the first page of the shop, here, at 10:00 AM CST!
I’m always so excited for these Christmas ornament stitch-alongs. I think I could embroider ornaments all year long and be perfectly happy!
See you Wednesday!
That is a stunning embroidery, Mary, and I’ll definitely buy the kit. A couple years ago I purchased your snowflake ornaments patterns, and had the most wonderful time making about six of them for gifts. It was my first experience with beadwork! I’m looking forward to seeing how you do beaded edge and hanger.
And they turned out beautiful, Ann! Thanks so much for sending the pictures!