I got busy in December and wasn’t able to join Rachel’s FFO Gallery with all my Christmas finishes like I’d hoped! And I’m just squeaking in this month too. In fact you’ll have to check back in later as I couldn’t get my photos in before the link up closed tonight!

Anyway… I really owed it to some Christmas stitches languishing in my drawer to finish them up. While I wasn’t able to enjoy them this most recent Christmas, it will be nice to know they are waiting for me at the end of the year!

First I put some felt backing on my Mill Hill king. That was an easy job! One more king to make! Maybe I will make him this year!

I also finally bothered to back, with golden paper, these Sekas Designs “Stained Glass Ornaments” I stitched ages ago. Honestly I don’t know what takes me so long sometimes! But, you can see I was experimenting with the hanger and I’m not totally satisfied with it, nor the glue I used for the backing. After trying a few things and nearly destroying one of my ornaments (not pictured, it is still recovering!), I found the spray adhesive was actually the best bet. But not perfect. I’d love to make more of these too, if only to find a better way to finish them.

I also desperately needed to finish up Merry Christmas from La D Da. This was from Just Cross Stitch Ornaments Magazine 2009. I just couldn’t decide what to do with it. I finally decided it was too long for an ornament, so it will join the pillow basket I’m collecting for. I filled it with crushed walnut shells and added the ruched ribbon trim which is “Rusty Gate” from Lady Dot Creates.

I already shared it once but I did decide to go ahead and trim the Christmas Fruit Basket from Threadwork Primitives. My daughter and I strategized on making this one look cute and I think her suggestions were spot on. She thought to make a square pillow with the check fabric on top and bottom like this. I think it’s perfect! This trim really adds the right touch so I’m glad I took the trouble with it. It is a sort of chenille cording from Hobby Lobby. There were quite a few colors and it was hard to decide if I should do the green or the gold for this. You can see I picked green, but gold would have looked nice too.

And I have something totally new that is only an Almost FFO. I decided to join in as much as I can this year with Carol’s “12 in 22 ornament SAL” on Instagram and double dip with the Ornies SAL blog I have neglected for the past few years. I picked an ornament from 2014 Just Cross Stitch.

This is Christmas Cactus by Tricia Nguyen of Thistle Threads. It represents cactus flowers and spikes. Being in Arizona that’s perfect for me! And I love the shiny AVAS silks used! It was supposed to be stitched on a perforated paper shape from her former collection called Tokens and Trifles. But they don’t make them anymore. Too bad as it looks like something I would really enjoy! So I picked a mystery 36 ct evenweave I had in my fabric stash (from way down at the bottom because I usually prefer linen but this needed a perfectly even fabric.) I was glad I had squirreled away something so perfect! It was a quick stitch, just 3 nights. I decided it would look great as a pin ball. I followed the same finishing as for my WTNT pinball but used a foam form to keep it really light. I had some pretty red velvet for the back. I love how it’s coming out. But I’m stuck on the trim. I want to make a velvet ribbon to cover the seam and a loopy ribbon bow for the top. I have a vision but not the time to figure out how to make it. But I couldn’t resist sharing this Almost FFO.

Incidentally, if another design comes along conducive to this finish I’ll make you a tutorial as it wasn’t too hard and it looks really good. I’m quite pleased with the ball I achieved.