feeling stitchy: 12 Months of Christmas: Maid-a-milking

Here we are with #8 in the 12 Months of Christmas Stitchalong - Maid-a-milking! I've been plugging away, slowly but surely, and this was the most complex of the ornaments I've stitched so far.

There were so many little pieces to cut out and put together - below was my first photo with all my pieces cut, and my little head painted. Rather than paint, I used permanent marker for the black hair and a gel pen for the pink mouth.

I have a suspicion that the wooden bead I used was a bit larger than the one asked for, because the hat fit small... but I just decided to use what I had and not worry about it!

Here are the pieces with most of the embroidery done, and the little hat put together (and fitting a bit too small):

Running on not quite enough energy, I headed to a local craft store to buy the unfinished wooden beads for the hands, and had no luck finding them.

Instead, I had to opt for a small bag of various sizes of finished (varnished) beads, but I decided it looked fine:

Here's the back - I had a tough time attaching the little hand beads to the arms - I realized I wasn't using enough strands of thread - when I switched to 4 strands of floss, it went better.

I didn't hide the backs very well, as you can see in this photo:

Here she is in all her glory - I really enjoyed stitching this ornament, and all the different ways you can make this project truly yours!

JOIN THE 12 MONTHS OF CHRISTMAS STITCHALONG!

This stitchalong is easy, and no-pressure! To join, visit Larissa's shop to purchase the Twelve Days pattern of your choice. Tag your pictures with the hashtag #twelvedaysornaments and #12monthsofChristmas on Instagram so we can find them.

Leave a comment here with a link to your blog, or any space on the internet or Instagram where you are tracking your progress. And don't miss the page Larissa has set up with lots of tips for stitching this series: http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/p/twelve-days.html.

Next up is Drummer Drumming! Please join us - let's stitch!