Last night I attended my EGA guild’s Christmas party, and, as I mentioned last week, one of the party traditions is to bring a stitched ornament to exchange. So, now that the party has passed, I can share the ornament that I completed. And, yes, I did finish it!

I decided to attempt a pattern by The Prairie Schooler from the 2006 Ornament issue of Just CrossStitch. It looked small and simple, but it ended up being more complicated than it looked at first glance. For one, I should not have picked a pattern that was solid stitching. Second, this pattern had many confetti stitches for the snowflakes.

Thankfully, my husband was kind enough to do all the driving home from St. Louis where we spent Thanksgiving. So, I got a lot of stitching done in the car on the drive home on Saturday. Here is where I was at by Saturday night:

Sunday I was busy with choir practice, church and helping my husband do the final fall clean-up of the backyard, but I found time to continue stitching in the late afternoon. Here was the Sunday progress:

I had completed the top portion and had made a good start on the snowy bottom. But, I still had some ways to go…

Monday I went to work and only managed a tiny bit of stitching during my lunch break. Monday evening my husband and I had tickets to a concert. I was getting desperate by that point so I brought my stitching along and stitched before the concert began and during the intermission, which I have never done before. But, I was able to finish the stitching before going to bed late Monday night.

Tuesday I gathered my supplies to transform my stitched piece into an ornament and dragged everything to work with me. I spent my lunch break cutting, sewing and gluing all the pieces together until I finally had a finished ornament:

Huzzah!

And here is the lovely sled ornament I received in the exchange, which was stitched by guild member Sue H.

It was a nice party, and I’m glad I pushed myself to participate in the exchange. Seeing the ornaments everyone has made is one of the highlights of the evening.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled stitching. :)