Mardi Gras Santa (designed by Carol DuPree) is officially underway as my December project! YAY! I’m excited about sharing my progress with you here on the blog. If you want to follow along as I stitch the entire canvas, be sure and sign up for my weekly emails here and subscribe to Needlepoint TV™ here. Alrighty – are you ready to see which part I’m working on right now? Terrific! Let’s dive in…

First on the agenda for Mardi Gras Santa are his hands and face.

You can see them in the close-up pictures below…

I used 4 strands of Splendor stranded silk from Rainbow Gallery. Rainbow Gallery has some wonderful Designer Collections that include samplings of different colors that you can use for a variety of design components. “Santa’s Rosy Cheeks” is one of my favorites! It’s great for other “faces”, too – not just Santa’s!

Splendor, like any silk thread, can be prone to snagging.

I like to keep my hands smooth by using Isle of Luxe salt scrub. It’s ahhhhh-mazing!

It works like a charm every time. Heck, I keep a jar of it in my bathroom year-round. In fact, I just ordered two more jars this morning. 🙂

The next design component I’m stitching is the crown…

and I’ll bet you’re wondering why I’m not stitching Santa’s beard, mustache, and eyebrows, aren’t you? 😉

Well, if you watched this week’s episode of Needlepoint TV™, you know that I plan to use Petite Very Velvet thread on this project. And Petite Very Velvet (as well as Very Velvet) both have a wee bit of a tendency to shed during stitching. In short, I don’t want purple, green, and yellow fuzzies to get stuck in Santa’s beard.

You can actually see some of the purple “fluff” on my canvas in the picture down below.

And Voila! Here’s Mardi Gras Santa’s crown, before beading…

I used the continental variation of tent stitch for the crown because I wanted the purple part to look like a piece of lush velvet.

Why not basketweave? That’s a great question. Working in basketweave with this thread – especially in such a small space – would be too cumbersome, in my opinion.

(NOTE: The camera flash created a bit of a bright spot in the center of the crown. The thread I used is solid purple and I only used one color.)

I’ll be back next week with more of my progress on Mardi Gras Santa.

And be sure to check out weekly episodes of Needlepoint TV™ where I’ll share tips (and maybe even a stitch demonstration or two!) with you. 😉

Alrighty, my friend – that’s all for now.

Have a terrific rest of your day and I’ll see you again next Thursday for more on Mardi Gras Santa. 🙂

XOXO!!

Ellen Johnson