OhSewCrafty Blog

• Pattern/kit by Mill Hill
• Fabric: Stormy Grey Jobelan hand dyed by Wichelt
• Size: 5” x 5”
• Time to stitch: 7.5 days

Presenting my first Christmas village finish of 2018! 

 The pattern is fine but I felt the need to make some modifications.  First, there was some weird indeterminate object on the front porch, kind of like a black hole… I extended the floor, siding, etc, to “erase” it.  Then I realized the poles were striped red and white, which I didn’t like because the apothecary, next door, already has red and white stripes.  So I switched the red for some blue beads I found in my stash, that coordinate nicely with the wall colors.  Then there was the brown tree in the back.  As charted, it was huge, and extended several rows above the top chimney.  I must have missed something in my calculations, but it was entirely too close to the building above.  So I frogged and stitched, several times, trying to make it shorter but still organic.  

The materials as kitted are fine.  I subbed fabric for the perforated paper, obviously.  The floss is DMC.  A few of the beads were miscut and had to be tossed, but I had plenty of surplus beads in the end. Honestly the colors of the general store aren’t thrilling to me, but every town needs a general store and the church, which I will stitch next door, is pretty enough to make up for it.  I didn’t really see the color scheme until I stitched it up.  The picture on the kit is not a great representation.  

My favorite details are the blue lights on the pole and the red bow over the wreath on the second story.  I like the red weather vane at top right, the red bench on the porch, and the red bows on the poles.  For those, I did the beaded loops as instructed, then tacked the loops down on the sides to make a bow shape.    I think the barrel by the door is cute.

 I felt like I got off to a slow start on this piece, but that was because I spent my first 3 day rotation starting the general store plus 3 other buildings!  Hopefully I’ve sorted out the gridding and the other pieces will be easier.  When I counted up the days, I realized it was a quick stitch.  I actually had enough time on the day I finished to work on the snowflake border, too. So I did extend it down, as far as I could given how the fabric was mounted on the scroll.  The middle row in the village doesn’t have much border, but I do intend to get ahead on the border this year, as much as I can.

Next month I will start St. Nicholas Cathedral, next door.  My goal for the year is one building per quarter, like last year.  So, the goal is to finish the top and middle rows.