For whatever reason, I decided that the second to last week of this week's stitch journal project needed to feature an enormous Christmas-y tree. When I say I'm the Clark Griswold of the turkey work stitch, I'm not exaggerating. This tree has consumed me much like the perfect tree consumed Clark in the movie. I thought giving myself four days would be plenty of time. It sort of was; I had to stitch much longer on Friday than I planned so I could finish in time.
I love this tree. I will always love this tree. This tree is me.
A few notes on the turkey work stitch:
- This stitch is meant to be cut and trimmed once you're done. I almost didn't do the trimming because the tree looked insane and wild as it was. However, I wanted to be true to the stitch and do it right, so the tree was given a small trim.
- Most people work this stitch from top to bottom. I prefer to work it from bottom to top because it's easier to see the lines and how to keep building the stitch.
- It takes a lot of thread to do turkey work well. It always feels wasteful to do a big piece like this, but I don't do it enough to feel 100% bad about it. I also use my orts (thread scraps) for other projects so there's some balance. I also didn't trim as much as I was thinking I would so most of the thread stayed on the piece.
Here's this week's piece:
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| December 15 |
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| December 16 |
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| Also December 16 - I needed all the time to do this tree. |
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| December 17 - it looks normal. Tree-like, it hasn't yet started to consume me. |
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| December 18 - In which the tree has started to consume me. |
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| December 19 - I think it looks like the first tree from Christmas Vacation. I'm the Clark Griswald of turkey work stitch. |
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| December 20 - I was determined to finish this tree today, so I took an extra 10 minutes later in the day to finish. I still need to trim the tree, but it's been stitched. |
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| December 20 - continued again. I decided to trim the tree last night. It's a nice balance of "this tree is INSANE" and "this tree is insane." |
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| December 21 - added "snow" beads. These beads were left over from the Rosehill Cottage kit I finished a few weeks ago. They worked beautifully for this piece. |
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| Week 51 |
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| Weeks 1-51 |
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| Week 52's color is navy. It's also a denim fabric so this will be super fun to work with. I can't decide if I'm being sarcastic or not. |
WIPs and the 2025 Project
I hosted a little virtual wine and crafts get together last Sunday. It was like getting the band back together since we used to do these before the pandemic. I worked on a test version of one of the pieces for my Woodlawn Needlework Show entry. So much tiny cursive handwriting.
I finally took my mom to the Salamander Resort in Middleburg, VA for our little girls' trip. I won a gift card to the resort about a year ago, and we were finally able to go. We had a lovely stay and had delicious food including an enormous slice of cake. We brought most of it home. Highly recommend ordering this cake if you ever visit the resort.
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| Did your mom ever make you make oranges with cloves stuck in them like at some hotel in Williamsburg? Mine did! This fruit decorated entryway to the resort made me think of that. What is it with fancy hotels and fruit decor? |
There's only one more week left in this year's project. I plan on doing a little bit of preview at the end of next week's post. I'm looking forward to getting started!
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