Happy ornament season! While many of us hang ornaments year round, there’s something special about winter holiday ornaments. My plan for December is to share some new and old ornaments hanging on my office Christmas tree*. None of the new stitches are especially glamorous but they are great for small projects and, dare I say, ornaments in particular? And, yes, we are starting with a frog.

* By office tree, I mean my 4.5’ faux tree that Hank has already tried to climb. (And for those who don’t follow me on Instagram, Hank is my cat who also serves as the Office Manager…who doesn’t do much Office Manager-ing.)

The stitched sample is, well, a Christmas Frog. Duh. It uses two strands of Floche (black lines) and size 12 Kreinik (yellow lines) on 18M. (Full disclosure: those threads are my best guesses as this ornament is what one might call vintage stitching.)

I’ve seen this stitch pop up a lot recently in my needlepoint feeds on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, so I was thrilled to unpack this gem recently. It’s the perfect balance of thread combos and is a great universal stitch for clothing, architectural stitches, or flower petals (as thought starters). I look forward to using a Bella Lusso wool (black lines) and a Silk Lame (yellow lines) for a fall sweater. It would make a pretty chimney with Vineyard Silk (black lines) and a second color of Vineyard Silk (yellow lines) for a chimney. I would go to the other end of the finish spectrum for flower petals with a delicate overdyed metallic for the black lines and a solid contrasting metallic (yellow lines) for a flower petal.

This stitch diagram, along with all other #whimsicalwednesday and #smallspacesunday stitch diagrams, can also be found on a Pinterest board here. Be sure to follow whimsicalstitch.com on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter.

IIf you like what you see on this blog, there's more: Mary’s Whimsical Stitches Volume 1 is a contemporary how-to collection of more than 250 stitches for stitchers regardless of skill level. The book includes updated and sequenced diagrams from this blog, all-new stitches, and a chapter on the basics of needlepoint; Mary’s Whimsical Stitches Volume 2 features chapters on Balanced, Beading, Diagonal, Layered, Oblique, Small, and Straight stitches.

Also, you can download for free the first chapter from my first book which covers basic needlepoint stitches and stitch compensation techniques along with new top-line information on needlepoint materials and tools, how to handle threads, and other helpful needlepoint resources.

whimsicalstitch.com also sells Stitch Guides and Stitch Concepts for Melissa Shirley Designs, Zecca Designs, Sandra Gilmore, Purple Palm, Maggie, and Penny MacLeod, and many more. Click here to see the newest guides and click here to see the entire collection.

I hope you have the perfect spot for this stitch! Please enjoy! Have a wonderful #whimsicalwednesday!

A Note about Diagrams
I use color in diagrams to make them as clear as possible.  The primary function of different colored lines is to illustrate a stitch sequence.  For example, layering of colors demonstrates you add them in that order.  They can also provide ideas on how to integrate additional threads (one line for each color).  Or, you can use the same thread for all color lines.  That's where I encourage you to use your imagination for the space you are stitching!