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  • Writer's pictureRhona Norrie
    • 3 min read

A Year of Christmas Stitching - September

Nothing says Christmas quite like a Nutcracker...except maybe mince pies...or tinsel, but I digress! Nutcrackers are definitely Christmassy (is that even a real word?!!)


So for the September design in our 'A Year of Christmas Stitching' series we have a Nutcracker....


a cross stitched nutcracker on top of red and blue embroidery threads

Isn't he stunning?


So let me tell you about the design. It's a simple stitch...full cross stitch only (no half stitches) back stitch details and some french knots. I designed this to be a big, bold, bright card. The greeting on the side makes the design just a little bit different.


a cross stitched nutcracker design made as a Christmas card

There are some french knots in this design in the border and also on the uniform...


close up of French knots on a cross stitched nutcracker uniform

But of course, if you don't like french knots, then beads would look great in this design too. Or you could just leave them out altogether...whatever works for you!


I made my nutcracker into a card but you can easily make it as an ornament...or anything else you fancy! A great thing about making this design into a card, is that it is so suitable to give to males for Christmas. I don't know about you, but I think finding designs that are suitable for males is almost impossible! But this one is great.


The design is quite quick to stitch up and makes a lovely large card as you can see here pictured with a skein of thread.


Cross stitched card next to a skein of blue DMC thread

This was a really simple card to make - I'm all about making life easy when it comes to Christmas, we've got enough to do at Christmas without making extra work for ourselves, let's make the Christmas season as stress free as we possibly can!


How did I make this card?


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Once I had stitched the design I trimmed my stitching to five squares from the back stitched border the frayed the edge. I backed the stitching with iron-on interfacing so that the colored paper on the card would not show through the holes in the Aida.


I always have a supply of blank greeting cards like these on hand so that I can make a Christmas card or a birthday card at any time. I also have a stash of self-colored and patterned papers to make my cards a bit fancy :)


For this card, I decided to use only self-colored papers as the stitching is quite large, so the pattern on a fancy paper would probably be lost. I picked the colours that were already in the stitching - black, red, and white. Using a steel ruler, a craft knife ( I like this type as you always have a sharp blade to work with) and a self-healing cutting board, I simply trimmed the papers to form some narrow borders so that your eye is drawn to the stitching.


I used double sided tape to attach the papers to the blank card then also attached the stitching with double sided tape.


And that was it! Done! Can you get any more simple?!!


cross stitching on a bed of embroidery thread


You can grab your chart at the bottom of this page. Don't forget to share your stitching on social media using #ayearofchristmasstitching and #tangledthreadsandthings we love to see your stitching :)


-Rhona

If you'd like to come back at a later time, save an image to Pinterest:


Grab your free chart here:


AYOXS Sept
.pdf
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