The Morning After: Let's meet Santa

I wanted to stitch a little more before adding my first photo, but decided to post now because so many of you wanted to get a progress report, so here it is (grinning).

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Ok, what have I done so far?

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The first thing was to work on Santa's face as it is always important to have a feel for what he looks like. On this section, I have pretty much done as Anne did on hers, meaning stitching a bunch of French knots for the bear using in my case Trio T02 which is white in color, but not the white white, but rather more a winter white. It is a bit less traditional than what we always see, but I find that I rather enjoy that winter white, just feels warmer to me. I did some slanted gobelin for the sideburns and changed the eyebrows, which Anne did in French knots, for an outline look, always using the same thread.

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I am afraid I got ahead of myself here as I worked Santa's face before doing the hair and beard, using different shades of flesh colors in simple DMC floss using the continental stitch. I gave Santa a pinker nose and cheeks using a scotch stitch, just like Anne did with hers. It has been an especially cold night delivering all the wonderful gifts to children around the world, so his cheeks and nose are quite rosy by the time he settles down in his chair for a well deserved rest.

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After that, I rushed to stitch Santa's pants as I could not let you see him without them as Mrs Santa Claus would have been quite upset with me if I had done so. Remember, she is sitting knitting in the other room (will stitch her after I finish with Santa). I stitched the pants in staggered cross, a stitch I had never used before, and I really love the effect. Again, I used Trio of two different shades of red. I had never used Trio either before and I just love that thread. It has a velour kind of feel to it. Absolutely lovely.

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Next, I did his hat, using one of the shade of red from Trio, using a diagonal mosaic. I changed the trim by doing only straight vertical stitches and made only one French knot instead of the four that Anne made, but used the complete 6 threads of Trio to make a big French knots.

I also stitched his hands with a simple DMC floss thread.

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After that, I got busy working on the chair, using two different shades of Petite Very Velvet Green and doing the basketweave. So many stitchers have said that doing basketweave is quite relaxing and I truly agree with this. Using that thread also makes the chair looks so comfy.

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I have also started working on the wallpaper, using regular DMC floss, one in green and one in red. Still have more to do there.

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Still lots more to stitch, so will be back with another post when I have a bit more done.

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Pierrette =^..^=