Wednesday 24th January

Here's my November December January cross stitch picture;

As usual the finished piece was not quite how I imagined it;

Somehow the curves of my sketch didn't quite work out as I'd planned, but I'm happy enough. I stitched the background with nearly all the different greens I had in my stash. I had promised myself NOT to buy any more embroidery thread, so I only ordered two skeins.... oops

Having done all that mish mash of green for the vegetation, I couched brown perle thread and a metallic filament to make the frosty outlines of holly leaves (new technique for me) and then embroidered cream or white perle plus metallic filament - I wish I had a sharper needle, but didn't have a combination of large enough eye AND sharp point to hand. It took a bit of thought to work out how to do a holly flower... 

Finally I added the berries - three or so perle stitches set close together. No filament. I had broken a couple of needle threaders by then and run out of patience. 'Enough is as  good as a feast', I thought!

The theme was the 'sans day carol'; here are the words

1. Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk,  (I'm sure I learned the word flower, not berry)
And Mary bore Jesus, who was wrapped up in silk:

Chorus: And Mary bore Jesus Christ our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly!
And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly!

2. Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass,
And Mary bore Jesus, who died on the cross:

Chorus

3. Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary bore Jesus, who died for us all:

Chorus

4. Now the holly bears a berry, as blood is it red,
Then trust we our Saviour, who rose from the dead:

Chorus

I had intended to use 'The Holly and the Ivy', but after I had done the holly leaves I decided against trying to couch down the outlines for any more leaves!

I love the way many of the Christmas carols tell the whole 'Jesus' story, from birth to resurrection. This one doesn't mention Christmas at all, so covers the tie from November to now quite nicely!