I think this will be my last finish before Christmas, a Holly Humbug for our tree…
Last year I stitched a Mistletoe humbug and it’s my favourite Christmas decoration this year, so much so that when I got a discount code at the end of the Lizzie Stitching Wallet stitch-a-long I bought the patterns for about another six humbugs!
As you may have guessed it’s another design by Faby Reilly, so it’s beautifully designed, very pretty and delicate.
I stitched the design over about three evenings. I used a left over piece of evenweave linen I found in my stash. I didn’t realise until I’d been stitching a little while that it is 36 count linen, my eyes really struggle nowadays with 18 stitches to the inch!! Having been stitching 14 to the inch with the Signed Tealed & Delivered cross-stitch I found it a lot harder with the finer linen, you wouldn’t think four stitches extra would make that much difference….
I’ve also decided I really don’t like stitching in gold thread, or rather, I really don’t like stitching with DMC gold thread! It snagged, knotted, tangled…I love the effect, I just find it hard work to stitch with. I think next time (I’ve another four humbugs to make!!) I’ll look into the Anchor Lame thread instead as I used the silver on my flower lattice and that was fine to sew with.
Having said all that, it looks gorgeous, I love the twisting ribbon loops and the delicate row of holly leaves. I stitched the design and the outer back-stitch edge and gave it a good press before stitching the beads on as berries.
Faby has a really good tutorial on her website on how to make up the humbugs, they are stitched together by whip-stitching the back-stitch outline. The thread at the top is left so it can be used to make the hanging cord. I was planning to use red beads but I spotted these gold ones and I had quite a lot of them so I decided to make a gold cord instead.
It’s already hanging proudly on our Christmas tree, I think the other humbugs will have to wait until next Christmas 🙂
thecraftycreek 
That is so pretty!! I love the name too, humbugs.
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Thanks Carole, it’s a cute name isn’t it 🙂
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Aargh, gold thread on such fine linen, no wonder it was annoying! But the result is spectacular 🙂
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Thanks Kate, it was frustrating to say the least, but it was worth it in the end 🙂
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Beautiful
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Thank you, it’s a gorgeous design.
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So pretty! That thread is a bother to work with but lovely!
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Thanks Deb, I do like the effect, just hate stitching with it 🙂
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It is wonderful! How did they come up with the name humbug?
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Thanks Kathy, a humbug is a traditional sweet, a mint, it’s that shape.
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Thanks! I had no idea!
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That’s so pretty! I love homemade ornaments for my tree.
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Thanks Kate, I do too.
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That looks lovely! 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
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Beautiful! I just popped over to the Faby Reilly site and it’s just as well I don’t do cross stitch otherwise I’d have spent a fortune.
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Thanks Tialys, her designs are so pretty, I’ve probably got about 10 now waiting to be stitched!!
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It looks lovely. I keep looking at these humbugs, I just need to decide which one I am going to. I love Faby’s design, thank you for introducing me to her work. I really enjoyed doing the sewing along 😄
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Thanks Debbie, I fancy doing the cornflower one too…and the wild rose…
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that is beautiful! i did see a comparison of various metal threads on a blog, there were some that were said to be really easy to use (it definitely wasn’t DMC!) but I can’t remember whose blog! Maybe it was Mary Corbert?
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Thanks Wendy, I’ll have to have a look for that, sounds like the sort of thing Mary Corbert would do 🙂
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Lovely, you are such a talented stitcher!
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Beautiful!
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