A friend in the guild gifted me a felt ornament she picked up from Mexico, in the shape of an “R”, and I loved the chunky bold embroidery of the piece! When I needed a recent gift, I decided to make a “J” ornament.

I roughly traced the R to find a good measurement and then drew a J by hand. I also measured the motifs on the R to get a sense of how to arrange them on my drawing. Once I was satisfied by the layout, I set to work stitching on wool felt. I wanted to use a nice contrast of colors like in the original, but with a totally different pallet since I am still uncomfortable with bright, bold colors. I added tiny button centers to the flowers but a bit of textural contrast, outlined in stem stitch.

Just working with a simple shape to start with, as an ornament, has given me other ideas also. I just need to carve out that time and get crackin’!