Thanks to Sally from Rainbow Gallery and my emergency 911 call for more Neon Rays Plus NP22, I was able to finish my Keep Calm ornament! I am absolutely thrilled with the way it came out.

Meredith suggested the background stitch for me. At first I wasn’t going to do it as I was thinking…well this and that. yes Meredith I did question that choice of stitch. Not sure why, but I did. Please forgive me for that! I am glad that I stuck with it and worked through my second guessing of “is the right background stitch” or “is this going to work out” I love, love, love… did I say love it? I will admit that the compensating stitches around some of the letters caused me to use a few bad words…so I stitched it backwards by putting in the 2 filler stitches with the Neon Rays Plus first and then stitched the rest of it. Worked like a dream!

Researching Keep Calm on Wikipedia…

“Keep Calm and Carry On was a propaganda poster produced by the British government in 1939 during the beginning of the Second World War, intended to raise the morale of the British public in the event of a Nazi invasion of the UK. It had only limited distribution with no public display, and thus was little known. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private companies and used as the decorative theme for a range of products. It was believed there were only two known surviving examples of the poster outside government archives until a collection of 15 originals was brought in to the Antiques Roadshow in 2012 by the daughter of an ex-Royal Observer Corps member.

In 2000, a copy of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster was rediscovered in Barter Books, a second-hand bookshop in Alnwick, Northumberland. Since Crown Copyright expires on artistic works created by the British government after 50 years, the image is now in the public domain. The store’s owners, Stuart and Mary Manley, were thus able to reprint copies at customers’ requests, as did others, inside and outside Britain. It has inspired ranges of clothing, mugs, doormats, baby clothes and other merchandise from various vendors, as well as a book of motivational quotations.”

Lucky for us that the Keep Calm is copyright free! It has definitely developed into a life of its own as I see it on T-shirts, calendars, cocktail napkins and all sorts of combinations on needlepoint canvases. When I was shopping at the Baltimore TNNA Market back in September, I asked the designers of the Keep Calm canvases if they thought of doing ornaments? Well this is one of the first ones from the drawing board!

I started out stitching the sleigh in the new beading style that Meredith is teaching. I am used to beading in the regular basketweave style…but no more! Meredith teaches for the best drop dead results it is to stitch in the reverse tent stitch style, meaning that your first stitch starts at the bottom right and runs to the top left or from Florida to Washington. The anchoring stitch runs from California to New York, so that you are actually making a cross stitch with each bead.

Looking at my close up picture, I think that I might have beaded in the wrong direction  a few times. Well you know old habits die hard! I am better now as I have had a little more practice.

Someone was asking about this stitch…so here it is! I used 3 strands Splendor for the cashmere stitch. Neon Rays Plus NP22 for the little filler stitches.

Some more of my stitched ornaments! Including one of the ort filled ornaments made for me by Millie of the Royal Palm ANG Chapter of Miami. I have been saving orts for her, but it may be hard parting with them now. I have been working with Halloween colors lately including glow in the dark threads. Maybe I should keep those just for Halloween!

My kitty tree! I haven’t found a new addition for it yet this year, nor did I stitch any kitty ornaments. Christmas is not here yet, so I haven’t given up hope that I won’t find one.

Guess who? well that would be AlleyCat of course! and until next time…keep on stitching