Christmas snowmen!

I wanted to try some new things and I love the designs in my painting book by Renee' Mullins. The patterns are painted on wood, but I wanted to do one in stitchery and wool. I took the snowflake design and using freezer paper, cut out the snowflake from a 5 1/2" block of wool. Then I did the stitchery on muslin with batting. After I did the stitchery, I attached it to the wool snowflake with a blanket stitch and then added a wool back and did a blanket stitch and now it is a mug rug. It is fun to make designs you like into new things and to experiment. I like the idea of doing this with just a snowflake shape and then appliqueing it onto a quilt or a runner.

Another project I tried is one that I found online at Create and Decorate. This was a fun and easy project, but I think I would rather use wool, to make a stiffer backing. Since I had to turn them and cut a slit in the back, I went with a simple penny and stitched snowflake to cover the sewed hole. I think using wool and making the back into a penny with a simple stitched design is a nice way to have a  double sided ornament. And they are small enough to make as a gift to add in a christmas card.