Oh Christmas Tree

October      1996            

Towards the beginning of 1996, around about February I decided it was time to start work on a Christmas project. 

It was going to my biggest project to date, the stitched area measuring 42 x 35 cms  and it involved not only counted cross stitch on even weave fabric but also lots of beading,  so I knew I was going to have to start work on it early if I wanted to have it framed and on my wall in time for Christmas.

The design………..Oh Christmas Tree, another Marilyn Leavitt Imblum design for a company called Told in a Garden. 
As with her Catch the Wind, the design is full of detail and shading and I simply fell in love with the picture of two Victorian children dressing a Christmas tree when I saw a finished sample of it on a wall in my local needlework shop.

By mid-October  I had finished all the stitching  and spent the next couple of weeks adding all the beads before taking it back to the needlework shop for them to send it away  to be framed. 

Here's the finished project.  

It's really such a shame that it's only hung on the wall through the Christmas period but each December it has pride of place about my fire surround.

The finished piece measures 60 x 66 cms and looks quite imposing In its double mounted frame .