A Snowball for Kathy S. in MD

Last week, I finally finished the snowball I made for Kathy S. (a.k.a. Clothqueen) and mailed it to her in Maryland. (Click on any photo for a larger view.)

Our goal was to swap in September, but I failed miserably with our deadline.  Thankfully, Kathy was quite patient.  She asked for an African themed block, which was completely new to me.  I had a few ideas, but failed to find a fabric that even closely fit what I had in mind.  So, I took a different approach.

In 1999, a friend and I both cross-stitched a baby blanket for our sons following the 1993 Graphworks International Inc. booklet "Baby Afghan Safari" designed by Mary Bartley Stockett and Norman B. Brown. (Please note, I am not affiliated with the book. However, if you access Amazon.com through my website to make a purchase, I earn a small credit toward a gift card.)

I made a few adjustments to the trunk, so it would connect, and did not complete the lower section of the elephant for this project.  (Apparently, I also failed to note the back-stitching on the water spray was blue in the pattern.  Oops!)
 

Confession time.  I don't know why I thought it would work this time, but I decided to try cross-stitching over a single square with 2 strands of floss on 32-count linen again (because it would fit onto my snowball stitched so small.) The only other time I made that insane attempt, I threw in the towel.  Every row of stitching squishes the fabric below it together, making it almost impossible to see where to place the needle.  By the time I was 1/4th of the way done with the elephant, I almost tossed it and started over.  But, there was so much time invested, I opted to keep going.  It was s-l-o-w progress, further hindered by the fact that I could only see to work on it at all near the window in the early morning light.  I am not about to point out all of my mistakes.  (I might confess a few x's actually go over one strand from side-to-side, but may have caught 2 strands from top-to-bottom. Removing threads to fix the errors was literally not possible.)  In the end, I think the errors were hidden well enough.  I was still quite happy with him when he was finally completed!

The seam along the right side of the elephant was embellished with a simple stem stitch in a similar shade to the fabric.  Blue size 8 perle cotton was used to create "waves" beneath the elephant using the triangular buttonhole stitch.  And the section at the bottom was embellished with a Cretan stitch and topaz seed beads.

The tree was the element I was most excited - and intimidated - to try.  I did a Google search for "African trees" and looked through the great variety of photos and sketches.  Then, I set to work creating my own.  I couched down two brown shades of size 5 perle cotton for the trunk and branches. At the base, small straight stitches of "grass" were added using the same variegated green I used for the leaves.

If the elephant had not taken me so long and put me behind schedule, I believe the tree tops would have been made with French knots.  To save time, I couched down 3 strands of a green variegated floss, beginning at the bottom and folding it back and forth to create the desired set of leaves.  I love the way that turned out.

Kathy, I do hope you like it! Thank you SO much for swapping snowballs with me!  I just love the snowball you sent me, and I look forward to swapping again the beginning of next year!

Hugs,
Renee