Stitched Pears and The Jingle Ball

Many, many stitchers LOVE The Jingle Ball. I don't dislike it but I'm not a huge fan. I'm not very social so the chat rooms and "speed dating" aren't something I do. With two very spoiled dogs, it's hard for me to sit more than about 10 minutes without having to get up and referee a dog fight, or retrieve something one of them has found and shouldn't have, or go for a walk with one of them. They get treats for going outside to do their business. Therefore, these two NEED at least 25 trips outside each day, but never at the same time. This year I signed up for a class. I think it's the first time I've done that. I'm taking Annie Beez' Christmas Pear class. I think I've already told the story on here about how I had the 36 count Aztec Red linen for another project and I had a similar (to the called for) color of Belle Soie silk so I didn't have to buy anything other than pay for the class, which included the pattern/chart/instructions for finishing.

There are two more charts for Christmas pears included in the chart.

I didn't have an empty scroll frame so I thought I could get by with using a hoop. The top left pear is the one I stitched in a hoop and I positioned it so I would have less extra linen in my way so that's why it's sideways. Vince makes my scroll frames and he had some almost finished so I talked him into finishing one for me so I loaded it all on the frame and kinda guessed where Noel should be. I stitched it and when I marked off the cutting lines, found I had room to stitch the other two. I'll probably leave this in the frame and not actually stitch my pears until I get the other two finished. I'm kinda over stitching pears for now.

I originally bought the Aztec Red for a project when I first started stitching. I started stitching on it but that's when I stitched in hand and I didn't love the fabric at all so I put it aside. Stitching in a hoop, and even more so in a scroll frames, I like the fabric just fine. There's still enough of the linen to make the original design so I can either do that or save it for more holiday projects.