Inspired by Liz Mathews

 I'm taking Liz Mathews' tree finishing class with her pattern, Santa's Night Ride pattern at the Jingle Ball*. 

*The Jingle Ball is an online weekend Christmas-themed stitching retreat the first weekend of December. For only $10US you can have access to all the festivities and sign up for any classes of interest. Kits won't be mailed outside of the US but .pdfs are available in unlimited supply to anyone anywhere in the world. The kits for those wanting them in the US are already sold out.

I started stitching it the other day but there's no way I'll have the stitching done in time for the finishing class. However I will attend and have all the information when I finally do finish it.

I was also intrigued by her other class - Festive Mini Wreath and Banner.

I thought this was a great idea.

Being outside of the US we are unable to get the kits for any of the projects and many of them are already sold out. The good thing is we are able to access the .pdfs and use whatever materials we have on hand.

I thought Liz' banners were very cute and went on the hunt for some wreath ornaments that might look very spiffy with a banner. While I was at Canadian Tire today I checked their inventory on their app and found three wreaths that would be good candidates, (the glitter is getting everywhere!!!)

As an aside. the Canadian Tire app has a terrific product locator feature. All you need to do is a search for whatever item you want on their app in the store, and click on the link, making sure you've noted what store you're at. Scroll down a bit and you will see what aisle the item is located in. When you get to that aisle, there is a button to click to locate the item. Click it and a light will flash somewhere in that aisle for you to see where the item is. So cool! I told the cashier that the company needs to advertise this feature more because it really speeds up finding things in their stores. Try it next time you're there.

Anyway back to the mini wreaths and banners.

I found acceptable materials in my stash:

28 ct white Monaco cloth

DMC Light Effects Floss E815 - Dark Red Ruby

DMC Satin Floss S909 - Emerald Green

I could have used regular cotton floss but this shiny floss was in my stash.

I stitched with two strands over 2 threads and, of course, added a gold HotFix jewel in the centres of the green 'poinsettias'.

I then counted out 6 threads from the top and bottom and pulled the 7th threads, then cut along those lines. Then I pulled out 3 threads creating a bit of a fringe. I then cut chevrons out of each side starting out about 10 threads from the centre and cutting at a 45º degree angle.

Then I hot glued the banner to the wreath.

All done! I think it will look very festive on the green background of a tree.

This was a very quick project and I didn't even use Liz' detailed instructions. I look forward to stitching her other banners and will be on the lookout for other wreath ornaments on which to affix them.