Christmas Ornaments

Max will be about 2 years old during Christmas next year, and I want us to buy a tree.  But I'm refusing to spend hundreds of dollars buying ornaments for it.  Each of the ornaments I'm making in cross stitch are beautiful, and though time-consuming, I estimate cost less than $1 each in materials.  I won't bore you with pictures of all the ornaments I make, but when I try out a new style or different cloth I'll show an example here.

Design from Leisure Arts "250 Christmas Quickies." Cloth: 14 count white Aida Stitches: Whole stitches, few fractionals, some backstitching, one french knot. Comment: Easy

Design from Leisure Arts "250 Christmas Quickies." Cloth: 32count cream Charles Craft pure Irish linen Stitches: Whole stitches, many fractional stitches, several french knots and quite a bit of backstitching. Comment: This was not a "quickie"

Instructions

1. Stitch design on any cross stitch cloth, leaving at least 2 inches around the stitching.  Note that the Aida cloth makes for fluffier and thicker frayed edges, and the linen is stiffer. 2. Cut a piece of the same cloth in the same size as the stitched piece.  Lay the stitched piece, right side up, on the unstitched cloth.  3. Doing your best to line up the squares properly (the only hard part), use a complimentary color to cross stitch the two pieces together on three sides of the ornament.  4. Stuff with polyester fiberfill.  5. Stitch the final side closed. 6. Fray the edges to the cross stitches.