The Great Needlepoint Coaster Project, Plus

If you follow me on social media, you might have seen this picture:

This is a picture of our kitchen table post-Xmas tree ornament removal.  You can see lots of needlepoint ornaments.  Needlepointing is one of my "I do this while I watch TV, especially back-to-back sports events, to keep my hands busy" activities.  What you see above equates to about half of all the needlepointed ornaments we have.  Most of them will leave with our children when they have homes of their own.  I made the ornaments through the years and each one represents something that was/is special to a particular child.  For example, the ballerina tutu belongs to my oldest; the rocket ship belongs to my son. Any and all Pooh Bear ornaments are for my youngest

I know that I'm going to continue to make ornaments throughout the years because I'll need to replace the absent ornaments with new ones as the children move away and take theirs along.  But sometimes, I just want to do something new. 

Enter The Great Needlepoint Coaster Project.

I stitched two coasters for my husband last year.  He loves to golf so it seemed a perfect "topic" for his project.

I had originally planned to give him four coasters for his birthday, but felt badly that everyone was getting something at Christmas and he wasn't.  So he got two new coasters then and they've already been put to work.

This should give you a sense of scale.

If I'm lucky, I'll be able to give him two more coasters for his birthday in February.  (Shhh, that's a surprise / secret.) It's tough going since I can only stitch when he's not home and lately, my daylight hours have been very full.  Wish me luck!

But since I also want things to work on when he's around and we're watching the games, I've got other projects in the queue.  I've decided to make a set of four Christmas coasters.  They will be Joy, Love, Peace, and Hope.  I've finished one: Joy.  The white is a matte cotton thread and the black and gold are metallic. I think I'll be working on Love next. These will be finished without the leather base.  I'm thinking we should put glasses directly on these.  If they get stained, which they undoubtedly will, I'm hoping I'll continue to think of the spots as evidence of use.  I really don't want something I've spent so much time working on to sit in a cabinet, gathering dust.  The threads appear to be color fast so I'm willing to give it a shot.  (The golf coaster threads are hand-dyes and are not color fast, hence there's a plastic sheet covering the top.)

All the coasters will be stitched in white, gold and black.  The remaining question is: should I put just a black twisted thread around the outside or should I go with something bolder, like red?  The "problem" with a red is that it might bleed if it gets wet.  But it might look cool...

If I get bored, I have other things to work on, like this pillow.  I'm posting a picture now so I can record how far I might/might not get throughout the year.  Please remind me to double-check what I've gotten done in December, will you?

The full canvas

The bit that I've stitched.  It's a little tough to see since the colors are a surprisingly good match!

Until next time, thanks for reading.  Be well.