What do you think of when you hear the term “winter sparkle”? I think of snow and snowlakes, of trees indoors and out, of christmas lights and tinsel, of moonlit, snow covered hills. So of course when I wanted to stitch a winter sparkle themed fabric ATC for the latest round of the Very Berry Handmand ATC Swap these were the ideas that I wanted to play with.

I started with a crocheted snowflake. I really love making these and have made quite a lot of them as part of my christmas ornaments so I really wanted to incorporate one into my design. Once I had the first snowflake in place on a background of onyx Grunge Basics. I went on to backstitch some more using a mix of pearlescent and plain white embroidery cottons along with silver and white metallic threads. The finished “Snowflakes” ATC is a little refelction of my love of night time snowfall.

"Snowflakes" Fabric ATC | Mud Pies and PinsBecause I had this first ATC finished well in advance of the postage deadline I went decided I would try out a couple of other ideas that I had. I had come across a pretty design for a hand stitched Christmas tree online that I knew I wanted to stitch. After scaling it down to size I stitched it with single strands of embroidery thread blended with metallic threads. Instead of stitching the gifts under the tree as per the pattern I created them with Northcott Artisan Shimmer fabrics, each one neatly tied up with some metallic silver thread and then my “Under the Tree” ATC was finished.

"Under the Tree" Fabric ATC | Mud Pies and PinsThe final idea that I wanted to try out was a simple moonlit snow scene. I started with a couple of hills appliquéd on the same Grunge fabric I had used for the first ATC. The first layer of sparkle came from the Dreaming in Pearle fabric I used for the hills. I then added layers of stitching in white and silver metallics; moonlight dancing across the surface of the snow. Some trees in silver, and a full moon brighlty shining from the sky above finished off the scene in my “By Moonlight” ATC.

"By Moonlight" Fabric ATC | Mud Pies and PinsWhen it came to deciding which ATC to send my partner I found it very difficult to decide which one I should send but in the end I asked the advice of a friend who told me I should simply send the ATC I had made first because that was the idea that I had first, was what I had decided to make when I started stitching for the swap and was what I would have been sending anyway if I hadn’t had the extra time to play around with my later ideas.

My ATC in in the post and should hopefully soon be at it’s new home. On the same day I posted off my ATC I was delighted to find that an ATC had arrived in my postbox from my partner. I couldn’t be more delighted with this little beauty. Not only does it include lots of my favourite colour purple but it is full of sparkle and delight. A real beauty that I will cherish.

Winter Sparkle  Fabric ATC received by Mud Pies and Pins

One thought on “Winter Sparkle

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.