Christmas candy….

Last weekend I spent a wonderful day at Hampton Court stitching a Christmas Candy brooch by Kate Barlow. This course appealed to me for a number of reasons;  I love embroidery with a practical use, I wear a brooch (or 3) every day and enjoy the run up to Christmas!

This is what we were aiming to stitch.

We started off by sewing the little Christmas trees onto Silk Dupion for the front and back of the little pieces of rock. These were then held together by a band of bugle beads.

After lunch we made the candy cane from twisted wool, beaded peppermint squares and wrapped bead bonbons. The class was very relaxed and Kate was a wonderful tutor – demonstrating each aspect of the brooch clearly. This is how much I managed to complete by the end of the day.

Now all I need to do is put it all together onto the brooch – but these would also look great as a Christmas tree decoration.

I also had time to wander around the grounds in between showers and the autumn colours are particularly pretty at the moment.

 

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Back at home and after a couple of leisurely hours of sewing all the components were ready to put together…

And here is the finished brooch, minus the ribbon which just needs to be added. I can’t wait to wear…

Happy stitching one and all…