One of the surprises of organizing my studio was finding a bunch of finished cross-stitch projects from years long past. I didn’t pay much attention at the time; I was too busy sorting and storing to even look in the bags I found. But they all wound up in a bin together, so when I started decorating for Christmas and remembered seeing a kit for Christmas ornaments, I knew right where to find it.

It occurred to me that I might have finished the cross-stitching but not assembled the ornaments, and when I opened the bag, that was what I found – six lovely little angels all stitched up, waiting for their ribbon and lace. I made these so long ago that I don’t even remember making them anymore, and I had to wonder why I had put in all that time and then not completed the project when there was so little left to do.

I found out quickly that in fact there was a lot left to do. Not only did the angels need to be glued to cardboard, but they had two separate trims (piping and lace) and felt backings, all of which got glued on in separate stages. It took me a full day, including drying time, to put these together, but they are on my tree at last.