Tiny Town Nativity

I finished a second Tiny Town by Heart in Hand Needleart.  This one is called Tiny Town Nativity.

As usual, I had to "go rogue" and make a few changes to make it my own.  Unlike other Tiny Town patterns where each element of the town shares equal importance, I wanted to make the characters of Mary, Joseph and the baby become the focus.  I changed the colors of their robes to be brighter, so they didn't blend in with the other elements.  I also filled in the background of the stable with a pale yellow to help make it stand out.

One other change I made was to replace the camel with a donkey, which seemed more fitting to the story.  I always imagined the camels didn't arrive until the 3 Kings showed up.

Kind of unexpected to do a Christmas scene in June, but then again, last June I was working on a pattern with four nutcrackers.  I don't think I ever made a post showing the finished nutcrackers, so I'll include one here. 

      

Last Christmas, I inserted the nutcracker stitch into a photo frame and put them on the mantel with my other nutcrackers.  Must get a better photo next year.

I expect to get back to some quilty projects eventually.....

20,000 stitches later...

I just couldn't put this one down after I finished the first 6 blocks as shown in my last post.  I was having too much fun.  Here are all 12 blocks:

I had a little fun tweaking and experimenting with the designs in the bottom 3 squares.  I substituted these quilt inspired designs:

I also substituted one column of flowers with a design I saw in a vintage cross stitch that was hanging in an antique shop.  The vintage floral row looked like this:

I chose to make mine all the same color:

The last change I made was to add a black cat to the bottom left corner.  The cat pattern is by Melisa Vandergriff of Pinker N Punkin Quilting and I just think it's adorable.

Next step, of course, is to get it framed.  I really enjoyed this pattern.  It had fun, bright colors, easy-to-follow geometric patterns, and room to play.