A couple of weeks ago I decided that I needed to start a new piece.  I had the urge to stitch something with a Christmas theme.  After some deliberation and a little help from the FlossTube community, I decided to start The Spirit of Christmas, which is a design by Lavender and Lace.  It is a picture of Santa surrounded by a wreath that is wrapped in a red ribbon.  This is what he looks like so far:

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My #offthegridfridayparty stitching. I put in another two hundred stitches and can see more of the cuff. #crossstitch #crossstitchersofinstagram #xstitch #flosstube #lavenderandlace #thrspiritofchristmas #malestitcher #malecrossstitcher

A post shared by Brian (@blitstitch) on Dec 15, 2017 at 9:19pm PST

This has been a joy to stitch.  I love the rich reds of the ribbon and Santa’s suit.  The greens are a perfect complement to all of the red.

I am stitching this on 32 count raw Belfast linen, which is the fabric called for in the chart.  I was tempted to stitch him on a blue background like Stephanie did.  However, I  decided that I liked the way that the light brown of this fabric went with the reds in Santa’s coat.

I hoped that I would be able to finish him for Christmas.  However, I am coming to the realization that if I continued working on him he would end up being late for Christmas. Instead, I am going to put him away for a little while and work on getting him ready for Christmas in 2018.