Partridges, Pears, Turtle Doves

I have been eyeballing mmmcrafts' Twelve Days of Christmas ornament series for many years and a few after-Thanksgiving-sales ago I purchased 1-9 (Partridge-Pear through Drummers).  I figured I would wait to put them together until the patterns for 10-12 were created, which, as it happens, was last year sometime.   Yay!  

Well, as you, gentle reader, are aware, my book club has an offshoot sewing group.  In the past we have made bunting, napkins, gift bags, bibs...and we make the annual excursion to the Textile Center Garage Sale.   Anyway, I whispered to one of my reader-sewer-friends about the ornaments and asked if she'd be interested in doing a stitch-a-long.  She whispered it to another and another and then solicited the group as a whole....and in the end, four of us now have a Twelve Days Stitch-a-Long.  

We have decided to make one per month.  For the Partridge and Pear, we got together to plan, share supplies, and stitch.  Since then, we have incorporated a little show-and-tell at our monthly book club.  The plan is to document the ornaments on a monthly basis.  So, without further ado, here is what we've done so far:

And for the close-ups:

Some of us are using additional embellishments like sequins, beads, and buttons.  I'm a fan of sparklies at Christmastime, especially when the lights from the tree hit them.  Oh, speaking of the tree, for full disclosure, I am not making them into ornaments.  I'm thinking that I will somehow string them, sort of like a garland...perhaps with little felt balls between each ornament set?  I don't know.  I need to use the felt balls up somehow.  I've had them for seven years (they were purchased as a potential nursery mobile craft) and have not done one thing with them.  So we'll see.

More photos?  Yes, please!

And the reverse:

The satin stitch on the No. 1 looks pretty good, but can be time consuming.  Satin stitch is hard for me because it never seems to be very tidy.  I used the same color for the number and the No., but I think I'll try a two-tone scheme next time.

I think that's all for photos for this round.  My camera battery was about to croak, so it was a rush job.  Next month we have the French Hen pattern.  I already have my colors chosen and cut out.  

Oh, and I suppose you are wondering about the mechanics of the pattern.  Everything comes together so easily.  I haven't had a terribly hard time with removing the Sulky stabilizer.  It really does not like to dissolve from underneath the stitches, so I feel like my embroidery is kind of stiff.  I have reduced the number of strands from four to three in a lot of places.  I feel like the needle gets gummed up from the Sulky and, with four strands, I felt it got tough to pull it through the felt and one of my needles even snapped in two.  Nuts.