Summer of Strawberries 2025

It's been the summer of strawberries, hasn't it?

Between product lines at the big box stores to our favorite Strawberry Moon SALs hosted and joined around the community, we can't seem to get enough of these sweet morsels.

My sweet friend's daughter just turned a year old, and to celebrate we threw a big "Berry First Birthday" bash! This design was an ornament that I made for their family to commemorate the big day.

If you're not quite berried-out yet, this one works up quick and would be easy to finish in a variety of ways.

 

 

I stitched my ornament on 25 count lugana in the color Oatmeal by Artiste brand (you know, the one you can find at Hobby Lobby). I wanted to make a pretty good size ornament that they could include in their everyday decor or stash it away for their Christmas tree. I used 2 strands of DMC floss over 2 fabric threads.

The called for DMC includes 08, 152, 3011, 3013, and 3721 - but you could very easily pull your favorite overdyes or thread from stash to match stitching you've already done this summer. All you need is a brown, two pinks, and two greens to get it done.

The design is only 39 stitches wide by 45 stitches high, and it works up super quick!

 

 

To finish, I cut and machine sewed around the edge as I would a pillow, backing it with quilt cotton from my stash and interfacing both sides with Pellon SF-101. I stuffed it with fiber fill, and found my stash of jute twine. To fancy her up a little, I hand stitched the twine with DMC #152 to give it a little color, and tacked in a loop at the top for hanging.

 

 

I hope you enjoy stitching this one as much as I did, which was made even better when I gifted it to my friends to remember such a special day.

 

As always, happy stitching!