Stacked Books Christmas Tree Embroidery Design, Instant Download

This ones for book lovers who actually want their Christmas decor to say something about them. Its a stack of books arranged wide at the bottom and narrowing up to a point, with a five-pointed star sitting right on top. The books alternate between orange, red and dark green spines with white page-edge fills stitched between each layer. Red and green bauble ornaments hang off the sides on thin stem stitches, scattered at different heights up the stack. Little cross stitch accent marks dot the negative space around the star.

5 sizes from 3.77 inches wide at the smallest up to 7.51 inches at the largest, stitch counts from 11,113 to 28,795. Pop a medium-weight cutaway stabiliser under this one, the density sits at 636 which is moderate, but the outline details on the baubles and page edges need a stable base to come out clean. One customer ordered the 5-inch version and put it on a tote she uses as a library bag, said the librarian asked where she bought it. Use woven cotton or canvas for the cleanest result, though I've had good results on a firm felt base too for a flatter finish.

4 thread colours, five stops in the sequence so you do get a few changes, but each colour section is substantial enough that its not fiddly. The orange comes up twice, so check your needle before the second pass to make sure the thread hasnt thinned out. White comes in early for the page edges, its doing the visual work of separating each book layer so dont rush that section. Load your bobbin fresh before starting if youre doing the 7-inch size, that one uses nearly 90 feet of bobbin thread.