Thinking ahead

July is almost over and I've been working on finishing up a Christmas gift for my mom. Now, it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think she'll love it.
I would like to think the reason I was able to have such a good relationship with my mom while growing up was our mutual love of horror movies. Specifically those of the zombie genre. At a time where most teens would do anything and everything to stay away from their parents, I was spending time with my mom analyzing the social commentary in Romero's zombie pics. It made sense that I try to capture that bond in ornament form for my zombie loving, ornament collecting mom. That is when the idea of a decapitated zombie hand holding mistletoe came to mind.

I began by sketching out my idea, using my own non-decapitated hand for a model, researching what mistletoe looked like, improving the rest. I finished the outline in January, but put it aside afterward due to embroidery burn out (see Christmas in July post). Now after picking it up again last week I have this.

{picture was taken sideways... too lazy to fix)

For the mistletoe I used white glass cats eye beads that I picked up from Joann's. I liked adding that tiny three dimensional detail.

{Up close detail picture}

{Angled view of hand}

Now all that is left is to sew it up and give it to her. I'm thinking I'll give it to her around thanksgiving so it can go up on the tree.