Jingle All the Way Block

Jingle All the Way Block by Hands On Design — part of the Bell Block Party series, a set of small charts each designed to be finished into a four-sided cube / block pincushion rather than a flat ornament. The four side panels carry a continuous design that wraps around the block: large red “Jingle” lettering on one face flowing into green “Bells” on the next, with a band of pale aqua snowflake dots running across the top edge of every face, gold jingle bells at the corners, and small green Christmas trees, holly leaves, and red scroll-swags filling the remaining space. The construction is finished as a true pincushion — stuffed firm, with a teal felt circle mounted on the top to take pins, then dressed with a set of letter pins spelling “BALL” plus a gold jingle-bell pin standing in for the missing letter — a small joke about the event the pattern came from.

This was my fifth and last Jingle Ball 2023 class finish, after Wintergreen Santa, Santa’s Night Tree, the Candy Cane Biscornu, and Specialty Stitches I.

Stitched on 25ct white evenweave I already had in my stash rather than the chart’s recommended fabric — chunkier than what the chart calls for, which makes the Jingle Bells lettering and the gold bells read large and clear at a small final block size.

Threads are DMC throughout — reds and greens for the lettering and trees, gold for the bells, soft aqua for the snowflake band across the top, and a deep red for the scroll-swag motifs. No overdyes; the chart reads clean in solid DMC.

Finished as a four-sided cube pincushion, per the Bell Block Party construction:

• Square block form with the four cross-stitched panels seamed at the corners by a deep red running stitch
• Teal wool felt circle mounted on the top as the pin pad
• Letter pins spelling B-A-L-L standing up out of the felt, with a gold jingle-bell pin in place of the second L — Jingle BeLL → Jingle BALL once you put it next to the rest of the set

Finished December 30, 2023.