A Star of David key pendant

There are only two more days left to enter the Owl and The Pussy Cat Hat pattern giveaway!  Check out those links to see the hat and for more information on the giveaway.  E-mail me at traci@creative-pursuits.biz by Friday at 11:59p Central to enter.

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I talk and write a lot about my love of keys and my love of beading around keys.  I've held classes on "tubing" keys, and I've come up with a whole bunch of holiday patterns.  You may remember the Jack 'O Lantern key pendant I showed you in October.

When I was at the German Immersion School's Weihnachtsmarket (Christmas market) in December, a customer from a previous year said she loved her Christmas Tree key and asked if I had a Star of David key.  I said I had the pattern designed but hadn't stitched it yet.  I said I'd stitch it up and e-mail her a picture.  Unfortunately, time has been all wibbly-wobbly for me since then.  Post-show fatigue set in, then Christmas happened, and all that in between stuff.

I stitched up my original design about a week ago, but when I curled it around the key to take a look, the front looked fine, but the back was a little odd:

I usually like to have some "white space" between the start and end of a design, but I couldn't do that on this one.  I couldn't shrink up the design at all.  I thought about adding two rows of white.  That would make the tube a little baggier, but I would stitch up something along the top so the tube wouldn't turn or fall down, so that wouldn't be too much of a problem.

The more I looked at the back, though, the more I wondered...  Look at that picture again.  It's a little hard to tell, but it kinda looks like if I added just a few more rows in the Star's pattern, I could have a Star on the front and a Star on the back.

Today I finally had the time and mental capacity to sit down and figure it out, and I was able to stitch just four more rows and get my two Stars.

I stitched the bit that makes the tube not turn or fall down, and here's what I have, front, back, and side:

I'm very happy with this, because with the tube baggier you can see more of the Star.  Also, if it flips around while wearing (which seems to happen with all of my jewelry) the back side looks as nice as the front side.

I still need to stitch the bail so it can be strung on a necklace, and I still need to make the earrings, but I'm glad I was able to get this part done, and the pictures have been sent off to my customer.

If you'd like me to stitch one of these for you, or if you'd like the key and pattern to stitch it yourself, e-mail me at traci@creative-pursuits.biz.  I'll send back all of the details.