Lily of the Valley - Feb 2015 Project Start

Once you start looking for patterns/charts etc, you end up finding a lot that you might like, then when they go on sale, it's very hard to say no. I find the best way not to spend is not to look either!

However, that didn't happen. So over Christmas I found a few new pieces I figured could be good gifts for people, so of course I had to buy them, right?! They've finally arrived and since I was sick to death of the confetti in Wreath, I figured I'd start rotating it with something that should theoretically take less time to complete!

One of the charts I ended up ordering was Lily of the Valley by Rachel Anderson, another Heaven and Earth Designs piece. I thought it would look just as nice without the background, so that's what I got and now I'm second guessing myself. However, the full piece (which I have also bought now) uses different thread altogether, so I can't cobble together the full and the no background charts. AND the full chart is also larger than the one without the background, so I'm going to hope that HAED wouldn't crate something that doesn't look nice when it's finished and hope this all turns out okay!

If I really hate it I can just stitch it again, from the full background chart. It just seems to lose some of it's magic without the strings of dew in my opinion, and I thought those would be included, not cut out as part of the background. 

I chose a antique white linen in 28 ct to stitch on, but I'm not sure how much I love the fabric. It seems much looser than 28 ct Lugana, which I do like better. There also wasn't much (any!) fabric choice at the big box craft store I got the fabric from and I bet I could have found something in a nice pale green if I had waited to start until I visited Traditional Stitches, a specialty needlepoint store to pick up the Kreinik. Oh well. That hindsight sure is 20/20.

Linen on L, Lugana on R - both apparently 28 ct

01-Feb-2015

The other thing I've discovered is that I dislike having to stitch with Kreinik on the fine fabric. Even using #4, it is still fairly significantly thicker than single strand DMC embroidery floss. I can't thread it through a #28 needle without a threader, which I find irritating to say the least.

Not so fun times. Pretty but not fun.

This isn't my only project calling for the Kreinik either. When I finally get around to it, Treasure Hunt Bookshelf uses it and I intend to stitch that on 28ct lugana, which will be even more of a pain. I think I may end up splitting the strands in order to stitch on that.