GimletBlog

… but I finished another cross stitch project from Thing One’s babyhood! Back In The Day, I bought the Beatrix Potter Counts set of charts from Green Apple with the idea that I would use the cute character/number pairs to decorate Thing One’s nursery. I managed to complete the three specialty numbers and the regular numbers one through eight before getting distracted, or bored, or who knows what happened? Eventually Thing One grew too old for Peter Rabbit decorations in his room, and Thing Two took his own sweet time joining our family, so the cross stitching box ended up in the basement. After successfully completing Thing Two’s birth sampler shortly after Christmas, I decided to finish numbers 9-12, and did so just before Valentine’s Day.

Each number was stitched on a 9″ square piece of 18 count cream Aida fabric, and uses about fifteen different colors of DMC floss per design (two strands of floss for the cross stitches and one strand for back stitches). The chart book provides handy measuring guides for 11, 14, 18, and 22 count projects, and suggests using the numbers to decorate bibs, hooded towels, growth charts, and other baby items. These are cute little designs, but most of my satisfaction derives from completing them after so long. Although now that Thing Two is discovering Peter Rabbit and his woodland neighbors, I may get to add these to a nursery after all.

Meanwhile, I had ordered a kit from the Jane Austen Centre in Bath based on a watercolor Jane’s sister Cassandra sketched in 1804. That project took considerably less time to complete: I started it immediately after the Beatrix Potter patterns and it was done by February 29. I’m very pleased with how it turned out; the color scheme and small size of the piece give it a very delicate appearance.

The design area is about 6″x5″, stitched on 18 count cream Aida fabric, using seventeen colors of Anchor floss (one strand for cross and back stitches). The directions combine two contrasting colors into a single cross stitch in a few areas, creating extra color tone and texture in the lower deep folds of Jane’s pelisse. The kit provides the fabric, a needle, and plenty of floss: I made a mistake early on and had to redo most of the pelisse, but at the end I still had a small amount of floss which could be used for a future project. At the time, though, I wasn’t sure I would have enough to cover my goof, and the big chain craft stores don’t carry Anchor floss, so I was delighted to learn that a nearby knitting/crochet specialty shop sells Anchor floss as well — and it’s much easier to visit than the chain stores, which are mostly out of town.

I haven’t decided what to stitch next: I bought the companion kit depicting Jane Austen’s house in Chawton, Hampshire, but I also own a Beatrix Potter chart book for Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes and would like to stitch the two designs depicting a favorite poem. In the spirit of continuing education and family heritage, I’d like to try Hardanger embroidery, but I’m not ready to start learning that yet. Meanwhile, I hope that Uncle B will apply his mechanical engineering skills to improve my scroll frame. I like the theory of the frame: I find it easier to work with and it doesn’t leave heavy creases like the hoop I used for Thing One’s projects. But the frame I bought doesn’t always hold the fabric securely. Does anybody have a favorite brand of scroll frame, or any thoughts about using scroll frames or hoops?