Gourmet Garden & More

Wow, first off, thank you for all your compliments on my first biscornu. I'm overwhelmed that you all love it.Last week, I picked up another LHN design and in no time at all, I finished it. Okay, it actually took me a week but that's because I only have night time to stitch and I wasn't working on it every single night last week. There were times when I was too tired all I did was lie in bed and read. Anyway, on to the photo...

Design: Gourmet Garden

Designer: Little House Needleworks

Fabric: Wichelt Imports' Barely Blue 28 count Jobelan

Fibers: DMC

Here's a close up of the garden at the top. The fabric colour here is a closer match to the actual colour. I especially love the sunflowers on the left.

Three nights ago, I decided to start building my cross stitch kingdom. I didn't get far before the frogs attacked. I guess they decided they want a piece of it too. I ended up spending most of last night and part of tonight ripping out and restitching nearly half of what I had completed. Incredible, isn't it, how one small mistake can have such a huge impact? Well, at least I finished planting three urns of flowers though as I predicted, my butterflies kinda disappeared into the fabric, don't ya think? >.<

I'm so totally enjoying stitching this despite the frogging. This is the first time I'm stitching this kind of sampler and the amount of detail that goes into one band just amazes me. The silks I got for this design makes it even more of a pleasure to work on.

I added more stash to my to do pile. Got these off Ebay for a song!

Barnabee's Quest I, Barnabee's Quest II & Barnabee's Quest III by Just Nan

No idea when I'll get around to this yet but soon, I hope. I'm thinking of getting Lady Scarlet's Journey as well to accompany Barnabee ^.^

A Spot of Spring, A Spot of Summer, A Spot of Autumn & A Spot of Winter by The Drawn Thread

I'm thinking of working these four designs in a row like a bellpull. What do you think? Also, I'm hoping someone could help me. These charts came without the charms. I was wondering if any of you know where I can get them?

I kitted up two more patterns. One from LHN and the other a CCN.

Home of A Needleworker Too! by Little House Needleworks

Gingerbread Cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks

This one is only partly kitted up as I've not yet pulled the DMC floss for it. The fabric is Silkweaver's Sapphire Sky. I thought it would look more stunning stitched on that instead of a neutral colour due to the fact that most of the colours in the design are already shades of brown. Opinions appreciated.

Noreen, unfortunately there's no backstitch around the purple area and it would be pretty hard to work it into the design because that would mean I'd have to backstitch the other flowers beside the purple pansies but thank you anyway for your suggestion :)

Hmm... looking at what I just wrote, I realized how much my taste in designs have changed. I've... I guess you could say, expanded my "horizons" a lot more compared to a year ago. Before, I'd not have picked up any Just Nan or The Drawn Thread or even LHN and CCN designs. They're so different and yet I find myself equally drawn to both. I'm sure I'm not the only one experiencing this change. I'm curious as to who else is or has felt this way. Let me know if you're sharing your experience regarding this topic on your blog and I'll definitely drop by for a visit.