HD - Santa's Secret is finally finished

I am so very pleased to have put in the final stitches in this project.  I have enjoyed watching Santa grow - as I have enjoyed stitching each of the many Santas I have worked on over the past 28 years - but it was probably the most frustrating of all the projects I have stitched, because of having to match almost every one of the floss shades partway through the project, and I found the chart particularly difficult to read due to the red and green floss symbols and the multiple straight stitch and couching stitch symbols.  I started it on February 15 and finished it tonight.  Almost 2 months - quite a marathon for me.  I have stitched L&L Santas and Angels in almost half that time.  Maybe I was younger then ...  Anyway, I am very happy to have finished this kit.  I stitched it with two strands of floss 'over two' it on a piece of Lugana, and the stitched area measures  23 cm wide x 16 cm high - that's about 9.25" x 6.25".  I substituted cross stitches for areas of half-cross on the chart, because the half-cross didn't give reasonable coverage on the larger fabric (it was charted for 18 count 'over 1').

Santa's Secret - The Gold Collection Petites by Dimensions, Design by Patti Gay

The distortion is due to the way I scanned the finished cross stitch.  It is straight - really!

I have stitched this Santa as a gift for my niece.  She actually bought the kit to stitch for herself, but the arrival of her first baby caused her to go off that idea, and she gave the kit to me. She doesn't know I'm stitching it for her, so I'm hoping it will be a nice surprise. I've gone with her to choose framing for her projects sufficient times to be confident about choosing a frame she will like, and as its a smallish project I will get some mount boards cut and frame it myself.  Well, that's the current plan - always subject to change if it doesn't work out.