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.

WIPocalypse Report, April

I've not had a great stitching month.  Sometimes life just gets in the way!  I had hoped to have finished my Dimensions Santa's Secret by now, but still have the bottom right hand corner to stitch.

This is how he was at the March WIPocalypse Report:

Here he is at the end of today's stitching session:

I will be very disappointed if I am still working on him when the next WIPocalypse report rolls round.

Now to this month's discussion topic - specialty stitches.  Satin stitch is the one I dread.  I can never get the required coverage, even if I add extra strands of floss.  I usually resort to double stitching - horizontal satin stitches topped by vertical satin stitches - and even then I am never happy with it.  I used to dread french knots, until I learned to do colonial knots instead.  I find the colonial knots much easier to do and they look just as good.  I happily tackle any other specialty stitches, provided there are diagrams to follow.

I can't resist showing a few pics of my Angela, who is now 9 months old, and just gorgeous!

Playing with toys in the lounge-room.

Imagine it's the right way up. It's the best I can do! She was meant to be walking nicely on the lead, but gt a bit exuberant, and took off like a little rocket.

Resting on the lounge - but ready to spring into action as soon as anyone moves.

Gifted Gorgeousness, March Report

It will be a brief report from me this month.  I've worked on just one project, which I started on 16th February.  I would have liked to report it as finished, but I'm afraid I'm a long way from that!  I'm stitching this as a surprise gift for my niece, who actually gave me the kit.  It's a Dimensions kit (my first ever kit in over 30 years of stitching.  I won't bore you with the details, but just let me say that I have already decided kits are not for me!).  He's quite a beautiful Santa, and he is a little over half finished now. Well, I should say the design is a little over half finished - Santa is well on the way to completion, just the missing stitches in his hat (has to wait till I find matching floss - again!) and the rest of his beard to go. I hope to have finished him by the April report.

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

I have no idea why he is on his side.  He looked perfectly upright in the pic I imported.  I also don't know how to turn him around.  Maybe I will have worked it out by April 15!