Iris Opulence

BH&G A Cross-Stitch Christmas (2011) arrived in the mail Monday and I fell in love with the last design in the book so sat down and stitched it immediately, but, this little thing has been a nightmare! It was designed for mono canvas, which I don't have and don't have easy access to either.  So I decided to see if it could go on 18 ct Aida instead.  Sometimes canvas designs will and sometimes some stitches just do not do well on aida or linen-type fabrics.  Well, apparently this one works pretty well on regular fabric, but it wasn't all that easy.  The outside row definitely needs a couple of compensating stitches and until you figure out where, there is a lot of frogging, grrrrrrrrr.  There are a couple other places with compensating stitches, and of course, you stitch from the center out -- and I would not advise anyone do that any other way! -- so that last miserable row at least leads you to a nice finish.

Here is what the original from the book, stitched on canvas looks like:

The book design is done with some specialty fibers: Rainbow Gallery Velvet, which is a flat ribbon type and some metalics too, so then their description of the piece says it shows a lot of "texture" and "glitter".  I hate working with RG Velvet, unless it's a really special piece I just don't like using a laying tool and since I knew this was a 'practice' piece I also skipped the metallics.  So I'm not 'textured and glittery' but it's a decent piece anyway, I think.

The original is also done as a flat fold but I think with this aida one I'm going to make it a pillow.  One reason I fell in love with this design is that I like the flat fold because it makes a nice gift piece.  I will do this again, probably in reds to give to my neighbor as a Christmas gift.  I'll do her's as a flat fold and give it in a special made box so that she can display it or not as and when she pleases and have it's own storage box.  I don't mind that you don't display my gifts all day every day, but I do get antsy if I think you're just throwing them in the box with the other ornaments, so I always try to add a box that fits the piece when I give gifts to friends.  I know, that's kinda anal, but hey, most people really like having a good box with their 'special' decorations.

Ok, I said I'd show a couple of my WIPs, so here goes:

Noah's Ark from a fairly recent issue of Just Cross Stitch, I'll have to look up the issue info I don't have it right here.  This needs only an elephant and a palm tree in the upper right corner to be complete.  This will be a sofa pillow for DD, she actually has the piece right now so she can shop for her backing fabric.


I finished "Stretch" by Teresa Wentzler recently, gift for a friend.  This is 32 count coffee-dyed linen and I didn't use any metallics, it's a bookmark and will be handled a lot!

Michael Powell is one of my favorite designers and I finally got someone to get me one of his designs for my birthday this year.  I'm about 1/4 of the way through English Village I (and hoping to receive EV II for Christmas LOL).

I can't decide if I want to do the backstitch as I go or wait until the end, there is sooooo much backstitch in his designs!  I'll probably do more stitching before I decide.  But MP tends to use a lot of long stitch rather than plain backstitch and since I'm doing this in a hoop, I don't I want to distort the long stitch so I may just have to wait.  (Hubby is supposed to be working on a really cool lap frame that would allow me to use a larger Q-snap frame, waiting, hoping, sigh...)

Ok, that's it for now.  I hope you find time to take a stitch or two today.  I'm off to read some of your blogs to see what you are working on.

Happy Stitching
Moonlander