New start!

Well, since I'm stalled out on the alphabet sampler for now, I decided to start something new. This is "Gather Hearts" from the latest issue of Cross Stitch & Needlework. I'm doing it on 28ct white evenweave with DMC floss.

Apologies for the weird photo - I've been taking these at night using my iPhone as I've just been too lazy to either find the nice camera or take it out of its Q-snaps to be scanned.

I'm liking this so far, though I'm worried that it's hard to tell between the two colors of pink - a darker pink is used for the checkerboard and solid hearts, and a lighter pink is used for the polka dot heart and striped heart. Hopefully, once the other colors are added in (and I take a better photo!) it'll be more obvious.

I originally decided to do this project because I wanted something springy (the temps here have been hitting the 60s!), and also because it uses DMC's new memory thread. If you look at the picture from the magazine to the right, the green curly stems and the little ties around them are done in memory thread. What I didn't also realize before I started stitching was that this called for perle 8 and not normal stranded cotton. Since I was already planning on buying the memory thread (and probably the beads for the flower centers, unless I decide to just do french knots), I decided to just sub in 3 strands of stranded cotton. It seems to be working out well so far!

I have high hopes of making two craft store trips this weekend - one to AC Moore or Hobby Lobby to pick up the memory thread I need for this project, and another to the LNS to pick up the floss I need for the alphabet sampler. I hope you get to go do some stitchy shopping also!