Scotch Harebells Cross Stitch Panel

So here it is - the fourth and final of the wild flower panels, designed by John Clayton for Heritage. This was probably the easiest to stitch panel because of my stitch by colors method - I highly recommend the method for these panels!

The last three stages of the stitch by colors experiment - adding the two major background colors and the backstitch:

Pattern: Scotch Harebells by John Clayton
Canvas: white Aida 14
Floss: Rosace and DMC

In my first posting about this flower panel I mentioned that I'll try a new brand of floss - Rosace. Oh, how I regret it, I should have stuck to the well known and time-proven brand. At first glance the new floss looks the same as DMC, but obviously the thread lacks the color saturation and silky shine of DMC and the stitched picture looks bland, mat and lustreless. Never again!

I enjoyed playing with the four panels today, rearranging them and wondering how to frame them - together in one big frame or separately. Still thinking ...

Mother's Day Greeting Card

A cross stitch greeting card I made for my mother for the widely celebrated in Bulgaria international women's day - the 8th of March. I couldn't find a suitable aperture card with big enough aperture for my cross stitch, so I cut the card from a big sheet of aquarelle cardboard.

Canvas: Aida 14
Floss: a mixture of DMC, Ariadna and Rosace

Scotch Harebells Cross Stitch Panel

No sooner said than done - I've started the fourth (and final) flower panel by John Clayton. When I saw the previous three flower panels together it dawn on me - each of them individually looked nice, but somehow unimpressive, but next to each other their colors worked together and combined into a beautiful picture, that only lacked purple-blue colors for completeness. So - here come the harebells.

I'm stitching them again on Aida 14, only I decided to try Rosace floss.

Similar to the poppies, I'm stitching the  harebells by colors. But while I stitched the poppies, dividing the colors into three groups - reds, greens and background and then stitching as I please within a group, now I had the whim to stitch strictly color by color and take a picture after completing a color - something like a dissection of the picture by colors. What's the point - none whatsoever, it's neither easier nor practical, I just want to see how this will come out. I've stitched enough cross stitch projects now, so I'm curious to try different approaches just for fun :)

So - here are the first five colors, that make the flower heads:

I couldn't find pictures of harebells within my photo archives (and I searched :), so I've illustrated the real flowers with pictures from the Internet. The only bell flowers I found were these cousins of the scotch harebells that grow in the Osogovo mountain:

Wild Poppies Cross Stitch Flower Panel

I just finished the third of the cross stitch flower panels - the wild poppies. It was almost done long ago, but I ran out of the winter white DMC floss and put it aside until a visit to the DMC shop downtown.

Pattern: Wild Poppies by John Clayton
Canvas: white Aida 14
Floss: DMC

With this  cross stitch project I used a more unconventional approach - I stitched it by colors. Because the panel is relatively small and it uses only 15 colors, this method worked OK.

While stitching this third panel I thought that I didn't want to stitch any other of these, but now, that I see my wild flower garden together, I think I might persuade myself to make the Scotch Harebells too - they are so-o-o beautiful and they will be a perfect addition to the bunch. I still haven't decided how to frame these, so for now I'm putting them aside.

Wild Poppies

I started the third wild flowers cross stitch panel - Wild Poppies by John Clayton.
This time I decided to shake things up by stitching first only the flowers, then the greenery and last the background. Since I always draw grade lines  on my canvass, stitching here and there is not difficult and made the whole project much more interesting. I'm done with the flowers in only a couple of days and I'm really enjoying it all so far ...

All pictures of live poppies were taken during our trips to Bosnek and Osogovo.

Buttercups Flower Panel

Pattern: Buttercups Flower Panel By John Clayton
Designer: John Clayton for Heritage
Floss: DMC
Canvass: Aida 14
Time to stitch: almost a year, from time to time

This flower panel took me quite a lot of time to finish, I lost most of my interest in it last summer. Not a very difficult pattern, though with a a lot of half stitches, as are most of Heritage patterns. I like it and I think it makes a nice combination with the Daisies. I'm not in a hurry to frame them, because in my enthusiasm last year I bought everything for a third flower panel of the same series - the Poppies. I think I'll start it this summer and finish it gradually when I feel like cross stitching. I found a pace this last month of combining cross stitching, knitting and sewing and so far I'm enjoying it. So while it lasts - I'll need a cross stitch project too :)

The pictures of buttercups were taken during our trip to Osogovo mountains. 

There I saw the most dense population of buttercups per meadow imaginable :)

The Daisies Are Done

Pattern: Daisy Flower Panel By John Clayton
Designer: John Clayton for Heritage
Floss: DMC
Canvass: Aida 14
Time to stitch: almost a month



It seems I've gotten back my passion for cross stitching this year. I've already started a second flower panel by the same designer, intending to make them a total of three (at least). I'm still pondering over the framing, might do it after all of the series of flower panels are done ...

Before and after back stitch

Rose Chick-Chat

And another Valerie Pfeiffer little birds cross-stitch. This one isn't framed yet, because, though it is from the same series of chick-chats, it's a bit bigger and I'll have to order a larger frame (knowing me, this might take a while :)

This is a stop-motion movie I made on the making of this cross stitch:

 

Pattern: Rose Chick-Chat
Designer: Valerie Pfeiffer
Canvass: Aida 14
Floss: DMC