Happy Dance! - The White House

Design: The White House

Designer: Rowandean Embroidery

Threads: DMC (I think, no credit given in kit)

Excuse the grubby mark on this, I was so excited to have it finished I didn't wash it before I took the photo. The mark did come out, by the way...

I bought this little kit in the mid 1990s, and worked on a bit of it - I don't have a huge tolerance for French/colonial knots. Then it was put away, I worked on it some more when I moved North, and then lost the thread organiser with the threads on it. And Rowandean, although they produce fantastic quality kits, don't identify their threads by brand/colour number. And being basically lazy, I never got round to matching the work I'd done with my DMC collection, until recently. Once I'd done that, it took less than an hour to get this finished, despite even more French/colonial knots ...

As this looks a little like the house on my Spirit of Scotland piece, I will probably frame this and hang it adjacent to it. I'll get a biggish frame and get my framers to cut a suitable mount to show it off - the stitched area is only 3.25" x 2.25"

Although I like this - and Rowandean designs in general - I find the freestyle nature and lack of order hard to deal with sometimes. I must be more of a neat freak than my home would suggest!

Home is Best - Lizzie*Kate

Design: Home is Best

Designer: Lizzie*Kate (a very old freebie)

Threads: DMC Color Variations and DMC

Fabric: 28 count evenweave

I stitched this for Lucy on the Hooked on Exchanges blog - the theme was 'Summer House' and as at the time Lucy's blog was all decked out for the Fourth of July, I thought she might like a piece with the Stars and Stripes - it turned out she did :o)

I backed the pinkeep in blue fabric with little cream hearts in it, and the pins pick up the colours of the threads I used.

Land That I Love - Lizzie*Kate

Design: Land That I Love
Designer: Lizzie*Kate
Threads: Gentle Arts Sampler Threads, DMC, DMC Color Variations, Wisper
Fabric: 14 count rustico aida

Ooops, it was only when editing the pic I noticed the stray thread ... but that's usual for surfaces in this place :o)

This is the Canadian version of the chart - Lizzie*Kate provides the alternative on her website. I stitched this is a real mixture of fibres - there's GAST for the house, DMC Color Variations for the grass, lettering and blue border, plain DMC for other bits, and of course Wisper for the fluffy sheepies!

The Hermit is Canadian by birth, British by descent, and he's very happy to be here, but I thought I'd stitch a nod to his home land. It's a beautiful country, but for all sorts of reasons when we got together (after "meeting" online) we decided to base ourselves in the UK.

I want to make a further amended version of this, for Scotland, but it would involve some colour changes too - I can see it in my head, with a thistle border, and a white house - better get the graph paper out, I suppose!

Tall Trees - Brightneedle

Design: Tall Trees
Designer: Brightneedle
Threads: DMC and Olde Willow Stitchery
Fabric: 28 count evenweave, cream

This design was so soothing to stitch - the colours blend together so well, and are such a nice palette, it was a real joy to keep watching it grow!

Bunny Hop is a companion piece to this chart, and I will display them both together. Tall Trees seems to be a perfect design for a pinkeep, and I already have the backing fabric in mind!

If you would like to enter the draw for this chart please comment below!